Nursing home diaries

Available on: Amazon.com

The Frontline documentary about assisted living recently 

shown on TV, is pretty much what my book is about. My 

book gives advice on how to make elder care much better. 

These owners of elder care places, make billions from the 

elderly. Time to make better living conditions for the elderly.

Pick up my book on Amazon.com

I sent my manuscript to a publisher who told me:  "The book 

is quite good.  But we just published a book written by a 

nurse aide so we really can't publish yours right now."

So a publisher cannot publish more than one book in the 

same genre?  I have to say I find that hard to believe.

Publishing a book written by a nurse aide is nice, but I 

could write from the perspective of both an aide (I was one 

for a lot of years) and through the eyes of a Social Services 

Director (which is how my books are written).  As an aide 

one sees just what's on the surface of a nursing home 

because aides are not allowed into board of director 

meetings nor are they allowed to see the information a 

department head is privilege to.

Department heads see the pure, raw greed of having to 

please board members.  We see the raw greed of the bottom

line being 

more important than your Grandma's healthy bottom.

 This industry, be it Assisted Living, or a traditional nursing 

home, is a billion dollar industry.

  If this industry did not spell P-R-O-F-I-T in a 

big way, well doctors and corporations would never be 

interested. 

About Assisted Living: I could slap up a fancy building, 

charge customers (people living there) $8,000 a month to 

live there and not face the big regulations traditional nursing

 homes face.  Do those nursing home regulations make 

traditional ones better?  Ha Ha, you wish!  But Assisted 

Living is worse yet. Those places do not even have to put a 

Licensed administrator in place, like traditional ones do.  I 

know this for a fact because a young (very young) guy who 

was my assistant once, and was still learning, went on to be 

the head of an Assisted Living place.  This guy couldn't take 

care of a puppy, much less my Grandma. 

You say: "Well I'm just a layman."  This is true, but you can 

become an informed layman. You can make a difference. 

 If YOU make a difference, other paying customers will

 follow suit right in line with you.  Do not ever underestimate 

your power as a paying customer.  The payment option 

makes no difference either, be it private pay, Medicare or 

Medicaid.  You hate the present nursing home, no one 

listens to you?  You can choose another.  Even if you do 

nothing more than read my book, you will be More informed 

than before reading it.

I have a problem with kids who just 'dump' Mom or Dad off 

and never take time to check on how they are doing.  Hey, 

Mom and Dad wiped Your butt, fed YOU and made sure 

YOU were safe, while growing up.  Don't they deserve the 

same?



http://assistedlivingtoday.com/

• Assisted Living Care Guide: http://assistedlivingtoday.com/p/assisted-living/
• Memory Care Guide: http://assistedlivingtoday.com/p/memory-care/
• Nursing Home Guide: http://assistedlivingtoday.com/p/nursing-homes/
• Care Home Guide: http://assistedlivingtoday.com/p/care-homes/


• Independent Living Guide: http://assistedlivingtoday.com/p/independent-living/

Is publishing a book easy?

When I lost my job in 2008, not from cutbacks, not from budget cuts, but from refusing to advocate for the owner of the nursing home I was a Social Services Director at, I got angry about the situation.  I decided to write a book about how nursing homes in America suck.  They suck and they suck big time!  Disgruntled  employee you might say, well yes and no.  I was angry but I'm not sure if disgruntled was exactly it.  I just want to expose nursing homes for what they are, meat markets for the elderly a way to swindle Medicare and Medicaid and not give paying customers a good service in return.  Look, if a hotel gives me bad service, I have a bad night, a nursing home gives me bad service, I have a bad rest of my life.  So I know this is not the only book about this subject, but I've set out to hopefully, make it the last book because something needs to be done and done soon.

I write a book and send the first few chapters to some publishers, well not just some publishers, I spend days and weeks submitting query letters and the first few chapters to publishers, only to get turn down after turn down.  Did I have bad subject matter in the book, was the topic a bad one?  Nope.  I was told:

a)  'you say the same thing too many times'  Well, I did do that, but mostly to drive the point home.  Just like in marketing, people have to see the same thing at least three times before it sinks in.  Are people stupid?  No, but we are bombarded daily by so many things in our fast paced world, it is simply good to see something often, or read it, then it sticks in our heads.


b)  'it's a subject having social merit, but we just aren't taking new submissions from unknown authors right now'  Well, wasn't Steven King, Nicholas Sparks and even Margaret Mitchell all unknown authors once?  Yes they were. In fact, with Margaret Mitchell, she was turned down (Gone with the Wind)  13 times, being told her book was simply 'too long.'


Fair enough.  I found Createspace and read the rules and the criteria and published it anyway.  Do you slap up a book and it sells immediately?  I wish!  My book has been out about a year and a half now and contrary to the publisher nay sayers, it has been my best selling book to date,


NY Times best seller list yet?  Not yet, but I'm aiming and I may as well aim big time.


Since that first book, I've created The Reason Why Nursing Homes Suck, Second Edition and improved it a lot.  But I must say, the original book is still popular and it continues to do pretty well.


Marketing:  You have to market your own books.  If I could afford a big picture of my book in Times Square, I'd probably sell many more.  I don't have that kind of money.  But you can get creative and come up with ideas on a shoestring and on a budget.  Tell yourself, 'I will do something every week, to market my book.'  


I hope this blog is encouraging and if you have questions, feel free to ask.  For without fans, nothing is any fun to create.  I love you all!


Bobbi W.

 

Something I have learned

I want readers to know that I do editing on manuscripts for books. Am I a 'professional editor?' Well, I guess that depends on Your definition of professional. Do I write my own books? Do I edit my own books? Do I self-publish? A resounding YES to all of the questions. I do okay in the selling department and I'm learning about promoting and advertising my books.

Are my books good? Yes they are and if I'm not on the 'best seller' list right now it is because of lack of knowledge about advertising, but I absolutely am learning that part too. So if people have not discovered my books,it is simply because I cannot afford a huge ad in Times Square. That's fine, I WILL get there.

If you self-publish because you have been turned down by publishing companies, does that mean your stuff is no good? THAT would be a resounding NO! Why? You have to understand that editors and those publishers are taking an educated guess. There is NO magic bullet for success. Have Enough money and You Too can sell anything. Marketers will tell you this too. Publishers go with celebrities because celebrities are already known, so a Big chance publishers are Not taking by banking on a celebrity. The rest of us are unknown, at least for now because we don't have Big Advertising buckaroos! So what? It just means people like you and I have to be more creative with less bucks.

I have read blogs written by people who had popular subjects, got book deals and one blogger became an editor. Do I think making ONE book deal makes anyone a professional editor? Nope!

So hang in there, keep writing and publishing,come up with creative ways to market and contact me,if you like, about my editing fees.

Thanks for reading and if by chance, you want to offer me tips on shoestring marketing ideas, well, I'm Always open to suggestions.