When you’re an expert on a subject, you have the ability to teach others something of value. For example, if you know how to program in PHP or Ruby, sharing your knowledge could benefit plenty of other people.
Do you have an area of expertise in the tech arena? If you do, here’s why you should consider writing a book to assist others.
- Publishing a book is easy
If you assumed publishing a book was hard, that was only the case in the past. Today, you have many options that didn’t exist just a few decades ago.
For example, you can self-publish your book through a company and get an ISBN to sell your book on Amazon. Although self-publishing is not difficult at all, you can expect to pay a few thousand dollars for the service.
Unfortunately, with some self-publishing companies, you won’t retain your copyright. This means that for the duration of your contract, you may not publish your book anywhere else without permission from the initial publisher.
If you want to skip the high costs and avoid the risk of forfeiting your copyright, you could just print a copy and have it bound. For example, Printing Center USA turns out beautiful hardcover books at affordable prices.
All you have to do is supply them with a print-ready PDF file and they’ll print and bind your book in any quantity you request. Since it’s that easy to publish a book, you have little reason to resist creating a book that shares your expertise with the rest of the world.
- You have new insights
One of the best reasons to publish a book is when you have new insights into longstanding problems or unknowns. For example, perhaps you’ve discovered a bug in many software applications that causes problems nobody has identified yet.
Or perhaps you know a shortcut to a programming problem that often stump other developers. If this is the case, it’s time to publish whatever shortcuts and secrets you’ve discovered, if they aren’t mainstream.
Somebody, somewhere, is looking for the answers you have and you ought to take advantage of the opportunity to present your expertise to everyone else.
- Your knowledge could transform the world
Have you ever dreamed of exerting serious influence in your industry? If you publish a book that shares your knowledge and expertise, that dream could become a reality.
Every new tech innovation started as an idea that morphed into a project. None of the world’s top tech experts got into their current position by keeping their ideas to themselves. Every single one of them pursued their ideas until they became a known and shared reality.
Big ideas transform industries
Many influential tech experts have changed the world with simple ideas. For example, Steve Jobs spearheaded the smartphone revolution and Linus Torvalds created Linux – an open-source operating system – that currently powers a majority of web servers and smart devices.
Your ideas could make you popular. And if you have a promising concept, even if you don’t know how to bring your ideas to life, you might be able to attract offers from those who do know and can help you do it.
- You want to become a go-to source
Let’s say you have a store of knowledge on a particular subject but don’t get opportunities to share your knowledge. That can be frustrating, especially if what you have to share might be revolutionary.
You could sit around posting on the Internet all day in hopes of being discovered, but that’s not a likely scenario; your wisdom could get lost in the flood of chatter and data.
A better option is publishing a book and getting your insights in print. When you author a book as an expert on your topic, more people will find it, read it, and talk about it with others.
Books are better than blogs in this sense because an inspired and knowledgeable reader can order multiple copies and hand them out to colleagues. If your book ends up in a thrift store somewhere down the line, someone may still come across it while browsing.
- Books live forever
When you write and upload a blog, its lifespan depends on the health of the service provider, perhaps even the existence of the Internet itself, as well as your ability to continue paying for hosting. If you pass away, lose your job, or the Internet goes down . . . your blog disappears, too.
Books are physical objects that don’t disappear when electrical power or the Internet goes down. When you publish a book, your expertise will remain available to humanity.
Have something to share? Put it in a book
Don’t hold back if you’ve got something wonderful to share with the world. Publish it in a book and share your expertise with everyone.
You never know who your audience might be until you put yourself out there. You might just change the world.
