# Contacting important people? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 20, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094 "2015-11-20T17:19:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tafowler87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@tafowler87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tafowler87)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/21 "2015-11-21T16:59:42Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I am well aware of all the reasons they are hard to reach, I never complained about that. I was just looking for a better apporach I might try. Some authors and experts (not all, but some) would be more than willing to do a phone interview or face-to-face (considering location) to expand on their works. Depending on the type and nature of your novel I would think that any expert would gladly contribute to any fictional or nonfictional work. This is assuming that they either don’t care about the direction you take concerning their publications or approve the work you are doing. Short… if you are willing to reveal an abstract of your work most likely they will volunteer some of their time. You are exposing them and their “cause” and providing them publicity. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/22 "2015-11-21T17:05:37Z")
> [@tafowler87](#): > > Some authors and experts (not all, but some) would be more than willing to do a phone interview or face-to-face (considering location) to expand on their works. Depending on the type and nature of your novel I would think that any expert would gladly contribute to any fictional or nonfictional work. This is assuming that they either don’t care about the direction you take concerning their publications or approve the work you are doing. > Short… if you are willing to reveal an abstract of your work most likely they will volunteer some of their time. You are exposing them and their “cause” and providing them publicity. This is what I am hoping for, I am using fiction to bring attention to something strongly associated with the work the experts are doing. I would happily use their name upon approval. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/23 "2015-11-21T17:16:07Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > There are a lot of people with expertise who are not big names. For example your neurochemistry expert–there are probably people who he has or is currently guiding to a PhD degree. These people will be quite familiar with his work. Think about grad students in general and faculty in lesser prestige departments. > > And of course there is Straight Dope and a huge number of other internet forums. I would e-mail Mr. Big Important Expertinhisfield, tell him you are looking to consult with an expert in his field, tell him why and ask him if he can recommend someone to help you. If he wants to help himself he will let you know, otherwise he might refer you to a student or lesser known expert who might also be the type of person who likes being involved in projects like yours. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/24 "2015-11-21T17:31:19Z")
What I do is email them and ask for their help. Even dropping the name of the Straight Dope can help–I had to correct a couple by saying I was not Cecil, but they still helped. No overstating anything–that’s lying and will bite you. Of all the people I attempted to contact for my Staff Reports the only one who did not reply and help me or link me to someone who could was Zahi Hawass, and in my report I called him out and said he would not get any cookies. I guess he gets enough public attention already\*, but everybody else liked talking about their work. Once you have one the rest will fall like dominos. The way I became a published researcher for Kathy Reichs was that I asked her if she had been my Human Skeleton professor in the fall of '74. It went from there, and I had another name to drop. Remember that everyone you approach is human and most are tickled that you are interested and by the possibility of making it into a novel. - - Who am I kidding? He simply cannot get enough public attention! I just wasn’t providing enough. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/25 "2015-11-21T17:37:12Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > What I do is email them and ask for their help. Even dropping the name of the Straight Dope can help–I had to correct a couple by saying I was not Cecil, but they still helped. No overstating anything–that’s lying and will bite you. Of all the people I attempted to contact for my Staff Reports the only one who did not reply and help me or link me to someone who could was Zahi Hawass, and in my report I called him out and said he would not get any cookies. I guess he gets enough public attention already\*, but everybody else liked talking about their work. Once you have one the rest will fall like dominos. > > The way I became a published researcher for Kathy Reichs was that I asked her if she had been my Human Skeleton professor in the fall of '74. It went from there, and I had another name to drop. Remember that everyone you approach is human and most are tickled that you are interested and by the possibility of making it into a novel. > > - > - Who am I kidding? He simply cannot get enough public attention! I just wasn’t providing enough. This is encouraging. In all honesty I can usually find the answers to my questions right on line. I am holding out a little bit of hope that I can get someoene with a name to take an interest in the project and at some level lend some support. ---
**Author:** ![F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.Pu-du-he-pa-as)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/26 "2015-11-21T17:40:06Z")
You’re probably going to have a lot more luck getting answers if you post questions to whatever the standard message board for people in that field is. I (as well as my academic department in general) regularly get questions from people such as yourself, but I rarely respond because I don’t have the time to keep up a dialogue unless there’s a really compelling reason. I’d probably do it for money, if it was a middle school/high school student just getting started in the field, for political/humanitarian reasons, or if the research question was exceptionally interesting. On a message board, on the other hand, even if your response rate stays the same, you have a lot more people reading your question, and some of them are probably going to be students or retired people with more free time. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/27 "2015-11-21T17:48:49Z")
Oh, and the people you want to contact aren’t really all that important, and many realize it. They’re just dweebs like the rest of us here. You aren’t afraid of approaching us with questions, are you? And if you let us know what you are specifically looking for, someone here might be an expert in the field or know one. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/28 "2015-11-21T18:44:17Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Oh, and the people you want to contact aren’t really all that important, and many realize it. They’re just dweebs like the rest of us here. You aren’t afraid of approaching us with questions, are you? > > And if you let us know what you are specifically looking for, someone here might be an expert in the field or know one. I have a co-writer I have agreed to work with. If she has no problem with me discussing it in an open forum I would love to be more specific. It falls into the humanitarian, social issues area. I am more afraid of her than I am the important people I am trying to contact. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/29 "2015-11-22T04:47:10Z")
Sell her on the value of networking, which is what you are doing. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/30 "2015-11-22T05:00:04Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > It falls into the humanitarian, social issues area. Now that you mention it, I work with a fellow who retired from being one of those “important people” at a big-ass charity like that. And I may have some ins with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America–its “Vatican” is basically on the other side of O’Hare from me. They’re heavily into that humanitarian, social issues shit. See how easy this is? It’s “six degrees of separation” in action, and in practice it’s more like four or five. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/31 "2015-11-22T14:47:31Z")
Pre-internet, I was wondering about a business service to help authors with things they are not familiar with. Technical editing if you will. There are so, so many inaccuracies in books that can take you right out of it. The members of the SDMB love to research and solve problems. Why not ask your questions here? I think this might be a good suggestion for a new forum. For authors. Specific threads for a particular endeavor or project and if people are interested, they can follow along and help. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094/32 "2015-11-22T15:51:29Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Pre-internet, I was wondering about a business service to help authors with things they are not familiar with. Technical editing if you will. > > There are so, so many inaccuracies in books that can take you right out of it. > > The members of the SDMB love to research and solve problems. Why not ask your questions here? > > I think this might be a good suggestion for a new forum. For authors. Specific threads for a particular endeavor or project and if people are interested, they can follow along and help. That has to be one of the best suggestions I have seen in a long time! When I hooked up with my co-writer I didn’t realize how restrictive a writing relationship might be. I have no qualms about discussing any aspects of what I am writing on where she prefers to keep things more under wraps. She has more experience than I do at this so I have to respect that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/contacting-important-people/738094.md?page=1)