A “Pre-Announcement” for My Next Book: The Boring Patient

So what the heck is a pre-announcement? Well, it is really a call for help as I continue to explore self-publishing. I am looking for advice, help, crazy ideas, and thoughts in general from the library community on how we can best use my next book, The Boring Patient.

What’s The Boring Patient about? It is the story of my journey with cancer. Here’s a short excerpt from the first chapter:

Dear Heroic Noble Inspiring Cancer Survivor

The first line of the first pamphlet I read after my diagnosis of cancer told me I was a survivor. I didn’t have to be cured to be a survivor, I guess just be breathing. This struck me as a pretty low threshold. But as you have probably already found out, there are a ton of stupid metaphors and assumptions around cancer.

Take “fighting cancer”…yeah, that’s what it feels like to lie in a bed asleep for 16 hours straight…fighting. Or, I love it when folks tell me I’m heroic. If anyone was given the choice to take drugs to extend their life wouldn’t they do it? That’s not heroic, it’s common sense. I hope, like me, you have made the brave decision to try not to die.

So what’s in here for you? I hope some comic relief. Seriously, humor has been the best medicine– other than, you know, actual medicine (that’s Seth MacFarlane’s joke I stole). You’re going to hear a lot about the importance of a “positive attitude.” Screw that. You have cancer and could die from it. Feel free to cry, scream, piss people off, and flip the bird to God (he can take it). I do have to tell you, however, that gets very tiresome after a while. Tiresome not for everyone else, who cares, but to yourself. So why not confuse everyone and be happy…besides they all have to laugh at your jokes now.

For those who regularly read my blog, the book is a lot more than just a compilation of my cancer related posts, but has the same spirit.

Anyway, back to my call for help.

We talk a lot about how libraries can be friends to authors. Can we use this book to demonstrate that? I don’t have the ability for a multi-city speaking tour, but I have Skype and I’m always open to good ideas. Would this be a chance to publish the book serially with a chapter a week on library websites? Maybe team up with a newspaper and a public library? Let the creative juices flow.

Right now the plan is to publish this as both a reasonably priced paperback and ebook (with possibly an audio book to follow) as I did with Expect More (more on that soon), my previous self-published book on librarianship for non-librarians. 5”x8” and 145 pages.

Thoughts? Use the comment section below, or email [email protected]