The WMF Archives: How to Find and Interview Experts for Your eBooks

Friday, April 23, 2010

How to Find and Interview Experts for Your eBooks

6:00 AM

By Rebecca Sebek

When you're writing an eBook, make sure you have reliable resources to back up your information. This means you'll want to interview experts for your eBook. The question is: where do you find all of these experts? That's easy -- become a journalist or help a reporter out!

To add credibility to your eBooks interview as many experts as possible. People like to know that you've done your research. They'll trust you and are more likely to come back to your website knowing you'll provide them with accurate information.

Where to find the experts

I have many ideas for eBooks, in fact I wrote one title Growing Up Alcoholic: How to Break the Cycle. I give this eBook away free as a "thank you" for visitors to my teen life coaching website. I found resources on the internet to include in my eBook. It was important for me to backup my information that I was putting in the eBook. However, I could have used another tool I have in my arsenal called Reporter Connection.

Reporter Connection is owned by Bill and Steve Harrison and is free. You can sign up as a guest and or journalist. It's best to sign up for both for two reasons 1) as a guest YOU can be interviewed for books and radio shows and 2) as a journalist you get to interview EXPERTS for your eBooks.

When you sign up as a journalist, you'll be able to create a query to submit to Reporter Connection. An email goes out to the members of Reporter Connection. You'd be surprised how many people will respond to your query. I generated three queries with Reporter Connection and had to stop them all because I would receive 10-15 responses each day. A few of the responses I received came from people who are on the NY Best Sellers list. Many of the responses are from highly educated, professionals who have 10+ years experience in their field.

Another resource is Help a Reporter Out. It's the same concept as Reporter Connection -- you submit queries and people respond to them offering their expertise. There are over 100,000 active sources waiting to hear from you. The best part is it's free to sign up!

How to write your query

Make sure you query is specific and to the point. Ask the what, who, when, where, how, and why questions just like a reporter would. You may want to include the deadline date for your project as well because it will give people an idea of the urgency of your query.

Once you have your responses, weed out the ones that you will not use. You may want to keep their information on file for future reference because you may consider using them for another eBook. If not, you can always delete the information from your inbox.

Interviewing tips

Once you find the "experts" you want to interview, set up a time that is convenient for both of you. Some people prefer to be interviewed via the phone, others prefer questions emailed to them. If you're interviewing people by phone, you may want to use Audacity which is a free editor and recorder. It's easy to use. If your experts prefer email, make sure you know which version of Word they're using. Some people may not have the latest version. They may prefer that you send the questions in Notepad or some other word processing program. The key is to be flexible with your interviewing style. Remember, these people are helping you out!

Again, ask the what, who, when, where, how, and why questions when you interview your experts for your eBooks. This will ensure that you receive clear and accurate answers to your questions.

Sign up today!

Take advantage of Reporter Connection and Help a Reporter Out and interview people today for your eBooks. The connections you make are outstanding. You never know who you'll meet that will help you advance your writing career. Good luck!

Labels: ebooks, freelance ebook writer, Rebecca Sebek

6 comments:

Carol Tice said...: Hi Rebecca --

A couple comments from a longtime reporter...HARO is the best. Don't go anywhere else. I use it constantly. It replaced ProfNet, the original resource like this, as the most frequently used, though ProfNet can still be useful. I don't know anyone who uses Reporter Connection, never heard of it, but interesting to know there's yet another of these resources out there. Finding sources today is just embarrassingly easy compared to when I got started in this field!

Just FYI to all, emailing is not considered interviewing, and journalists note in their writing if questions were only answered via email. I think there's a lot of people coming into writing without any training who aren't aware of this.

Interviewing implies speaking to live people, either in person or on the phone. If you quote from an email, you need to say "... ," she wrote in an email response.

Pretending emails were live interviews is considered unethical. Lots of people do it...but it's kind of uncool.

Many more interview tips in this entry on Make a Living Writing; April 23, 2010 11:06 AM
Alyssa Ast said...: Great information Rebecca and thank you for the resources.

I have found most people prefer to be interviewed via email now and days because it's less of a hassle for them (since they are doing you a favor) and they are able to do it in their free time. Plus they are able to easily link important information and resources in their response.

I had no idea about Audacity. I am definitely going to check this out. It sure beats scrambling with a pencil and paper.; April 23, 2010 11:22 AM
Carol Tice said...: Alyssa...see my note above. You might want to know this for your newspaper blog. Emails are not considered interviews in the journalism world. I've worked for publications where you'd be fired for trying to pass off emails as interviews.

Whenever possible, ask to speak to them in person for 10-15 minutes. Even that's better than canned email responses. You almost never get really snappy quotes that way -- they come in conversation. And don't think they're doing you a favor -- often they're talking to you to promote their business, book, class, etc...there's something in it for them.; April 23, 2010 11:59 AM
Alyssa Ast said...: Oh I agree Carol. I think face-to-face interviews add a sense of personality and credibility to an interview. You're able to really get a "sense" of the person you are interviewing. However, I don't think email interviews should be fully discredited.

I think it's important to choose wisely which form you use depending on where the interview will appear. Like you said, I would never use an email interview in one of my newspaper related pieces. But as for a blog, where formats and requirements are less stringent, I think email interviews are appropriate in most cases (depending on the blog).; April 23, 2010 12:05 PM
Rebecca said...: I haven't tried HARO yet. Some the interviews I conducted about screenwriting were done via email and phone. I agree with Alyssa, it comes down to preference. I plan on having the phone interviews transcribed for those who like to read transcriptions of interviews.

I like Reporter Connection from Steve Harrison. He's helped many people get on Oprah, Larry King Live, and other shows. Some of the people I plan on interviewing for various writing projects have been published on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Not too shabby!

I love Audacity. It's free and easy to use!; April 23, 2010 7:07 PM
Marla Rosner said...: Thanks for the great comments and useful resources. I've found that in using HARO I've gotten incredibly nuanced and well articulated responses via email for ezine articles I've written. I do understand the journalistic standard for interviews however.

When soliciting for respondents with the near-term aim of blogging but ultimate goal of a possible E-Book or real paper book, do you recommend stating it's for a blog? I often wonder if people are less inclined to respond to interview requests for blogs, perhaps viewing them as less serious.
Best,
Marla; May 17, 2010 2:25 PM