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The cost to have a book written for you

The Cost to Have a Book Written

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A question I often get asked as a Ghostwriter/Publisher/Marketer is “How Much Do You Charge?” It seems like a fair enough question. The reality, however, is that the answer is not so simple.

It’s kind of like asking, “How much does a house cost?” As you know, there are a lot of things to take into consideration when purchasing a home. For one, where in the world would you like to live? What kind of neighborhood or neighbors would you like to have? What amenities do you want—or need? Do you want a three-car garage—or would you settle for a carport—or for no garage at all?

Aaron Kirman, a west coast realtor, has sold over $14 billion in luxury homes. He has one on the market now for $150,000,000. Check it out. And lest you think that price is outrageous, just know that, earlier this year, Ken Griffin bought the penthouse unit in New York City’s 220 Central Park South for $238 million.

WHY Do You Want a Book Written?

A book can do a lot of things for people. You need to decide what it is you want it to do for you. It could be a legacy project with a small reach. Perhaps you want your “issue” (next of kin) to understand your life a little better, so you compile your memoirs. There’s nothing wrong with that. Or, maybe you have a more ambitious goal of positioning yourself as a Subject Matter Expert (SME). Having a book in your name could do just that. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth is a good example.

Maybe you’re uber ambitious and you have designs on the presidency. A book is a must. Both The Audacity of Hope and The Art of the Deal launched the political careers of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, respectively.

In my interview process I usually ask the person that’s considering working with me a series of questions. One two-parter is often very telling. I’ll ask, “How many copies would you like to sell?” I’ll await their answer. Then, to bring them back down to earth, I’ll follow that up with, “How many copies *realistically* do you think you can sell?” Gulp! If they don’t have any kind of platform, it’s a tough row to hoe.

I’ll also ask people what their budget is (any realtor or car salesperson that doesn’t ask that question won’t be in business for very long). I can’t help laughing when people say they want to sell “a million copies” of their book—yet have no platform to speak of and confess that their budget is in the four-figure range! Obviously, they don’t know very much about how much work goes into writing, publishing and marketing books. Hint: it’s very difficult to get a book written for you for four figures. And that doesn’t even include the publishing and marketing of it.

Maybe you want your book turned into a movie, much like Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella. The book resulted in “Field of Dreams,” which was nominated for three Academy Awards.

Perhaps You’re a Car Person

Another question around budget that I’ll ask is “Would you like the Volkswagen, the BMW or the Ferrari?” If your answer is “the skateboard,” then please look elsewhere. In case you are wondering, the most expensive car on the market, on the day this blogpost was written, is the Bugatti La Voiture Noire. La Voiture Noire is French for…wait for it… ”the black car.” Pretty imaginative, right? It sells for a cool $18.7 million.

The Bottom Line

For context on the “going rate,” check out these links:

Lisa Tener

Scribe Media

Robin Storey

As for how and what I charge to ghostwrite a book for someone, it basically comes down to these five things:

  1. The amount of research I’m going to have to do (or how much time I’ll have to invest in it)
  2. The complexity of the content I’ll be writing about
  3. The quality of the source material that I will be provided
  4. My availability
  5. Whether or not it is a good fit

Reality Bites

Many people think the hardest part of getting a book out there is the writing process. It’s not. Once the manuscript is complete, the next step (after a deep breath) is to get it published. A Ph.D. friend of mine told me it took him longer to format the written document into a publishable version than it did to write the dissertation itself!

After the publishing process is over, you merely have a published book. Go ahead and pat yourself on the back. Then ask yourself, “Now what?” Surely you want some kind of return on your investment of time (very often, a large chunk of it). Well, now you must market it! Proverbial Marketing (or Advertising) 101 says that (even) “if you build a better mousetrap, the world won’t beat a path to your door.” Well, maybe in a perfect world they would. But we don’t live in a perfect world.

