I'm but a humble marketer with a big appetite for research regarding King Richard III. I have my BSA in advertising and a minor in graphic design. History, for me, is just a hobby that I'm pretty zealous about. In any case, recently I've been considering the idea of writing a book about Richard. My question for all of you is, if I do write this book, will it--will I--be considered a credible source given that I don't have a degree in history? Of course I plan on using credible sources (primary sources) for my research, it's not the credibility of the sources I'm worried about. What I'm worried about is others interested in the life of Richard III (ESPECIALLY historians) reading it and saying I'm not credible because I don't have so much as a Bachelor's in history. What do you think?
I mean, in theory, you can absolutely publish and be respected regardless of your degree. There are definitely independent scholars who publish in fields in which they don't have degrees. However, it is really, really hard. Not because of academic snobbery (or not chiefly because of that), but because there's a very good reason that people get master's and PhDs studying history before they publish in the field: it requires training - actual training, like for any other job - and a lot of work. As a side note, you wouldn't really be treated as a "source" in any case; instead, you'd be seen as a scholar presenting an argument and an interpretation.
You'd need to start by asking who your audience is - popular or academic? If popular, academics aren't really going to be looking at you as a "source" anyway. You might get some reviewing your book and weighing in on the validity of its arguments and interpretation, how well-versed you seem in the material, and so on, but that won't matter much because they won't be your primary audience.
If academic, drawing on primary sources isn't enough - you'll be expected to be deeply familiar with not only the past and current academic literature about Richard III himself, but on whatever other aspects of history your book touches on (late medieval warfare, the Wars of the Roses, and so on). That's years of work. It'll also require access to databases, research libraries, and probably also some work in archives, as I'd be shocked if everything you'd want to draw on were digitized, available in microfiche, or edited. If you're serious about writing on Richard for an academic audience, I would highly suggest trying to write an article for a peer-reviewed journal - it'll give you a much narrower focus, it'll give you the opportunity to receive feedback from scholars in the field (who will be reviewing your article blind, without knowing who you are or what your degree is in), and it'll make it easier to attract an academic publisher for your book.
If you have to ask a question like this, then no, for the reasons badskeleton just stated. Writing an academic book in this subject requires expertise and special training. So your question is like asking, "should I bring goggles and warm boots if I want to scale Mount Everest?"