Harvard Medical School’s CME Publishing Course: Making Writers and Authors of Healthcare Professionals

growing author platform - zender at Harvard course — Dr. James Zender (left) and other participants at Harvard Medical School’s Publishing Course. Dr. Zender will return this time as a speaker in 2019

As Harvard Medical School’s CME writing and publishing course, Writing, Publishing, and Social Media for Healthcare Professionals, draws closer (it’s in June this year), I look forward to seeing my colleagues, the other faculty members, many of whom I have known for over a decade—literary agents, acquisitions editors at publishing houses, publicists, editors and others.

Especially exciting, is the time spent reconnecting with writers I have worked with and hearing about their latest accomplishments. Some sign a copy for me of their now-published book. Others share their latest platform building wins—from speaking at international conferences to becoming a podcaster or featured blogger on a large platform. And some, such as Dr. Randy Kamen, Dr. Carrie Barron, Dr. Craig Malkin, Dr. Diane Radford, Dr. Shawn Jones and others, return as published authors, speakers and guest faculty at the conference.

This year, I look forward to seeing Dr. James Zender, who will be on a panel sharing successful publishing advice. His book, Auto Accident Trauma, will be published by Rowman & Littlefield in December.

Then there is the excitement of hearing about new book ideas and helping healthcare professionals think about the wisdom they have to share, how they want to share it (blog, book, social media or all three), and helping them shape their ideas. I heartily recommend this CME course to anyone in the medical profession who wants to write a book, blog, pen articles or increase their influence and impact in healthcare through writing.

Dr. Zender’s Results of Attending the Harvard Medical School’s CME Writing and Publishing Course

This year, as I prepared my invitation email, I got in touch with several authors who recently published or are about to be published by major publishers. When I contacted Dr. James Zender, his news was more than I could fit in a brief email and I realized it would make a great post. So, without further ado, here are the kind of things that can open up as you attend the Harvard Medical School CME writing and publishing course, make a plan and start implementing it!

Before the book even came out, the activities that Dr. Zender’s literary agent, Linda Konner, digital media strategist, Rusty Shelton, and I encouraged when we began working together immediately helped him reach more people. He successfully pitched a column to Psychology Today and his posts often became featured on the P.T. home page. He grew an active Twitter following and applied to speak at conferences. Exciting highlights include:

Dr. Zender was the invited keynote speaker at an international neurology conference in Paris, France in March.
He has twice been a featured speaker at the largest brain injury conference in the world (Michigan Brain Injury Association) and will likely be invited again for this fall.
He will serve on a panel as guest faculty at the Harvard Medical School CEU course on writing and publishing this June.
His blog made Healthline’s list of Best Traumatic Brain Injury Blogs for 2019.
He has over 5,000 follower’s on Twitter.
His Psychology Today blog, The New Normal, has over 60,000 reads.

Dr. Zender’s speaking career took off as he worked on his platform and prepared his book proposal

Says Dr. Zender, “I think the best thing that has come out of my work with you and the others from the Harvard Writer’s course, is it has connected me with other authors who are frontline game changers in medicine and mental health. As a result of my PT blog, I have been contacted my several international cutting edge experts and have become collaborators with them in their work which in turn highlights my work.

“It is amazing to have highly in demand authors contact me and want to talk with me about their work and what I am doing. It has led me into new important areas of research that is enriching my clinical practice and what I can offer to patients. For example, a top neuroendocrinologist contacted me, became my friend, invited me to his training and gave me two of his books. I have now become more informed about the impact of traumatic brain injury on the endocrine system than most physicians in the Detroit area, and that will be my topic at this fall’s brain injury conference in Lansing.

“As a result of my increased visibility, my practice has greatly expanded which has made for less time for writing, and doing other things so it is a balancing act that sometimes isn’t so balanced. But I love doing the research for my book and am constantly amazed by what I didn’t know I didn’t know.

5 Benefits of Attending the Writing and Publishing Course

Celebrating Dr. Lynelle Schneeberg’s book deal at last year’s course.

If you are writing (or thinking of writing) a book about health, medicine, psychology or related matters, consider attending this June. Benefits include:

A Crash Course in Publishing: Sessions will cover the areas you need to understand and master to become a successfully published author.
Meet Agents: Top agents in the field of medicine, health and well-being will be at this conference—ready to meet you, hear your ideas and provide feedback and guidance.
Meet Publishers: That’s right, acquisitions editors from publishing houses will be there including Yale University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press and ABC-CLIO.
Social Media Experts: You’ll learn how to get started, in order to reach people with your message through blogging and social media.
Refine Your Book Idea: You’ll even have an opportunity to pitch your book to a panel made up of faculty members and receive feedback on its marketability (and the strengths and weaknesses of your pitch, so you can refine it). During the breaks you can speak to faculty members and brainstorm about your ideas, platform and more, as well as getting your questions answered. (Come see me in the foyer!).

I hope to see you in June!