You have to promote it. Market it. Until the purple cows come home. You do that by creating channels of distribution. Getting reviews. You might do a book launch. You could appear on podcasts. Perhaps you’ll do speaking engagements. The possibilities are endless.   

Plan B

Of course, there’s always the option of writing it yourself. After all, how hard could it be? As Red Smith was known to have said, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

About: Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter with the number of books he’s contributed to in double figures.

Image credit: bankdirector.com

 

Focus Group Study

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               ecommercetimes.com

 

I’m doing a focus group study. This will take less than 10 minutes of your time. Would you mind telling me whether you prefer Narrator A, B or C? I’m having the book On Guard: The Four Pillars of Leadership voiced over.

Simply telling me your preference (A, B or C) is sufficient. If you want to elaborate, that’s fine, too. (They are all narrating the same script, so it may be somewhat difficult to choose). You can either leave your choice below or on my initial Facebook post (if you came here from there).

Each of these three narrator finalists submitted well over five minutes for their audition, but I abbreviated their submissions for this A/B test. If you’re still undecided, and want to hear the full auditions, let me know and I’ll send you the MP3 files to listen to.

Thank you very much!

A:

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B:

C:

 

What Should I Call My NEW BOOK?

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“What’s in a name?” asked Juliet Capulet, after she fell in love with Romeo Montague. Well, most of us know what happened there. SPOILER ALERT: It didn’t end well, which is probably why they call it a tragedy.

Anyway, what should the title of YOUR book be? And when do you come up with it? Before, during or after you write it?

There are several schools of thought on the matter. They each have advantages and disadvantages. Take your pick which of the three options you prefer.

BEFORE: If you come up with the title of your book before you write your manuscript, this could help you determine the editorial angle you will take. Pretty much everything you write after that about the topic should be done while keeping the title in mind.

A downside of coming up with the title beforehand is that you might change your mind on where you want to go with its contents. So, you might get locked in and therefore paralyzed. This could lead to writers block.

DURING: If you decide on the title during the writing process, you are in the minority. Most people come up with it before or after they have written the manuscript.

It reminds me of the age-old question “When should I write a book?” Well, the best answer I have heard to this question, is “when you are ready to.” Of course that is ambiguous. It is often a rhetorical question anyway.

It is sort of like naming a child or a pet. Often it just comes to you.
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AFTER: The advantage of naming your book after you have it written is that it is the last piece (of the writing process). The heavy lifting has been done and you’re just putting the finishing touches on it. WARNING: DON’T BLOW IT NOW!

Some of the most widely distributed books have the most descriptive titles. People make up their minds as to what a book has to say before they read it. Reading it gives them further insights. I am talking about books like The Power of Positive Thinking, How to Win Friends and Influence People and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

One caveat is that if you use a rather generic title, you should have a subtitle that explains what the book is about. An example might be Blink, subtitled The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. The title alone tells you very little. However, in conjunction with the subtitle, the point is made.

Exactly when you name a book may come down to whether you prefer inductive or deductive reasoning.

I will say this about titles: The more memorable your book title, the easier it is for OTHERS to sell it for you. People communicate – and when they’re in touch with their network – it is always nice when they can rattle off the name of your book to another person. And better yet – when the other person GETS what it is you do – or what the book is about (based on the title) – that can benefit you.

The good news is you can always change the book’s title. And, getting back to Shakespeare, “… a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter who writes books for other people. He also publishes manuscripts and helps authors market their work. Contact him at 484.278.4674, frank@SpokenAndWrittenWords.com or @fjfelsburg

ME? A book?

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Many people don’t think they are WORTHY of having a book about their life. They think their life is too mundane to warrant a story.

I disagree.

We all have life experiences. Granted, some lives are more exciting and interesting than others. However, even the ones that are seemingly dull have redeeming qualities to them.

We think the only people that lead interesting lives are the ones that are glamorized in the media. The swashbucklers. The bombastic. The rich and famous.

