As you develop your book’s core concept, you might find yourself coming across questions for which you don’t have any clear answers. More importantly, you may find that your audience needs information outside the domain of your expertise. If you’re writing a book about how to run a managed IT service for enterprise businesses, for example, your market research might uncover that your audience is asking a lot of questions about security for mobile phones.
Resist the temptation to spread yourself thin or attempt to become an expert in a different area. Instead, reach out to your network and interview an expert when you find topics of interest that you know little about. Here are a few ways you can set up an interview.
- Podcasts: You can record an interview in person or over the phone.
- Webinar: include the audience in a live interactive session, and allow them to ask questions of the expert directly. Post a recording of the webinar on your site.
- Conventional video: meet the expert in a studio or in one of your offices for a live face-to-face interview.
- Transcript: if you conduct a video or podcast interview, transcribe the content and post it to your web site or blog.
- Email interview: busy experts with little time are most receptive to an emailed list of questions—especially if you don’t know them well.
Interviewing outside experts is a powerful way to generate high-quality content for your book; especially because interview content can be re-used in blog posts and other social media outlets when it comes time to promote your book. Finally, remember that when you showcase outside experts, you give them an intrinsic incentive to tell people about your book.
Start today by making a list of potential experts that you can interview!