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Book Review

Fascinating Authors Interview

http://fascinatingauthors.com/authors/interviews/ken-lizotte-the-experts-edge-2/

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Tell us a little bit about your book.

Author: Entrepreneurs, business owners, consultants and other professionals today need to find an “edge” if they are to compete in a world of dwindling markets and disappearing client budgets. Essentially they need to be seen not just as valuable but as ultra-valuable, that is, #1 in their field. My book shows how to become known as the best of the best, the “go-to authority” that your prospects and clients will literally seek out, effectively separating you from all your competitors

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What inspired you to create a work of non-fiction?

Author: I have guided businesses and professionals toward this ‘expert’s edge” status for many years, as well as successfully developed my own business according to the tenets of this formidable process. So it was a natural for me to pt the process down in book from so that even more businesses could benefit.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What did you do to prepare – such as research – to write your book

Author: I conducted many in-depth interviews as well as drew upon my clients experiences in order to pictorialize how the expert’s edge approach plays out in real life. I also researched mega-famous thoughtleaders such as Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, Suze Orman and Harvey McKay to round out the bigger picture.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: How did you decide which information to present in your book?

Author: It happens with trusting your instinct and letting go your ego. You have to place yourself in the mind of the reader, which means cutting out material or cutting it down because you’re trying to give too much info about a topic. Say what you need to say, then move on. Sometimes your ego wants to jam in everything you have found out find about your topic which makes the book unwieldy. Your readers then can’t get through it, so they end up tossing your book aside unread and thereby they lose the benefit of its wisdom. That’s the author’s fault when that happens.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What do you hope people will gain from reading your book?

Author: I want my readers to understand that there are indeed “magic bullets” to implement in quest of business success. If they practice “thoughtleading,” they will stop worrying about where their next prospects, customers and projects are coming from… they will be busy ALL the time!

FASCINATING AUTHORS: How long did it take you to write the book – (was it longer or less time than you expected)?

Author: It took about 5 months including research. I wrote about 5-10 hours a week, usually in 2-4 sessions a week. That was about right because after the research was completed, the rest of it (about 80%) was right there in my head, so it just poured out.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Did you seek the support of a writer’s group or class?

Author: Actually, I didn’t seek the help of my editor at McGraw-Hill! I’ve been writing and publishing my work most of my life (since 8th grade!) and at this point in my life, some decades later, I’ve come to a point where I really feel as though I know what I’m doing. But in my past I have sought feedback from individuals, both from writers and non-writers, editors, teachers etc. So until you reach my level of experience… don’t try this at home!

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What surprised you the most about this process?

Author: Nothing much, again I’ve been through this half-dozen times before. But the first time I wrote a non-fiction book for publication, what most surprised me was how much help a non-fiction author needs to accomplish a book, such as interviewees, research aides, feedback, brainstorming and so forth. So “it takes a village” for only one person to write a book and that is now an assumption I make as I begin work on a nonfiction book.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What tips would you offer to anyone writing nonfiction for the first time?

Author: Try not to settle on your conclusions too early. Let your interviews and research bring you to a new level of understanding about what you’re writing about, then merge that with your prior assumptions to create a whole new thesis. Your book basically becomes its own entity with its own message and what you brought in initially becomes a part of that but not necessarily the whole ball of wax. Allow yourself as the author to learn and grow and change.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What can we look forward to in your next book?

Author: I need to know more about social networking and Internet strategies and all of that. I now twitter and blog thanks to help from Penny and AME but am still learning how all this feeds into one’s “expert’s edge. So my next book needs to report on what I’m now learning and communicate it to the entrepreneurial world.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Is there anything we haven’t covered that you would like to include?

Author: Anyone can become a book author! My book’s Chapter 7 lays out all the options, all of them! There has never been such a glorious time to achieve book authorship so if you don’t know the options, take a look at my chapter. Technology has created news forms of book publishing, so everyone who the dream of publishing a book needs to know about them.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What was your relationship like with your editor during the writing process?

Author: I went ahead and wrote the book entirely, then submitted the full manuscript. She was then able to point out areas that need re-work, but by then I was happy to find that 80-90% of the manuscript was in great shape. I could do it this way, however, because of my decades of writing experience.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: What in your writing career has best prepared you to successfully write a book?

Author: I have always been inclined to write generally, and to write BOOKS in specific. That true desire to want to write a book is a huge success factor because a book can be an overwhelming project and so if you don’t have the stomach for it, or the motivation, you may not make it through to the end,

FASCINATING AUTHORS: How do you deal with writer’s block?

Author: I dump all my rough thoughts out first, not worrying about style, format or readability. After that, I go back play and around with the rough material, revising without putting pressure on myself. If you take it one step at a time like this, you won’t get writer’s block. It’s the self-censoring and the fear of “writing badly” that stops people. Just dump out what’s in your head, then you’ll have something to work with, rather than a blank page or screen.

FASCINATING AUTHORS: Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview!