Early this afternoon a producer from a national business pay-TV station station( Similar format to CNN) phoned to ask me some questions as part of his research for a story.
He mentioned some articles I'd written and asked me to provide further clarification on a number of issues.
The two questions turned into a 30 minute chat. Anyway, early this evening the producer emailed to thank me for the info etc. He said owes me a favour. Nice!
The thing is, I don't see myself as an authority/expert on the subject he was doing a programme about, although I have written extensively about it.
As a result, I thought it would be inappropriate for me to do an on-camera interview, which he suggested, and directed him to an IT lawyer and an analyst who work for large well-known firms and who have stronger credentials. If I was doing a similar piece, i would have interviewed them.
So my question is, at what point does the non-fiction writer become an expert on the subject he/she writes about? X published articles later? After publishing a number of books? When unsolicitated media enquiries start to come in? And what are the issues that you need to take into consideration before you go out there and tell people that you are an expert?
He mentioned some articles I'd written and asked me to provide further clarification on a number of issues.
The two questions turned into a 30 minute chat. Anyway, early this evening the producer emailed to thank me for the info etc. He said owes me a favour. Nice!
The thing is, I don't see myself as an authority/expert on the subject he was doing a programme about, although I have written extensively about it.
As a result, I thought it would be inappropriate for me to do an on-camera interview, which he suggested, and directed him to an IT lawyer and an analyst who work for large well-known firms and who have stronger credentials. If I was doing a similar piece, i would have interviewed them.
So my question is, at what point does the non-fiction writer become an expert on the subject he/she writes about? X published articles later? After publishing a number of books? When unsolicitated media enquiries start to come in? And what are the issues that you need to take into consideration before you go out there and tell people that you are an expert?
