How do writers establish credibility?

It used to be that we could look to a blue check mark on Twitter to establish if a writer was – quote unquote – “legitimate”, but that world is long gone.  Now it’s up to the individual to prove their worth in a consistent and very public way. Writers of all kinds need to demonstrate that they care, that they are knowledgeable in the subject, and that they can be trusted. Why? Because that’s how readers start to form a relationship with your writing. “People jump to all kinds of conclusions about you when they read documents you have written,” writes Barbara Wallraff for HBR. “They decide, for instance, how smart, how creative, how well organised, how trustworthy, and how considerate you are. And once they have made up their minds, it is hard to get them to see you differently. Research in social psychology shows how sticky early impressions are.” So it’s super important, and we need to, as writers, establish credibility if we want to gain readers and head for success. But first: what do we mean by “credibility” in the first place? What is credibility? “Establishing ethos in your own writing is all about using credibility—either your own or that of your sources—in order to be persuasive,” according to the Lumen Writing Skills Lab. “Essentially, ethos is about believability. Will your audience find you believable? What can you do to ensure that they do?” Lumen goes on to say that: “You can establish ethos—or credibility—in two basic ways: you can use or build your own credibility on a topic, or you can use credible sources, which, in turn, builds your credibility as a writer.” So establishing credibility as a writer really depends on the genre and format you’re working in. For example, non-fiction authors and those...
The post How do writers establish credibility? appeared first on The Horror Tree .