Creating an Expert File for Your Freelance Writing Career

I have discussed in previous articles the concept of creating your own personal files and databases for information that you may (or may not) use in your freelance writing career. In this article, I want to discuss the importance of creating an expert file, which is your own file filled with the names and contact information for experts you might want to interview in the future. Both fiction and non-fiction writers alike can always benefit from the counsel of an expert, so creating an expert file will give you immediate access to the experts you need, when you need them.

How you set up your expert file is completely up to you. I personally prefer index cards organized alphabetically in a card file box, but hanging files, computer files and even notebooks work just as well. You might want to organize experts by last name, but you can also organize them alphabetically by industry, such as: medical, legal, outdoors, fishing, boating, etc.

1. Make a list of people you know.
Even if you aren't exactly a social butterfly, there are people in your life who are experts at something. For example, my wife is an expert on horses, my sister in law is a health nut, my best friend is a pediatrician and my father works in the oil business. All of these things may come in handy for a future article or story that I write, so their names and phone numbers are listed in my expert file. Don't leave out past co-workers, your children's friends and their parents, your acquaintances at church or your next-door neighbors.

Don't forget, you can also ask those people about people they know to further expand your expert file. For example, my best friend's father is a welder and my sister-in-law's husband is a police officer. I can always give them a call as well, so they are in my expert file.