In a previous post, (‘Research’), I wrote a section on utilising the knowledge of experts, something that Honest Author’s podcaster Gillian McAllister says she does regularly. However, being a little shy about asking strangers for help, it wasn’t something that I’d had the confidence to do at the time.

However, I recently started a novel in which a hit-and-run incident occurs. There are a very specific set of mitigating circumstances and I needed to know how this would be investigated, the timeline, what the legal procedure would be, and the court case given the plea etc. I tried my usual port-of-call, Google, and it could only offer so much information.

During my trawl of the ‘net, I stumbled across the websites of a few specialist motoring law firms. A couple of them had some useful info on, but again, I needed more. In short, I realised I needed to pick an expert’s brain.

So…I channelled my inner Gillian and bit the bullet. After all, what was the worst that could happen? They could decline or ignore me, and I’d be no worse off. So I used contact forms and email addresses (whatever was provided on the website) to send a polite, professional message to a handful of firms briefly explaining that I’m an author, what the scenario is and a few questions.

I was amazed when I got three responses. Two gave brief answers (one of whom would charge a fee for more of their time and expertise, which I completely understood, especially with him being a one-man operation; and the other didn’t respond to my request to ask some follow-up questions). The third respondent was the Director of the company (let’s call him ‘D’).

D was incredibly generous with his time and knowledge (which he assured me early on would be gratis). We exchanged several emails, and he ended each with an invitation to ask more questions. At one point, he stated that it was a bugbear of his that authors and TV shows often get things wrong, and it was great to have the opportunity to ensure that his profession and day-today work was presented correctly.

I was overwhelmed by D’s desire to help, the length of his answers and his openness and patience. When I felt I had enough info for my novel, I thanked him profusely and he insisted that I reach out again if any further questions came up during the writing. I arranged for a Hotel Chocolat package to be delivered to his office to show my gratitude.

The moral of this story is not to be afraid to reach out to experts for help. There are some incredibly kind people out there!

Final Thoughts

Have you ever reached out to experts for research purposes? How did they respond?