Consider Walter Mitty

Walter Mitty had a “secret life” that was much more colorful than his actual life. Perhaps you are like this and dream dreams that no one has ever dreamt or articulated before. Why not have that turned into a story? You might be surprised to learn how many people would be interested in seeing, hearing or reading it.

In 2013, 20th Century Fox produced – and Ben Stiller directed – the movie “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” with a $90 million production budget. Actors included Stiller, Kristin Wiig, Shirley MacLaine and Sean Penn. There was also an earlier rendition of the story in 1947, which starred Danny Kaye.

Are you an introvert with a wild imagination? You could be the next Walter Mitty.

Outgoing Types

On the other hand, perhaps you are a raging extrovert who is so busy socializing that you don’t have the time – or the patience – to sit down and crank out chapter after chapter about your interesting life.
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And interesting it no doubt is. The people you meet, the places you go and the things you do.

If you put it in print, many people – including those outside your circle of influence – could benefit from it. Therefore, you would be adding value to the lives of others.

Who Are You?

Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert – or somewhere in between – we all have stories to tell. We have all overcome obstacles to become the people we are today.

Don’t be like George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life who had to be shown what his life was like if he had never been born.

Consider a Ghostwriter

Many people are readers – but not writers. As Hugh Prather said, “If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing, then the desire is not to write.”

If that’s the case, consider a ghostwriter. Joe Pulizzi, in his book Content Inc., says “Believe it or not, many of the books from the authors you love have been written by someone else. I know, hard to believe, right? But it is true.” Did you know that Tom Clancy, Gwyneth Paltrow, JFK, Beyonce and Donald Trump all employed ghostwriters? So did Ronald Reagan. And yes, it is legal. A good ghostwriter can coax stories out of their subjects that make them come alive.

Books are often the source for the script of a screenplay. The movie doesn’t always resemble the book. Sometimes it is better and sometimes it isn’t. In my opinion, the movie is rarely better than the book. But the movie is usually monetized to a greater degree.

We all have a story to tell. Are you telling yours?

How to Price Your e-Book to Sell

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Read more books
      Electronic books

Most authors (especially first-time authors) price their book too high. They think they’ll make more money that way. Rarely is that ever the case.

They often correlate the amount of time that was put into the book with the sale price, knowing that books take a long time to write and produce.

The majority of successful new authors price their books at $3.99 and below. According to Amazon’s KPD (Kindle Direct Publishing), the sweet spot for an e-book is $2.99. This is a far cry from the $9.99 that many newbies try to get.

You can set the price of your e-book to anything you want. The million dollar question is, “Will it sell?” Consumers of e-books, as the industry matures, are getting more and more price sensitive. An e-book is a digital file. There is no shipping involved and it doesn’t take up any space on a bookstore’s shelf.

Big Publishers

When the world’s largest publishers struck e-book distribution deals with Amazon last year, they seemed to get what they wanted: the right to set the prices of their titles and avoid the huge discounts the online retail giant often applies. So they raised their prices. What the publishers realized was that Amazon is willing to sell books at a loss, to maintain market share and goose sales of their Kindle e-reader.

But that strategy didn’t pay off. The big publishers reported e-book revenue fell almost immediately afterwards. The major publishers were trying to sell e-books for more than $10 and consumers were pushing back. People would say to themselves, “Let me think about that,” and then go on to buy something else.

Codex group LLC reported some time back that e-book prices found in the Kindle bookstore from the five big publishers cost, on average, $10.81, while all other 2015 e-books on the site had an average price of $4.95. What is not factored into these numbers is the fact that there are many self-published e-books that sell for less than $1.

A Lot of Competition
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There are some 4500 books published every day. This means that consumers have options. How is yours different from your competition?

There’s a saying that “The best way to sell your first book is with your second one.” You don’t just want fans of your books – you want raving fans! Raving fans are more likely to review your book, which can help boost your book. And reviews trigger the Amazon algorithm.

