• What are your three favorite books? • Were any of those books bestsellers? When I ask this to people, there’s usually a stunned silence, and then the inevitable answer, “Wow. Yeah…I have no idea.” REALISTIC EXPECTATION: “A BOOK WILL GET ME AUTHORITY AND CREDIBILITY IN MY NICHE.” A lot of people like to say that “a book is the new business card.” I disagree. You can go to Office Depot and get business cards. You can’t go to Office Depot and author a book. What I like to say instead is that “a book is the new college degree.” It used to be, about forty years ago, only about 15 percent of people had college degrees. If you had one, it was a major signal of cred- ibility and authority. It meant something. But now that more than 70 percent of people go to college, a college degree doesn’t signal credibility much anymore, because everyone has one. But a book is a credential that is credible and meaningful. Why? Because it is hard to write and publish a book—especially a good book. It’s easy to write a bad book. You can even pay someone to write an OK book for you. But you can’t fake your way into a good book. Either you know what you’re talking about or you don’t, either your book is professional or it’s not. A book gives people the opportunity to see your knowledge and rEAliSTiC AND UNrEAliSTiC ExPECTATiONS fOr A BOOk · 367