I thought it would be pretty obvious that one should look for biographical data from external, independent sources. If the person has earned a reputation in any

I thought it would be pretty obvious that one should look for biographical data from external, independent sources. If the person has earned a reputation in any industry, they'll probably have articles on respectable publishers, would have presented in conferences, maybe even have patents, etc. Just Google their name. Then Google what's associated with them. If one doesn't find anything solid, discard the book. It takes no more than 5-10 minutes to recognize a solid reputation like that.