Five Key Steps To Gain Expert Status – Part Three

This is part three of a five part series on how you can gain expert status and be seen as the go-to person in your target market. To get the rest of the series, check out previous posts or subscribe to receive the next part in the series, subscribe in the box to your right.

Key Step #3: Become A Published Author.

Have you often said to yourself “I’d love to write a book”? This a very common goal and yet many live their whole life without realizing that dream.

Of course there are all sorts of reasons. “It would take too much time.” “I am not a writer.” “What could I say that hasn’t been said before?”

These “excuses” all have some validity. Of course writing can take a while. But the good news is you don’t have to be a really great writer to complete a book. And, yet while a lot of books have already been written on your topic, they haven’t been written by you – with your passion and unique stand on things.

There is more great news. While becoming a published author used to mean creating proposals and trying to get accepted by a big publishing house, now anyone can self publish. There are many advantages to self-publishing including:

1. You can get your book out much quicker than with a traditional publishing company and
2. You often will receive more money per sale of each book.

If you chose to self-publish, I recommend you hire the following people:

1. An editor to make your writing sound like you, only better.
2. A proof-reader to clean up any final punctuation issues. Believe me, after you have read and reread your final manuscript a thousand times, you will not see any mistakes. I even read my book backwards to look for mistakes and I still get emails telling me of the typos I missed.
3. A book cover designer. I recommend you select a designer that is experienced in creating book covers. Sarah Van Male of www.Cyanotype.ca designed my book cover.
4. A “layout” person who lays out the pages of the book. (This may or may not be the same person as the book cover designer.)

Then you need a ISBN number which you can get online or there are services that will do it for you.

Then you need to find a printer. There are many options available. I recommend that you find a service that will print “on demand” and then send your book to the purchasers. That way you don’t have to worry about inventory or running back and forth to the UPS store. I recommend www.Vervante.com.

But if a book feels like too much, consider writing a 30-page e-book. You can write it in your word processing program and then create a pdf file with www.DocuPub.com.

Once you have created a book, e-book or e-course and have a way for people to download it or purchase it, you are a published author. You can now use this whenever you are referenced. Now you are Richard Allison, LCSW and author of “What Smart Women Need To Know About Men”.

I was told that “doors would swing open” for me once I was a published author. That was a little over-stated. But it was easier to get speaking engagements after my book was published. My email list has grown significantly and I am sought after for consulting more now than before I was published.

Consider what your niche market really wants to read about.

Then with a little discipline and focused effort, you can become a published author. This will significantly help you gain credibility and expert status with your niche.

Write on!

Stay tuned next time for Key Step #4 in Five Key Steps To Gain Expert Status: Publicity

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