| WRITING A BOOK | PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
your point of view should be distinctive and personal and keep the topic more specific. For example, a book all about every cosmetic surgery technique from the face to the body can tend to be too broad and may not be able to offer the reader sufficient content on any one particular topic to be informative. If your topic is too narrow, such as a book that only covers body contouring, you may be limiting your potential audience. However, if you want to be known for your prowess in body contouring specifically, then writing a book about that topic may be a good strategy.
A good read The basic rule of writing is to stick with what you know. Write about a topic that you are passionate about so that you can draw on your long-term experience and wealth of patients. Your book should also reflect your own personality and specialized approach, dispel some of the myths surrounding the topic, and offer new insights into what consumers want and need. To prepare, scroll through
Amazon.com to see
what books are currently available in your area of specialty and how they are positioned. First go to Department, then Books, choose Health, Diet, Fitness, then Beauty, Grooming and Style. You will see thousands of books including textbooks on related topics. If you find that dozens of books like the one you want to write are already in print, you may want to rethink your subject or give it a new spin. On the other hand, a lack of books on your proposed topic may be an indicator that the idea is too limited or that your intended audience is too small. Your topic should be broad enough to appeal to a sufficient number of potential readers. Book ideas and titles cannot be copyrighted. Copyright
research, write, and fact-check the content, and then organize everything else needed to publish it. It can be more efficient to find a professional publishing
service that can help you with writing, editing, research, design, typesetting, artwork, print and production. You may need to assign someone on staff or hire a publicist to be a project manager to help get the book done and monitor quality control over the production process. Working with an editor who understands the specialized needs of physicians and will be able to present your professional image in an appropriate manner is a critical success factor. You may already have content in the form of blog posts,
white papers, and articles that can be repurposed for a book. Pull this material together as it arises and keep copies in a file on your computer for future reference. If you have no content of your own and even less time to write, consider hiring a ghostwriter. An experienced ghostwriter can help do everything for you, including research and writing a draft of the content. It is important to find a ghostwriter who can mirror your voice. You may also need a copy editor when the
The basic rule of writing is to stick with what you know. Write about a topic that you are passionate about so that you can draw on your long-term experience and wealth of patients.
manuscript is in the final stages. Copyediting is an important part of the book writing process to avoid putting your name on a book that is full of typos, grammatical errors, and misspelled words. Think of a book as much more than just a website, blog
or practice brochure. It should compliment your practice image and branding and have a long shelf life.
protection applies to the work as a whole, but you cannot protect your ideas. It is very likely that more than one author will have the same idea at the same time. For example, in 2003, I wrote a book called Complexion Perfection (Quadrille). In 2010, Kate Somerville penned a book entitled, Complexion Perfection!: Your Ultimate Guide to Beautiful Skin by Hollywood's Leading Skin Health Expert (Hay House). Occasionally, series titles may be able to get some level of trademark protection, such as The Complete Idiot's Guide® or Cosmetic Surgery For Dummies series. A book written for a consumer audience should be
simple, informative, and educational. It should not be overly technical or complicated, or read like an anatomy textbook. The key is to establish a voice of authority while keeping the reader interested and engaged.
Working with a writer Physicians often need some assistance in translating complex concepts into consumer-friendly terms and sometimes struggle with expressing their opinions in a simplified way. Also, most physicians do not have the time in their busy schedules to develop a book concept;
The book format When it comes to consumer health and beauty books, short is the new long. Your minimum should be around 96 pages (think in multiples of 4 to account for printing 2 pages, both sides); anything less than that falls into the area of a brochure or white paper. Generally, health and beauty books in the shorter category range from 96 to 212 pages approximately. Within that page count, you will also need to account for front matter (acknowledgements, table of content, dedication, etc.) as well as the author bio, index, glossary if desired, references, appendix, and photos if you choose to include some. In some cases, you may want to publish a lot of content.
In that case, you may consider doing a group of shorter books to allow you to divide up your content across several volumes. As a general guide, 250 words per page is about right, but the content may be further divided into charts, tables, diagrams, illustrations, or photographs. A typical short book can be in the 25,000 word range, and a longer book format may be 50,000 to 60,000 words. To determine what your ideal page count may be,
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