Ask TCV – How do I write a caregiving book?

Updated January 2021 + July 9, 2014

Ask TCV: How do I write a book to help others learn from my caregiving experiences? How do I get it published? (These questions consolidate caregivers’ questions sent to The Caregiver’s Voice. TCV Ed.)

TCV: Your commitment as a caregiver will help you succeed as a published author. Besides, we rarely know which of our words and stories will capture the hearts of overwhelmed caregivers and give them strength to go on.

Four Steps to Being a Published Author

1. Research what’s out there—books, articles, videos, podcasts.
2. Write a succinct and compelling overview—100 words.
3. Build your tribe—your fans who will buy your work and more significantly, share your work with their connections.
4. Find a publisher or self-publish.

While I’ll provide enough detail to be useful, I won’t overwhelm. For these reasons, the four steps will be covered across three articles.

For insight on how to turn your ideas into a book and to reach a buying market, JOIN ME on a walk back in time with my first caregiving book among the five books I had written.

I wrote “Where’s my shoes?” My Father’s Walk through Alzheimer’s during the late nineties after support group members repeatedly asked me to write about my experiences. I had already written four books, which taught me a lesson in humility. Instead of feeding months of effort writing my father’s story with a bloated ego, I had a better chance of succeeding if people backed their encouragement with money!

Tap into a goldmine by fulfilling a need.

Over the months, I talked with nearly a hundred people. Most paid a year in advance for a copy of the hardcover edition. There were no other caregiving books written by family caregivers that I knew of at the time. Years later, I discovered there were a handful.

Despite my experience–a published author, operating a publishing house, and writing about a topic in a much-needed niche area, larger publishers were not interested in a story about caregiving for one living with Alzheimer’s.

Unlike today, family caregivers at the turn of last century (1990s) were hesitant to talk publicly about Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and the challenges of caregiving.

Invest in your own successful outcome.

Time is money. Money is time. Decide how much of each you will spend. I was willing to learn and do things for myself (spending time). I did hire experts to ensure success in the areas that I couldn’t do myself (spending money).

With advance-payments from book buyers, plus my own funds, I committed to the cause and released “Where’s my shoes?” as a hardcover book via my mico-publishing company, North Star Books. (Don’t underestimate the size of a publisher. We’ve had two best-selling titles since our founding in 1992.)

To ensure success, otherwise, why bother, I invested over $50,000 in time and mostly money over several years.

Nearly $25,000 went into outsourcing the editing, design, production, and shipping of several thousand hardcover copies.

Thousands of dollars went to attending trade shows and promotions.

Hundreds went to joining organizations in my areas of interest.

Today, given the resources we have for publishing and promotion, combined with nearly 30 years’ experience in publishing, my investment would be negligible.

Meanwhile, meeting planners and conference coordinators hired me to share my message in keynote addresses across America. The more I spoke, the more this became my mission–after all, this was “my father’s walk through Alzheimer’s.” I donated speaking fees, services, and book sales proceeds for a decade.

Martin Avadian reads the first edition of “Where’s my shoes?”

“Where’s my shoes?” is the grammatically incorrect question my father with Alzheimer’s asked when he couldn’t find his shoes while living in our California home.

While my father was alive, I wrote and told stories in real-time. I published the first edition of “Where’s my shoes?” filling a unique and compelling need.

Sell your content internationally.

Your words can touch the world.

Speaking and attending trade shows, I networked heavily before the convenience of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

While taking time to learn about selling translation rights, I spent hundreds of dollars shipping books overseas (before eBooks) to garner the interest of publisher beyond U.S. borders. With the help of a coach and a foreign rights agent, I sold “Where’s my shoes?” to Spain, Korea, and Germany and to an audio publisher for an unabridged library-edition.

Get your work noticed.

Today, with thousands of caregiving books available, one has to work harder to find a niche that will hold people’s attention.

In the second of this three-part series you’ll learn the first [TCV link to updated article 1/4/2021: ]two of the four steps to becoming a published author:

1. Research what’s been written and spoken.
2. Write a compelling summary in 100 words.