Introduction

I apologize for my intermittent posts.  My wife and I are celebrating our empty nest by moving from Boston to the North Shore of Massachusetts, and I am finding it difficult to make time for all my previous activities.  Please bear with me.  Once I am more settled this fall, I promise to resume serving your needs.

In the meantime, I have partnered with my friend and expert in the field, Susan Kendrick,  to bring you information on how you can develop your platform by writing a book.  People who are known, liked, and trusted generally are more successful at persuading others.  Building your brand, which brings your services and unique qualities to life, can increase your opportunities for success.

Remember, if a surgeon (like me) can write a book or two, so can you.

Part I: Reasons for you to write a book

Physicians regularly write and publish books for a variety of professional and personal reasons. The following are some of the most common incentives. Writing a book can help you:

- Revive your passion for your practice and/or your life if you are transitioning to a
non-clinical career

- Create uniqueness that differentiates your services

- Stand out in your field as an expert

- Expand your reputation in a specific area of expertise

- Attract others who are eager to work with you

- Discover and develop other parts of yourself

-Generate additional streams of revenue, such as speaking and information products

What Kind of Book Should You Write?

Can you reap the benefits of being a published author only by writing about something related to your medical practice? Not at all. Professionals in many industries find that writing a book about a personal interest can be a great way to connect with existing and prospective clients. Telling people something about you as a person builds trust, which goes a long way toward creating and cementing relationships that build your career.

Create a Unique Brand

Building a professional or personal brand is a great way to improve your career.  According to Alan Weiss, international consultant and bestselling author of How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession, writing a book is, “the best branding technique of them all.”

Ask yourself the following questions:

- What energizes you—either in your practice or your personal life?

- What do you like to do?

- What are you really good at?

- What would you like to learn more about?

- What would you like to be known for 3-5 years from now?

Depending on what you want the book to do for you, you can choose to write about something related to your medical expertise, or you can focus on a more personal topic. Or, you can do both. Again, the reason that writing a book or a series of books is such a good outlet for physicians is that it does positive things for your reputation, your practice, and your well-being.

Professional, Personal, or a Combination of the Two

Writing a book gives you a way to reach into yourself and out to others. It can bridge what may have become a wide gap between who you are as a physician and who you are as a person.

There are many books that demonstrate the success of books written by doctors on some aspect of their medical expertise. We have worked with many doctors who use that expertise to delve into an alternative approach they have developed to a common health challenge. You can even write a book for other physicians about how to survive and thrive in your profession. Based on your own experience and interviews with colleagues, you can cover a number of areas, such as how to reduce stress, find time to exercise, spend time with family, or just relax and recharge.

On the other hand, if you like to garden, for example, you can write a book about vegetable gardening and also describe the health benefits of eating food you grow yourself. Do you like to travel? You can write a book about how travel helps relieve stress and renews your body, mind, and spirit.

Do you love to spend time with your kids? Outline some of your favorite suggestions for activities, road trips, or “vacations” in your home town when you don’t have a lot of time but still want to create family memories. Describe how doing things together builds relationships that benefit the emotional and physical health of your family.

Depending on what you care about and what excites you, the possibilities are endless. One important guiding principle to keep in mind is that the topic should be one that will hold your interest for a long time, both in the creation of the book and in promoting it.

Part II: Organization

Whenever you take on an endeavor outside your immediate area of expertise, it helps to have a proven formula. This is especially true when writing a book. If you don’t have a specific path to get from the idea stage to the final manuscript, you risk becoming overwhelmed by a project that can easily grow out of control. Ideas add up, tangents materialize that take you off course, and input from family and friends can send you reeling in a dozen different directions as you try to craft the “perfect” book.

Given these tendencies, it’s important to know that writing a book is a function of organization. And, while there are many different ways to approach writing a non-fiction book, one of the simplest and most effective is the 10-Point Book Writing approach. Here’s how it works:

• Choose a topic—something you are good at, like to do, or want to learn more about. This can relate to either your professional life, your personal life, or both.

• Tell readers why you wrote the book and what they will get out of it. That is your Introduction

• Identify 10 key points you want to make about your topic. Those are your 10 chapters.

• Break each of those 10 chapters down into manageable parts: An introduction, 3-7 key points, quotes, examples, stories, etc .

• The ideal length for a non-fiction book starts at around 144 pages, plus the Table of Contents, Acknowledgments, Copyright page, and author bio. That means each of your chapters will be approximately 14 pages long. Think of it as writing a long letter to a good friend.

But, I don’t have time to write a book

You don’t have to go it alone. Busy physicians regularly hire ghostwriters, transcribers, and editors to assist them in the book writing process. You can also partner with a physician or non-physician to co-author the book with you. Whether you want to self-publish or work with a traditional publisher, there are many resources and team members to help you make publishing a book an enjoyable and successful part of your practice and your ongoing passion for life.

Meet Susan Kendrick

Susan Kendrick and her partner, Graham Van Dixhorn, are co-founders of Write To Your Market, Inc. They specialize in creating bestselling book cover brands—book titles and subtitles, book series names, and back cover positioning and sales copy. They also create the marketing tools to expand that brand through speaking and the media. Their clients win major book awards, are featured in The New York Times, L.A. Times, and USA Today, and appear on national TV talk shows, including the Today Show.

For more than 20 years, Graham and Susan have worked with a wide range of experts and entrepreneurs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, U.K., and Australia. Known for their “Client Discovery Process,” they get to know you, your mission, and expertise to promote you to your target market.

To learn more, please visit http://www.WriteToYourMarket.com and http://www.BookCoverCoaching.com.