WANT TO BE AN AUTHOR?
HOW TO WRITE A BOOK, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT.
By CHANTAL COOKE.
I’m usually the interviewer, not the interviewee. One occasion when I swapped roles was when I was interviewed by Diego Mesa for his book ‘THRIVING IN RECESSION’.
You can hear the interview online at: http://twurl.nl/14izgj
Diego was interviewing a number of entrepreneurs with the aim of compiling a book of these interviews giving their advice on how to “thrive in a recession”. This seems to be becoming a common way to create a book – in effect it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a particular expertise, you can simply showcase other people’s expertise.
From my experience many of these books are actually created as a result of the author’s desire to meet or interview the people they feature. Sometimes this can be a great starting point for a book that will interest a lot of people, and other times it ends up being a bunch of conversations where the interviewer simply asks questions relevant to his or her interests. Fascinating for the author, but of no use to the reader.
If done well this system of creating a book from a collection of interviews can be a great way to get started in the book world; for many people it is much easier than creating their own material from scratch.
It can also provide a collection of ideas, advice and expertise from a range of people, all in one easy to access place. It many cases it may be the reader’s only opportunity to hear from these experts.
From the expert’s point of view it can be attractive opportunity too. Many successful business people enjoy the chance to share what they have learnt and be able to help others on the entrepreneur’s journey. In addition publicity is publicity! Every little bit helps so if you have the time, like talking about what you do and enjoy sharing your expertise, why would you say no?
So, do you have a book inside you after all?
About the Author:
Chantal Cooke is a professional journalist, author and co-founder of PASSION for the PLANET