Beware 'expert' opinions

For the past year I’ve subscribed to a writing magazine. The majority of its content is relevant to writers who hope to be published one day. There are stories about how established writers got their first breaks, advice on writing for particular genres and discussion of the hot drinks, clothing and ambience most favoured by writers. (Tea, something respectable, the hum of a coffee shop.) There are also numerous adverts offering training, consultancy, courses, retreats, stationary and qualifications all designed to help you get something published.

I’ve benefitted from the expert advice of both Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and Shelley Instone Literary Consultancy. They both came at the recommendation of my agent, who was in turn recommended by the agency that represents my uncle’s literary estate. Without these personal recommendations, I would have found it difficult to trust that the advice I was getting was worth the money.

In publishing, there are numerous ways to spend your money to receive ‘expert’ advice and help. How much of it makes you more likely to be published is another matter. I have learnt a great deal from the advice I have received, but I have also been careful not to seek too many ‘expert’ opinions. The fewer editing voices I hear in my head as I write the better, my own is loud enough.

Preparing for having a baby has inducted us into a world that is similarly saturated with ‘expert’ opinions, mostly in book form. There are even more numerous ways to spend your money to receive contradictory advice. We have been leant or recommended several books that line themselves up at various points on a let them cry – don’t let them cry spectrum: from ‘knitting yoghurt’ in my sister’s words to borstal for babies. The range and manner of advice is, frankly, alarming.

My favourite book so far is a Great Ormond Street Hospital book that deals from a medical point of view with mainly practical issues of birth and baby care. For the time being, this is expert opinion enough. When our daughter arrives I will have plenty of my own doubts without the editing voices of the ‘experts’ fighting for position.





Earlier this week we went for a third scan to check our baby’s heart, as I have a (completely benign) hole in mine. It was conducted by a doctor who specialises in foetal ultrasound and the baby was found to be just as she should be. For us, that was the ultimate expert opinion.



The baby strikes a gymnastic pose at the cardiac scan