Another Way to Show Your Expertise: Write a Book!
Maybe you should write a book! This is not as difficult as it sounds. You're already an expert in a field by virtue of your work experience and/or academic credentials. And even more important, you are enthusiastic about your field and would like to share it.
Fine, but with whom? Decide what specific group of people, such as lawyers or gardeners or teachers or social workers or colleagues, as an audience for your book. What would your audience be most interested in and why? How would your book address that audience's needs?
Next, make a list of tentative titles for your book and keep adding to it. Words such as "how to" are effective. Find other possibilities by visiting a bookstore and browsing in the stacks of related books. Pay attention to books that you pick up and leaf through and glance at their tables of contents. What material do those books cover and who are their publishers? What aren't they covering? How could YOU fill in what is missing?
Put yourself in your reader's shoes. Suppose he or she wanted a book in your topic, but was unable to locate it in a library or bookstore. What material would he or she be most interested in?
Go back and review your list of titles. Which one(s) would literally grab your attention and why? Show your list to family members and friends and invite them to choose their favorite title. And finally, consider what you have and select one of the tentative titles.
Now you are ready to develop a list of chapters for your book! Each chapter should support your title and "speak" to your intended audience. If your book is about developing great websites, for example, then every chapter should tell your reader how to do just that, from start to finish.
Next, write 2 or 3 sample chapters and while you are at it, check references such as the Writer's Market for possible publishers. Make a list of ten of these possible publishers for your book and create a letter that describes your book. Such a letter is known as a query letter. In it, mention your book's tentative title and a few of its highlights. Explain how your book is better than competing books and why you are the best person to write it. Then send that query letter, accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope, to each of the ten editors in your list.
In the meantime, continue writing your chapters.
Editors will probably not respond immediately and when they do, their letters may state their interest in your book, and would you submit two or three sample chapters? On the other hand, quite a few editors may politely decline. Find five or ten more possible publishers to contact about your book.
In a few months from now, you may be busily at work on a book which has been commissioned by a publisher and will likely be published. Don't worry about rejections. Experienced, published writers get them all of the time, but keep going, nevertheless. That is what you should be doing too. Recognition of your expertise awaits! Happy writing.
Dorothy Zjawin's writing credits include published articles and a book that are based on her teaching experience. Her website, http://www.profitable-pen.com, is a resource site for all writers and features a free forum.
MORE RESOURCES:
 New York Times (blog) | Democrats are writing a new narrative, on health care and the elections North Country Public Radio (blog) Since early last summer -- when tea party protests erupted around the US -- Democrats have been on the defensive. Despite sweeping majorities in both houses ... Today's tick-tock for health vote Obama's healthcare a time bomb Mississippi's reps must vote 'no' |
 Washington Post | The Writing Life, by Ken Ludwig Washington Post This (along with Rules Two and Three, see below) is how playwriting differs from writing novels, poetry and other forms of literature that fit between two ... |
Runners keep writing tournament on track Chillicothe Gazette Unioto has hosted the regional seventh- and eight-grade writing tournament for several years, but organizers point to the students who didn't get to compete ... |
Roanoke Times wins 30 VPA awards Roanoke Times The Roanoke Times and roanoke.com earned 30 writing, design, photography and online awards Saturday night at the Virginia Press Association's annual meeting ... The News Virginian wins 19 awards CSE wins 26 awards in annual VPA contest The News & Advance earns top state press award again |
Cheerios contest boosts local author's kids book Chicago Sun-Times BY DELIA O'HARA Staff Reporter Lori Degman has been writing children's books on and off for 20 years but never got one published -- until now. ... |
Students playing catch-up as they hit college Dallas Morning News Yet here they were at Brookhaven Community College in Farmers Branch taking remedial writing. Over the semester, they'd review "your" vs. ... |
Big Write winner: Writing in the 'style of Mark Twain' St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Karen Sterbenz Karen Sterbenz won the short fiction division for the Big Write contest, basing her writing on the style of Mark Twain. ... |
Anne 's ex writing her letters from jail Times of India Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend, who is in jail for trying to steal 35million pounds from the Vatican, has been writing her letters from the prison. ... |
Shawnee State University Student Writing Award Winners Announced Jackson Times Journal ... Assistant Professor of English and Humanities Neil Carpathios has announced the winners of the 2010 Shawnee State University Student Writing Awards. ... |
A field of dreams, a plot of reality Detroit Free Press Through some passionate and persistent letter writing, he convinces the Tigers that he's the boy for the job. That's the wholesome, apple-pie part of the ... |
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