This Saturday, I’m teaching a workshop on How to Write and Publish a Book to Support Your Mission and Work
at Harvard Medical School’s CME course on Career Advancement and Leadership Skills for Women in Healthcare.
One of the questions I’ll be asking participants in my book writing and publishing workshop is, “What’s your big picture? What’s your vision for writing a book?”
Reasons for writing a book and becoming a published author abound, but in this workshop we’ll focus on four areas:
- Career Building
- Organizational Impact
- Impact Beyond One’s Organization
- Personal Vision
Here are a few quotes about writing a book and becoming a published author from my slides for Saturday’s workshop:
“Elisabeth Rosenthal told an interviewer her goal was to ‘start a very loud conversation’ that will be ‘difficult politically to ignore.’”
“In a crowded field, it’s difficult to differentiate yourself on paper.
My book differentiates me from other healthcare executives.”
– Dotty Bollinger, author of The Secret Sauce
Founder and CEO of Integrity Healthcare Advisors (IHA)
Managing Partner, GPB Capital
“As a published author, I now reach a global audience of influential people.”
- Dr. Randy Kamen, author of Behind the Therapy Door
I’ve written before about reasons to write and publish a book. In fact, here are 35 of them.
What are some of your reasons and your vision for writing a book? What’s the big picture you have in mind for your book? Please share below. I love hearing from readers and being inspired by you!
Hi Lisa and team, after reading articles such as your interview with Richard Hoffner, 7 steps to writing…(Business Journals), and others, do you have any advice to help me out of being stuck rock solid in my writing process? My nonfiction book on diamond people in the world’s oldest desert, has been almost 7 years in the making and is not done yet. Far from it. I have tons of research, books galore, notebooks by the dozen, taped documentaries, thousands of webpages saved, arrgghhh! The mind maps are done, the table of contents is done, some stuff written, but oi! Every time I write, the niggly feeling comes up: should I not double check, is that factually correct, is that exactly right? And off I go, into the ether and internet/books, trying to double check. It doesn’t help that my memory is so overloaded, it misfiles or loses info which cannot be recalled later, although I know it is there 🙂 Will anyone even read such a book? Who is the target audience? Please could you help with some insight? Thank you most sincerely. Kind regards, Ursula
Hi Ursula,
Often the place I suggest starting is going inward to access what’s going on at a deep level. I have an excercise I call “Meet Your Muse.” You can listen to the audio and try it here (it’s free). https://jodieburdette.net/lisatener/meet-your-muse/
You’ve certainly raised my curiosity–who are diamond people? You are asking good questions. It sounds like you’ve done so much research. Just write! Trust. Maybe ask your muse in that exercise who your target audience is.
Lisa
I want to a write book for a generation of youth sports participants, parents, and coaches to build leagues that impact the future outcome of all youth in distressed communities.
Wow, Lee, that is inspiring! Good luck with it and feel free to ask questions on this blog as you work on it.