#67 Happy Birthday to my Book

 My Book was Published One Year Ago

About a year ago, I published Changing How we Think About Difficult Patients: a Guide for Healthcare Professionals. The publisher is the American Association for Physician Leadership. I sent the Content and Development person a manuscript of the book and we worked to expand its reach to nurses, physical therapists, paramedics, and all people who take care of patients in all clinical settings. It is a short and highly readable book that promotes a message of empowerment.

Professionals interact with all sorts of patients and their families to help them through some office procedure or visit to the emergency department. When disagreements occur or things don’t go to plan, the clinicians tend to label patients or their families as difficult. I teach about the thoughts and behaviors behind both sides of that interaction. If we, as clinicians, could change the way that we think, we can feel better and actually get better results even if our patients don’t change a thing.

 To do that though, one must be absolutely confident in herself as a well-trained and well-intentioned professional.  Competent patients and their families have the right to question or refuse the care plan. They are going to be dissatisfied or critical. They are going to complain to the department chair or post negative reviews. It takes a lot of self-love and confidence to whether that storm. I think of my book as a self-help book for the healers.

Most of the book promotion falls right onto the shoulders of the author. Some people go through “traditional” publishing with built in marketing and promotion. The big companies buy ads on Facebook, Amazon and other media outlets. They can get books placed into libraries and bookstores. You see those books on displays at the airport convenience stores. My book is on display on my daughter’s coffee table in Manhattan.

On my Daughter’s Coffee Table

photo by Joan Naidorf

 My book was published by a physician association. Honestly, I did not even understand that this route of publishing is out there. Associations publish dozens of books every year. The publisher took care of the editing, layout, artwork, and cover design of my book. They put it up for sale on their website and set up the page on Amazon.com.  It has recently been made available through Target and Walmart. I was very grateful that I did not have to do that myself.

The book was launched in January of 2022 and interesting things started to happen. The title gets marked as a new release so for a hot minute, assuming a few copies sell, one can become the #1 new release in whatever categories it has been assigned to on Amazon.com. Some of the people who got advance copies were able to post reviews.

The Author Head Shot by Laura Marshall

 About nine months before the release, I watched a YouTube video by a young British doctor-entrepreneur who assured me that I could set up my own website. Ali Abdaal’s pleasant and confident nature convinced me that I could purchase my domain name and go full speed ahead on Squarespace. He was not wrong. The program is so user friendly that even a novice sixty something year old can set up a beautiful and functional place online where folks can find out about me, my book, the lectures I can give, and read my weekly blog posts. Please check it out: https://www.drjoannaidorf.com/

I also took the conventional advice of establishing a presence on social media. I chose Twitter, which suited my writing skill set and seemed like a good idea at the time (@JoanNaidorf). There was a robust presence of physicians and nurses who posted professional and educational material. There is also an active reading and writing community in that space. Since then, there was an ownership and management change at Twitter that has driven folks away. I have enjoyed virtual meeting and interacting with a lot of interesting people. 

I have offered free copies of my book to a lot of people and some people were happy to reply and receive it. A number of people did not reply, and I understand the fear that people have about being scammed. If anybody has read the book and found it useful, it would be quite helpful for me if you would post a short review on Amazon. A few sentences would be very much appreciated.

I also review books and sometimes, use book quotes in my blog posts. When I tweet right at the authors, many of them respond with kind comments. Some of the authors have started following me and that has been fun.

 Through some good old-fashioned networking, I was able to get a perspective piece published in the Washington Post Health Section. The editors used a saucy click-bait title that drew close to 500 comments in 2 days. The article sparked interest in the book and there was an increase in sales.

I lectured in the virtual format at one of the national conferences of continuing education in Osteopathic Medicine.  Those lectures will be available through the OMED22 platform.

 I also have had a piece published in the National Publication of ACEP, the American College of Emergency Medicine. They gave the article the title: Tips for Dealing with Difficult Patients.

I got some kind messages about the article but no big bump in sales that I could ascertain.

When I meet people or see old friends, I now tell that I am an author. This news brings a lot of awe and congratulations. I view that accomplishment as being not nearly as hard as becoming a board-certified emergency physician.  In reality, I had to accomplish that goal and learn those lessons first to be able to write an interesting book and get consideration as an authority. 

I appeared on a number of podcasts, and I have gotten a lot better at that skill. I would like to appear on one with a very large circulation, but I have not figured that one out yet.  Since the book is written for medical professionals, the general interest of the topic is limited.  There are at least six million people working in the health care profession who would benefit greatly from reading and absorbing my message.

I have some exciting news about listening and a future audiobook.  This project is in the works and there is a voice actor contracted to do the reading. My very nasal and highly Jersey-accented voice will not be featured.  I know people enjoy listening to books during their commute and I hope that folks will find that version to be educational and entertaining.

To be perfectly clear, I think that clinicians should not label people as difficult and should work a lot harder to find out why people are behaving in an oppositional or unhelpful way. Unfortunately, on planet earth, human doctors and nurses are not great at getting challenged, shown up, or manipulated. We view threats and intimidation quite unfavorably. Many of our colleagues have been assaulted and injured. We have spent too much time and money into our training to place our livelihood or our professional standings in jeopardy. 

Various people have asked me to develop more materials for the patients and their families, so they do not become those dreaded, challenging people. I plan to plan more content on the general dilemma and what people can do so that they don’t become that person that the clinicians hate to see on their schedules. If the nurses and doctors want to avoid you, your care and outcomes will suffer. In theory, both the clinicians and the patients have the same goal: to get you better or cured.

  When I become that person who can speak more to the general public, I can speak to group at the synagogue or the country club. I was asked to speak to the clinicians at the Altamed PACE program in Los Angeles. That organization is caring for a large population of senior citizens so that they can stay in their homes and avoid skilled nursing facilities. Like all healthcare professionals, they have challenging interactions with patients and their families. They bought books for their clinicians and I delivered the highlights and my message.

So happy first anniversary to the launch of my book and I plan to keep yammering my message to anyone who is willing to listen. I do it so that some compassionate and well-trained professionals will learn to take it all in stride. I want them to accept even challenging folks and learn how to feel better as we try to make them better.

I want some compassionate young nurse or doctor to tolerate this grumpy old lady who insists that once upon a time, she was an ER doctor. I don’t want them to label me or sit in harsh judgement. I want them to sit with me and hold my hand as they reassure me about the next steps.

This is why I am trying to reach more residency directors and nursing school program faculty. I want more doctors and nurses to remember why they went into this profession. I want them to feel professional satisfaction and to stay at the bedside for the rest of us.