Not that all e-books are sold on Amazon. More books are being sold on Apple ibook these days than ever before. Sure, Amazon still accounts for most book (as well as e-book) sales, but the other sites, including Kobo and Nook, can’t be neglected.

If it is a first book, you might want to price it low with the thinking that the more you win over your readers (as time goes by), the more money you will make.

E-books made astronomical sales gains between 2008 and 2010, after the introduction of the Kindle, the Kindle 2 and the Apple ipad. But they haven’t overtaken print books, as some had suggested they would.

If you have a high price on your book, and you are getting a lot of 1-star or 2-star reviews – or it just isn’t selling – you may want to reconsider how you have it priced. Going high as a debut author could equate to fewer people buying your book.

Has your e-book consumption changed over the last year or two? How so?

 

Check out my book on listening

Espresso Love

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The Espresso Book Machine (EBM) was invented in 1999 by American publisher Jason Epstein.  Some have described it as an “ATM for books.” It could be the biggest game-changer for authors, publishers, speakers and entrepreneurs since Gutenberg invented moveable type or Robert de Graff introduced the paperback book in 1939.

The EBM prints, collates, covers and binds a single book in a few minutes. It is small enough to fit in a retail book store or small library room – and, as such, is targeted toward them. It was a Time magazine invention of the year. It can potentially allow readers to obtain any book title, even books that are out of print. The machine takes a PDF file for input – and prints, binds and trims the reader’s selection as a paperback book.

Talk about “hot off the press!” It grabs the file of the text, the book cover and then spits them out – warm as toast.

It seems to be changing the publishing world, which has been in a state of flux for quite some time. So continues the democratization for readers and writers.

Epstein is legendary in the publishing industry. He served as editorial director at Random House for 40 years and pioneered the trade paperback format. He also co-founded the New York Review of Books and The Library of America. The EBM is just another example of American ingenuity. Ben Franklin would be proud.

Who knows? Maybe the local bookshop will even return. After all, with this thing, you could potentially walk into the store and have access to millions of titles.

How many supplements for impotence one can find? viagra no prescription overnight Probably few scores. It is available at viagra prescription http://deeprootsmag.org/2015/01/12/biologists-folk-songs/ Amazon’s Kindle store, Apple’s iBookstore, Barnes & Noble’s Book Nook, Sony, Diesel and Google’s eBookstore, which supports numerous eReader devices. Thus, cheap levitra doctors prefer Kamagra pills over the branded drugs. The cialis 5mg cheap visit for info person with healthy weight can make wonders in the bed or to enhance their sexual performance. The way I see it, perhaps the best use for it is if you have written a memoir, a novel or poetry and only want to print a few copies of it – for friends and family. The bookstore, Shakespeare & Co., in Manhattan, charges $149 to $549 to do so.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the American Booksellers Association says the number of independent booksellers has grown in ranks from 1410 to 1712 since 2010. Likewise, the number of locations has grown from 1660 to 2227. Even Amazon is getting into the act, opening up bricks and mortar stores.

To find a location that houses one of these units, go to www.ondemandbooks.com/ebm_locations.php.

This invention kind of gives new meaning to the statement that someone is going to the bookstore to grab an espresso.

What are your thoughts on this machine? Is it about to hit its stride?

 

Grace

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I’ve been thinking about my mother a lot this past month. First of all, because it was Mother’s Day a few weeks ago. Secondly because she was a veteran and this week was Memorial Day. And finally because the 22nd of this month was the anniversary of when she passed away in 1983.

My mother grew up Irish-Catholic near the Philadelphia Art Museum and was one of 12 children. One thing that amazes me is that, not only did my grandparents have 12 children, but they also took in boarders! She was close with her siblings and she had a twin brother.

