A few months after I finished writing my book The Buy Side and right before it was published, I called my friend Brian McDonald. Brian is an author who knows infinitely more than I do about the world of books, so whenever I have a question about writing or publishing, I call him. Plus, I’ve come to find that writers have to talk to other writers. Otherwise, we wind up so self-absorbed we can’t answer questions like, who’s the president of the United States.

“You know,” Brian said to me on the phone, “when you publish a book you’reautomatically considered an expert on the topic you wrote about.”

“Really?”

“Yup,” he said. “Especially by people who haven’t read the book.”

I had to think for a minute. “So I’m an expert on Wall Street, cocaine, insider trading, and escorts?”

“Sure are,” he said with a chuckle.

“And how to make and lose $10 million?”

“Uh-huh,” he said.

“And Golden Handcuffs.”

“What the heck are those?” he asked.

Read rest of Golden Handcuffs at cafe.com