Physician: 11 Reasons to Write Your Book in 2011

If you're a physician considering writing your first book, here are 11 reasons to go for it.

As a physician, maybe you’ve already written a book for a technical/medical audience, but when you write for a lay audience at a national level, here are some ideas of what your book can do for you:

1. Increase Your Influence: after publishing The Favorite Child with Prometheus Books, Dr. Ellen Weber Libby appeared on the CBS Early Show and became a blogger for The Huffington Post and Psychology Today. Her first Huffington post article got 273 comments. If you want to reach a national audience with your message, a book is one of your most potent tools.

2. Add Fuel to Your Entrepreneurial Engine: Whatever your enterprise, your book can bring in your ideal clients or customers.

3. Double or Triple Your Speaking Income: No question that most speakers get paid more (and get higher profile speaking gigs) when they become published authors.

4. Retire from Your Day Job: If you’re still working your “day job” and looking for a way to move into your new career more quickly, consider this: Pat Hastings retired from her job as a substance abuse counselor nine months after publishing her first book, Simply a Woman of Faith, and launched her career as a speaker, retreat leader and life coach. What’s your dream?

5. Get that PR: I’ve had many an expert tell me they couldn’t get on TV until they became a published author. Your book makes it much easier to get coverage (especially at the national level).

6. A Boost for High End Sales: One of my clients, Evana Maggiore, says that a $25 book sale off the internet often results in someone devouring her book, Fashion Feng Shui: The Power of Dressing with Intention, in one sitting and then registering for a $3,000 seminar. What could your book do for you?

7. Meet Interesting People: When I became a published author, I met stimulating and inspiring authors, speakers, TV and radio hosts and others. Becoming an author will expand your circle and your world—leading to personal growth and the expansion of your own ideas and enterprises.

8. Be Known as the Expert You Are (and not just by your colleagues): If you want to be seen as a top expert in your field and reach beyond your colleagues, write a book! (Your competition probably is…).

9. New Experiences:  Exciting opportunities will show up in your life as people read your book and want to connect or partner with you—things you may not have even dreamed of.

10. Tax write-offs: Ask your accountant: You may be able to write off expenses that are related to your book (travel, research, classes that inform your book, etc.).

11. The Feel Good Factor: Writing a book provides a powerful sense of accomplishment. According to a New York Times article, it’s on 80% of people’s bucket lists. Most people never make it happen. Think of how you’ll feel when you hold your published book in your hands.

Comments

[Dr D]

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for a great post. Do you have any comments/experience with doctors writing and publishing fiction? There are lots of examples of doctors who have written creatively and been successful. Do you think there is anything about medicine which helps doctors become good writers?

[Lisa Tener]

Hi Dr. D,
I'm sorry to be so late in answering your comment, but I just saw it. I do not have experience with doctors writing and publishing fiction. However, one of the things many of my physician clients must learn for writing nonfiction is to let go of the "academic" tone when writing for a trade audience. They often need to illustrate with stories and the more they can use all senses in their stories/examples and show something instead of just tell the reader. Such skills are even more important in writing fiction. I do think certain doctors' empathy, attention to detail and ability to explain something scientific or medical in lay terms all can help make them good fiction writers.