She became a nurse and served in the Navy on the USS Repose (AH-16). The Repose was commissioned 70 years ago yesterday and was active from May 1945 to January 1950, from October 1950 to December 1954 and from October 1965 to May 1970. My mother served on that second stint, when it went to Korea.

Mom was working for a good bit of the time that I knew her. She worked the night shift (11 PM – 7 AM) at one hospital and then got regular daytime hours when she moved to another neighborhood hospital. When she was working the night shift, she would sleep during the day. So, you might say my sister and I were latchkey kids.

Grace CroppedBecause I was a baseball fan, she would follow the home team’s players. She liked the feisty ones. Her favorite was Cookie Rojas – who always seemed to be getting into some sort of rhubarb. I once told her I was going to take her to Ireland. Unfortunately, that never happened.
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Later in life, my mother contracted systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE. It was very debilitating and profoundly affected her fair complexion. Being of Irish ancestry, she had always had challenges with her skin, but lupus, an autoimmune disorder where the body attacks healthy tissue by mistake, particularly took its toll. It wreaked havoc with her skin and, as a result, she became very self-conscious about her appearance. She was always going to the dermatologist and was very sensitive to sunlight.

I think by the time I got to really know her, she had had more than her share of medical challenges. I wondered about her life growing up and while in the navy. It was all a mystery to me.

What I mostly remember about my mother was she loved to socialize. She would often have people over to the house – or we would go to a friend or relative’s home, and my mother would sit at their kitchen table and have a cup of tea or coffee. That’s what she loved to do. And she deserved it. She provided for us financially with her income as a nurse so she was entitled to enjoy herself a little. She didn’t cook much as she was so busy working outside the home.

Mothers provide unconditional love for their children. I know I didn’t always deserve it. Yet she was always there for me, whether it was backing me up when I was getting into trouble or while I was graduating from school, she always supported me. She lived up to her name – Grace.

He’s Only Having His Teeth Cleaned

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FazioWe have two Italian Greyhounds. I took one in yesterday to have his teeth cleaned at the animal hospital. I don’t know who was more traumatized – the dog or me.

Fazio is not used to riding in the car loose. We usually put him in his crate while in motion so this time he was rubbernecking at everything outside of the car. “Where are we going?” “Are we going for a joy ride?” “Am I going to like where we’re going?” he seemed to be saying.

I was afraid he would step on the gear selector lever (aka the PRiNDeL) so I wanted him to sit down. ”Is it possible to put a dog in a seat belt?” I thought. I would inch toward the traffic light, applying the brakes – and he would lunge forward almost to the floor of the passenger side seat. He would lie down for a second or two, then stand up and look around again. I wound up driving the rest of the way petting him with one hand and driving with the other. I’m sure my father was rolling over in his grave. He would barely allow you to talk and drive simultaneously, let alone take one hand off the wheel.

While I thought applying the brakes and assuring Faz that everything was all right would get him to settle in for the 10 minute ride to the vet, it didn’t. I think it stressed him out more than anything else. So now he’s all wound up when we park the car. This can’t be good.

Landscapers are swarming all over the place outside the hospital. There are weed whackers whirring and mowers murmuring and we’re trying to dodge them as we head toward the building. Fazio is now serpentining all over the place, wrapping his leash around my legs. And when we get to the door he doesn’t want to go inside.

Chiropractic is an alternative type of medicine that utilizes non-invasive procedures and buying viagra prescription drugless form of treatment. These purchase viagra uk measures- as well as regular examinations by your doctor- can help keep blood sugar level in order. However, small kidney stones can travel to intestine bulk buy cialis and can grow into bladder stones if not removed. At the same time, scientists discovered that buy cialis pill http://robertrobb.com/balance-the-damn-budget/ brought about erections on male members. Finally we get inside and he’s pacing like a panther. The vet explains how he’ll undergo anesthesia and – if they have to extract a tooth (or two) during the procedure – they will. And please sign here. He’ll be with them all day and he may not be real stable late in the day when we get him back.

