I wrote a book! Now I am an expert.

Over the last few years, a dishonest trend has been developing in marketing where individuals will self-publish a book and then use the fact they have had a book "published" to validate a claim that they are an expert on the topic. I find it a very deceptive practice.

Its sole purpose is to trick the older generation into believing because an individual has published a book that they are an expert, therefore, older individuals more likely to do business with them.

The concept is based on the fact that the older generation is unlikely to understand how easy it is thanks to the internet to self-publish a book.

In the past to publish a book an individual would have a contract with a publishing house, your manuscript would get fact-checked and proofread, before it became a book. It was a very costly process. Only professional authors, famous individuals or experts in their field would get a book published. It set a level of quality. It would not be in a publishing houses interest to get a reputation for releasing any old crap - books needed to be of good quality.

Now, with the help of the internet and e-commerce giants. Publishing a book no more special than putting a blog post up. Any individual can cheaply and quickly publish a “book”, without any proofreading, peer review or fact checking taking place. Then call themselves an expert in the area. Just look at the amount of “Business Experts, Marketing Experts, etc.” pushing books, most which are self-published.

The reason I find this marketing tactic dishonest is that is it aimed at the older generation who are not social media savvy. They are more likely to believe and take notice of the “Expert” title due to their traditional belief in the way books were published, completely unaware that any Tom, Dick and Harry can now publish a book and claim to be an "Expert".