Famous Blurbs Work Famously For Would-Be Authors

June 23, 2007 on 1:11 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

Anyone who’s written anything with a view towards recognition knows how tough it is to get the attention of either publishers or agents. Of course, print-on-demand is easy to deal with and companies offering that service will solicit you — but that doesn’t necessarily get you into the bricks and mortar bookstores. Furthermore, traditional publishers are increasingly leery about taking on the risk of printing for a new author.

Consider the blurb. Defined by Webster as “an advertisement or laudatory announcement”, it’s been around for almost a hundred years and is still widely used in the world of publishing. Moving forward in the dictionary we find the word “logrolling”, partially defined as cronyism or mutual favoritism among writers, editors or critics in the form of reciprocal flattering reviews. That phrase is even older than the blurb, going back to an eighteenth century competitive sport in the timberlands of a new country.

Simply knowing this brief history of book endorsements doesn’t help if you’re unknown and unpublished, no matter how brilliant and ambitious you may be. Fortunately, there is now an online resource that might be able to help. www.myfamousname.com is a community website for people blessed or cursed with the same name as someone famous. Many of them are available for endorsements and testimonials, so here’s your chance…

Apart from sending your manuscript on with a glowing endorsement from the namesake of a living famous entertainer, athlete or politician, you could enjoy the backing of log dead literary luminaries such as Shakespeare or Dickens. Obviously, for undiscovered writers, blurbs must be solicited and accepted before work is submitted for publication. So…go after a namesakes. Approach them early and often and they might take the time to read your entire book. Just remember, namesakes are real people, they can pan instead of pander!

Some people consider blurbs by famous people a type of ‘bait and switch’. Whether bait and switch, hook and reel, catch and critique or attract and assess, they work, and are a respected tool used by the biggest and the best in the publishing industry.

Baby Boomer Generation Faces Healthcare Crisis They Created

June 22, 2007 on 5:44 am | In Education | No Comments

The baby boomer generation is well known for many things, from negatives such as mass self indulgence, the tendency to think the world revolved around them and inflated self worth to positives such as the civil rights and gender equality movements and…well, the civil rights and gender equality movements. They may soon, however, be better known for bankrupting the healthcare system. Me, me, me has become old, old, old, and many experts are wondering how the mass influx of aging baby boomers will be dealt with by an already overtaxed healthcare system.

The baby boomer generation brought us the malpractice lawsuit, and while malpractice suits are sometimes necessary, the current healthcare climate resulting from widespread frivolous instances of malpractice claims has created doctor shortages nationwide. Why go to medical school only to find that insurance costs are prohibiting you from making a living commensurate with the education you worked so hard to get? There was a time when most gynecologists were also practicing obstetricians. Many are now no longer in the delivery business because of the hassle and skyrocketing expense of being protected from those who are looking for a quick paycheck.

Of course, not all healthcare system maladies can be attributed directly to the baby boomer generation. Many can be attributed to corporate greed, a staple of the baby boomer generation. HMO and other healthcare insurance plans have become so convoluted and rigid that having an ambulance drop you off at the wrong hospital can result in astronomical uncovered expenses despite the severity of a person’s injuries.

So, perhaps the baby boomer generation facing a healthcare crisis of their own making is poetic justice. There is an upside, however, in that baby boomers have finally given something besides a 50% divorce rate, partisanship and economic turmoil to the generations that proceeded them. By simply growing old, they have created new job opportunities in the field of medicine. While today’s college students have few degree options they can truly count on to provide for themselves and their future families, medicine is a safe bet for the future.

Looking for an educational path that will provide solid employment? Consider nursing, health care administration or perhaps respiratory therapy. It may no longer be worth the trouble to go to medical school, but there are careers in healthcare that offer better job stability that most other available options. For that, we have the baby boomers to thank.

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