I leave the animal hospital wondering why I care so much about animals these days. I never used to.

I stopped to vote on the way back home. Then, upon arriving at home, I now see our other dog with a real long face. He looks so lonely. “Why did you take my brother away? What did you do with him?” My wife insists that I keep an eye on him.

How am I going to get anything done, I wonder, with one dog on my conscience and having to hold the other one’s paw all day long? I decide the second one will be fine. He’ll sniff him when he returns and know where he’s been. Then he’ll kind of smirk as if to say “Better you than me. I’m never going back to that place. They prod you and poke you and tell you everything is fine, but it’s ridiculous.”

I get Fazio back late in the day. I’m not sure who is more relieved, him or me. He doesn’t even flash his now pearly white teeth. But the wag of the tail is enough.

A Takeaway from the Philly Amtrak Crash

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One of the things that this week’s Amtrak derailment got me thinking about was health related matters. Watching the scene – with all the flashlights and train parts disconnected – was harrowing enough, and I was at home in our family room. Being there at the scene was undoubtedly much more challenging.

In watching the news coverage, it was evident to me that we live in a technologically different world than we lived in even a few short years ago. Moments after the wreck, a torrent of tweets were flying and video footage taken with passenger cell phones was showing clips of the carnage.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.

First Responders

The State of Technology

Coincidentally, that same day I upgraded my phone with a new operating system. After the two hour update, I noticed an app on the desktop with a heart on it that I’d never seen before. So I checked it out. Lo and behold, it’s an app, which is included on phones running ios 8, and it stores your medical information. I was thinking how valuable that would be to first responders. They are learning that an unconscious patient’s phone can be a vital source of health information. Even if your screen is locked, it can be accessed from the Emergency button below the keypad where you enter your PIN.

It was actually, in a very simple way, what I had been personally looking for to record my own health information. Now, if you’re out of town and there’s a medical emergency, you don’t necessarily have to go through giving the same information each and every time to all the hospital personnel. It’s right there. Of course, it would be nice to do an air drop of the information right into the medical institution’s hospital database, but that may be asking too much at this point.

Therefore, with the purpose of cheap viagra price making the prostate recover to a healthy condition, patients may as well cure the disease depending on the chinese herbal medicine, for example: Diuretic Anti-inflammatory Pill, is developed by Doc.Lixiaoping with its own patent provided by China’s State Intellectual Property, it is a major indications for Prostatitis, Epididymitis, Orchitis and male infertility are prostate gland infections, inflammation of. Regardless of size of renal cell carcinoma, about 20% of patients may have no symptoms early, but in the census and for other reasons, or B-ultrasound for medical examination it can only be found occupying renal abdominal mass lesion or touch. discount cialis pill Slush Dispensers also work as a means of advertising because they always look alike – no matter online viagra india who has produced them. The pill was made with a mindset that Ayurvedic remedies are the cialis purchase online first line of defense for Indians. Frankly, the Apple Health App needs work, but it’s a start. A reviewer named Jill Duffy reviewed it in PC Magazine. I liked what she said at the end of the review. She wrote “What I like about the Health app is that it’s putting the idea of mobile health tracking in front of millions of people. It may not be the easiest app to use, or the most nuanced, but it’s something. And when it comes to being fit, eating right, and monitoring your health, something is better than nothing.” I would think the first responders and the families of those in emergency situations would agree.

Where do we go from here?

It is amazing to me that if we go to two separate hospitals or clinics, the second one often doesn’t have the records from the first one. I know someone who was in the military that said when she got back into civilian life, she was appalled at how little cooperation there was among medical institutions. In the service, you would carry your records with you from one location to the next. I always thought it would be nice if there was some sort of central repository that kept all of our health records.

