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MarketingHack #16: Be featured as an expert in a book 

 August 24, 2015

By  Pascal Depuhl

25 Marketing Hacks is a weekly blog series the explores unconventional ways of getting the word out about your work. Traditionally photographers and cinematographers use their portfolios or show reels either in a face-to-face meeting or online to attract new clients. Today I’ll show you how to be featured as an expert in a book that you don’t even have to write.

Become an expert

So yeah, there’s no way around this. You got to become an expert. Clients love to work with an expert in the field, Google loves to find the expert to serve to their users, experts are wanted by everyone. This is the part where you need to put your nose to the grind stone and work hard.

The good news is that you don’t have to become the best expert in the world – after all there’s Featured Expert on video only one of those – but you need to become an expert in the eye of the author who is looking for an expert to help teach his readership.

Back up and tell the story from the beginning

Two and a half years ago, I got contacted by Rosh Sillars (@RoshSillars) who was writing a Digital Field guide on the Canon EOS Rebel T5i. He was looking for an expert to give some tips on how to shoot video with the new Rebel. Rosh had asked me to give some practical tips on capturing motion, rather than the technical settings.

I gladly agreed, for one I enjoy helping my friends do well. I also can’t see the downside of being featured in a book as the expert on video. I was in the middle of pulling off my world wide première of my first documentary film (Check out Marketing Hack #11 for why we showed the film at an airport), when I did a quick phone interview with Rosh about video.

It’s kind of a funny story

Rosh finishes the interview, the book gets published and I’m supposed to get a copy from the publisher, but honestly I totally forgot about it, although I did see the page on books.google.com and included a link to that page on my about page. Fast forward to yesterday (2 years after the book got published).[nextpage title=”You’re not gonna believe what happens next …”]

I’m doing some yard work, cutting back some bushes when I see an old weathered package in the leaves. I couldn’t stop laughing, after I opened it –the address label had totally worn off, so I had no clue what was in it. Wanna venture a guess?

“Canon EOS Rebel T5i/700D Digital Field Guide” by Rosh Sillars and right there on page 216 are my tips for shooting video that Rosh interviewed me for.

Book found after 2 years in bushes August 8, 2013

Check out how weathered the envelope got in two years – thankfully it was not a manilla envelope. The date on the shipping slip reads 08/02/2013 – mailed over 2 years ago; so much for overnight delivery.

You know what the funniest thing is? In the spring of this year, Rosh and I did a Switch2Social event in Miami and Rosh stayed at my house and walked past this hidden package every time he walked through my door.

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    Pascal Depuhl


    Miami product photographer, video producer, cinematographer and chief mindchanger at Photography by Depuhl

    I love to share the knowledge I've gained over the past two decades. Catching light in motion.

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