The ultimate insider; author scams; certified organic books: Newsletter 15 October 2025

Newsletter 119. How to become a wizard in a niche market, a hybrid publishing overview, registering your work for AI, plus three people to follow and three books to read.

Becoming the universally known independent thinker

Twice in my life, I’ve achieved the position of universally known independent thinker (UKIT). What’s a UKIT? In a given market space, a UKIT is someone familiar with everybody and all the events going on in a space, and who everybody knows and trusts. Every space has a UKIT or two. Becoming the UKIT is hard, but it’s a great place to be.

How do you get to be a UKIT . . . without losing your soul or your integrity?

This was my experience. In the early 2000s, I was (at least according to Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes”) the top industry analyst covering technology change in television. Every major TV network and cable operator asked for my advice. All the advanced TV startups briefed me on their new products. The big TV manufacturers brought me in, too. Reporters quoted me. Financial analysts read me. I spoke at all the industry conferences. And I could walk down the aisle at the TV trade shows and bump into dozens of people I know.

It was a small space, but a tight one. When something was happening — a partnership deal, an acquisition, a layoff — I usually got wind of it, often with an off-the-record or embargoed briefing.

Becoming the UKIT of advanced TV technology took years of carefully covering the space, posting opinions in the form of research reports, taking sometimes unpopular stands, often being right, and sometimes being wrong. It also took years of carefully observing and listening to everyone and keeping an open mind, because things are never static and knowledge is always in flux.

That was two decades ago. Now it’s happened again. My little space now is book publishing for prominent business thinkers, especially when those thought leaders are writing about changes in technology, media, and marketing. I’ve worked with six publishers, four agents, and dozens of authors. I’ve been involved with a slew of books. It’s the reason I got wind of the Greenleaf/Amplify acquisitions early and got funded to do research on writers using AI.

I know I just wrote six paragraphs about me, but this is emphatically not about me. It’s about what it takes to be the UKIT your space. It’s pretty simple, but not easy. Here’s all you have to do:

1. Pick your niche. It should be narrow enough that you could in theory know the 100 or so important people in that space, but broad enough that lots more people would care about it. It must be a space where change is happening, because that’s what creates new opportunity for an independent thinker.
2. Plan for the long haul. You don’t get to be the expert in a year or two. This will take concentrated effort. If you have a short attention span, you’ll get bored and want to move on to a new space . . . and people like that don’t have the staying power to build the reputation they need.
3. Establish a platform. You can’t be the UKIT if you’re employed by a company in the space. No one is going to believe that the head of marketing for a startup or the SVP of strategy for a legacy player has a neutral and balanced point of view — you need to be able to say what’s true without worrying about upsetting your employer. The UKIT needs a platform to make a living based on independent, knowledgeable opinion. This means you likely need to be an industry or financial analyst, an independent consultant, a public speaker, an author, an academic, a journalist, or a trade reporter.
4. Talk to everyone. The knowledge you need is not lying around available through web and Perplexity searches. It is in the heads of the businesspeople trying to succeed in the space. Getting to be the UKIT means talking to all of them — including many who seem promising but don’t actually know anything useful.
5. Be visible. Knowing the truth isn’t enough. You need to broadcast it. This means blogging, podcasting, posting on SubStack, writing columns, or otherwise getting your perspective out there. You need to do this on a regular cadence. Unless people see your name associated with a knowledgeable, well-considered opinion once a week or more, you’re not going to remain near the top of their consciousness.
6. Be friendly. Industries feature all sorts of people. Some are charming. Some are helpful. Some are intelligent. Some are pompous. Some will care about you. Others will only seek to use you. You must find ways to befriend all of them. (Except evil losers, of course.)
7. Be trustworthy. In your quest to be the universally known independent thinker, people are going to share a lot of things with you in confidence. When you know things, it’s tempting to share them — it burnishes your reputation as an insider. Don’t do it. Once word gets around that you can’t be trusted with secrets, you won’t hear any more secrets.
8. Be neutral. While you need to have an opinion, you cannot be perceived as carrying water for any company or individual. If you are neutral, you will hear from everyone. If you are clearly biased, you probably won’t.
9. Be collegial. You are not the only UKIT in your space. There are always other people who want to be what you’re trying to be. Be cordial with them. You’ll see each other often, because you’ll be at the same briefings and the same events. Sure, you’d like to be more influential than your competitor. But when they quit and join one of the companies in your space — or when there’s one cab available and you’re both going to the same place — you’ll be happy you didn’t behave like an ass to them.
10. And be visionary. The key to differentiation as a UKIT is to look to the future. You will not outdo journalists in getting inside information quickly — that’s their job. You will become visible by assembling all the currently available information and then projecting what it means for the future. You will be wrong from time to time, as all visionaries are. But people in an industry are naturally attracted to visionaries, and will attempt to persuade you that they are an essential element of your imagined future.

How do you know when you’re a UKIT? Because information flows to you, rather than your having to seek it out. Because people are always trying to influence you. Because when events happen, you instantly know why they happened — and whom to call and verify your suspicions.

There are higher-paying jobs in your space than UKIT. There are jobs that require a lot less work. There are jobs where you can take a break and not miss anything important, and jobs that require a lot less travel. But if you like an intellectual challenge and the benefits of influence, there is nothing more fulfilling than successfully becoming a universally known independent thinker.

News for writers and others who think

Jane Friedman shares an overarching analysis of the hybrid publishing landscape. Basically, there’s a pricing model for every desperate author — and dollars don’t necessarily align with value. Things continue to change rapidly. Branded publishers with good reputations will always cost more, but they’re also likely to be a lot more dependable.

The Greenleaf blog publishes a list of common scams targeting authors. Highlights include the guaranteed bestseller scam, paid book clubs, and fake for-hire reviewers.

A startup called Amlet proposes to create a content registry so you can track and license your content for AI.

You can now get your book or your publisher certified as organic and AI free. With AI embedded in everything from search to grammar checkers, that’s going to be hard to enforce.

Three people to follow

Mignon Fogarty , Grammar Girl and proprietor of an AI tips newsletter

Ed Keller , data and analytics expert

Don Crawley, CSP, DTM , geek whisperer

Three books to read

Lucky by Design: The Hidden Economics You Need to Get More of What You Want by Judd Kessler (Little, Brown Spark, 2025). The secret algorithms that determine who gets more than they deserve.

Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI by Anil Ananthaswamy (Dutton, 2024). A peek under the hood for AI tools.

Epic Disruptions: 11 Innovations That Shaped Our Modern World by Scott D. Anthony (HBR Press, 2025). The tools you count on today were once disruptive innovations.