I’m sure privacy concerns abound and hacking may be an issue here. And I’ve finally come to the realization that record synchronization among hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices probably won’t happen in my lifetime. It’s up to us to compile our medical history, our vital signs, allergy information, medications and blood type in a safe place. No one else is going to do it for us.

A relative of mine once had an EKG in his home state. Then, when he was on vacation, he had similar symptoms and went to an ER. The doctor had nothing to go on until he pulled out a copy of the EKG, which he had on his ipad, stored in Evernote. The doctor was ecstatic! He was now able to use that information to diagnose and treat him more effectively.

Years ago, I read a book by Ruthann Russo, Ph.D, entitled 7 Steps to Your Best Possible Healthcare: The Essential Guide for Crafting Your Personal Healthcare Plan. It gave me some ideas about taking more control of my medical records. Since then, I’ve thought about it, but I must admit I haven’t done much toward harnessing the information.

In light of what happened this week, I think it’s time.

The Streets of Baltimore

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Donte Hickman CNN

Now that some of the dust has settled in Baltimore, I thought I would add my two cents. I went to school there for several years, so I do have some experience with the city.

People ask me if I recognize the buildings they’re showing on television. First of all, I tell them, it was almost 40 years ago since I lived there. Secondly, my initial recollection was that I didn’t venture off campus much (it turned out I didn’t have to to get mugged – but that’s a story for a different day).

I started to think about the times I left what was then called Loyola College of Maryland’s campus. I left to go to Alonzo’s on Cold Spring Lane for a bite to eat and Jerry’s Belvedere for a pint after a sports event. I remembered that I would also hitchhike to Towson to get my haircut. I can’t recall the name of the guy that cut what was a whole lot more hair than I have now, but I know he did a great job.

And then I thought about all the running I did on the streets of Baltimore. Since I didn’t have a car – and it was BG (before Google), I pretty much knew where the train station was and where the campus was in relation to it – but that’s about it. If memory serves me correctly, Loyola’s baseball team, after we got the heave-ho from the soccer field on campus, would practice on diamonds all over North Baltimore. Oh, and I also remember playing midnight flag football in the Inner Harbor back when it was just being built.

So I suppose I was somewhat familiar with parts of the city. But East Baltimore was and is as distant to me as certain parts of Philly are today. I just never go there.

The Inner City

The penile blood vessels are around 1/3rd the size of arteries tadalafil generic of the heart. Across the room, you sildenafil online canada see a very attractive woman. Fiction: Erectile dysfunction condition is “all in viagra tablets 100mg the mind”. prescription du viagra It has sildenafil citrate embedded in gel like edible structure. I suppose in a multitude of ways Baltimore is a city like many others. It has rampant crime, unemployment and juvenile delinquency. There is racial tension there as there is in many other places around the country. I don’t want to pretend to know a whole lot about what it’s like living in the inner city.

But I am encouraged by the story of Donte Hickman, pastor of the Southern Baptist Church. Fire destroyed his senior citizen center in the unrest there last week. The development included plans for 61 units of affordable senior housing, workforce development and a place for teenagers to go. While the center had been scheduled to open in November, he now has set his sights on opening it in the spring of 2016.

Growing up, he was expelled from three high schools, living a rough life. It seemed as if he would become just another statistic.

Then he turned his life around. He passed the GED exam without preparation or success beyond the tenth grade. In 1994 he earned his bachelor’s degree. In ’97 he earned his Masters of Divinity. And this Saturday, May 8th, will mark nine years since he earned his Doctor of Divinity degree from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. He’s doing some amazing things.

Options

I don’t believe a Marshall Plan for inner cities, as Tom Brokaw suggested, is the way to go. The answer is not about throwing money at the situation, as evidenced by the revelation that Baltimore received over $1 billion in state aid and yet hasn’t been able to improve the plight of its disadvantaged citizens.

Donte Hickman is living proof that with faith, parental guidance and an inner determination, there’s hope. And those are three things that all the money in the world can’t buy.