Author Services for Clinicians and Health Professionals

By Deborah Holmen, M.Ed., NBCT, CLC

Clinician author working on manuscript

Most clinicians I work with come to me with a stack of evidence and a calendar that doesn't have room for any of it. Years of patient cases. Conference talks. Article drafts that never quite made it past the first pass. A clear sense of what they want to say and no realistic way to write a 70,000-word book between charting and clinic hours.

That's the problem I solve.

I'm Deborah Holmen, author, freelance writer, and ghostwriter for clinicians, wellness practitioners, and health-care educators. I've published my own memoir, It Takes a Lot of Shit to Grow Beautiful Flowers, and my byline runs in Medium, The Good Men Project, A Parent is Born, and HOME Florida. I've also worked alongside a number of authors in health, mental health, and wellness, including three years of editorial support for the author of Unstoppable, a bestselling mental-health book with more than 80,000 copies sold.

I work primarily with practicing clinicians — physicians, therapists, nurse practitioners, integrative and functional medicine practitioners, and specialists — who want to take what they know and put it into a book that builds real authority. The kind of book that opens speaking platforms, attracts the patients you actually want to see, and outlasts your practice.

Why clinicians need a different kind of ghostwriter

Clinical writing and book writing are not the same craft. A peer-reviewed paper rewards precision and constraint. A trade book rewards a clear narrative voice and a reader who feels spoken to. The skill set that got you through residency or a doctoral program is not the skill set that produces a book a stranger picks up in an airport bookstore.

A clinician-focused ghostwriter brings the things you don't have time to develop while you're also seeing patients. I match your voice, so the book sounds like you in front of a microphone, not like a textbook. I translate the science into language a non-clinical reader can follow without dumbing it down. I work from a four-tier source hierarchy with peer-reviewed journals as the gold standard, which protects your credibility on every page. And I handle patient stories with care: no identifying details unless you have written consent, no HIPAA risk to your practice, no claims you wouldn't make in front of your peers.

How we work together

My process is straightforward, but it isn't casual. Your name is going on this book.

We start with a fit call. About twenty minutes. You tell me your idea, your timeline, and what you want this book to do for your work. I tell you how I work and whether I'm the right person for it. I take on only two to three projects a year, so this conversation matters.

If we move forward, I send a written scope of work along with a work-for-hire contract drafted by my attorney with industry-standard terms. No royalties. No future claims on your book. The manuscript belongs to you.

I review your existing material — articles, lectures, conference talks, podcast appearances, drafts — and we conduct interviews together. For some projects we also bring in subject-matter expert interviews to deepen specific chapters or add second-opinion credibility on contested clinical topics.

Once we have the material, we map the arc together. Themes, framework, chapter flow, pacing. You see the roadmap before I write a word of the manuscript.

I draft in stages, and you read as we go. Your input shapes the book throughout. Patient examples are reviewed for de-identification at every step.

Once the structure and content are on the page, I refine for clarity, continuity, and rigor. I work in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, and every claim that needs sourcing gets sourced. The result is a manuscript ready to go to agents, hybrid publishers, or independent publication.

What it costs

A clinician's book is a serious investment with a long return horizon. My fees are benchmarked against industry data published by Gotham Ghostwriters, Reedsy, and the Rhodes ghostwriting survey for experienced nonfiction ghostwriters in health and wellness. Most full-length clinician projects fall in the upper five figures to low six figures, with the final number depending on the length, the complexity of the science, the volume of subject-matter expert interviews, and how much existing material we're working from.

Smaller engagements are also possible. A market-ready book proposal — the document agents and publishers actually read — runs in the low five figures and can be a smart first step before committing to a full manuscript. Rush timelines under six months carry a premium because they push other clients out of the calendar.

I'll send you a quote after our fit call. There are no royalties on my end and no surprise fees on yours.

What this gets you

Your book stops being a someday project and becomes a finished thing on a shelf. That alone is worth more than most clinicians realize until they hold it.

Beyond the manuscript itself, a well-built book changes the shape of your professional life. It opens keynote slots and media that wouldn't take a cold pitch from a CV. It gives the patients who need your specific approach a way to find you. It lets you say what you actually think about your field, on the record, in long form, without the constraints of a journal article or a thirty-second media quote. And it leaves a body of work behind your practice — yours, in your voice, with your name on the cover.

One physician came to me with twelve years of patient observations, a folder of half-written chapters, and a strong opinion about a treatment paradigm that wasn't being taught the way she thought it should be. We turned that into a book that now anchors her speaking work and brings her cases from across the country.

If you're ready

If you're a clinician who's been carrying a book idea for a long time — between cases, between charts, between everything else — and you want a writer who can hold the science, protect your reputation, and turn what you know into a real book, write to me. We'll set up a twenty-minute fit call and find out whether this is the right project for both of us.

Your work changes lives one patient at a time. A book extends it past the walls of your practice.