Writing for Money in Mental Health

Writing for Money in Mental Health

Ruben DH

Binghampton (NY): Haworth Press; 1997. 287 pp

ISBN 0-7890-0240-X (paper)

Douglas H. Ruben, a registered psychologist in the United States, has been spectacularly successful in turning his writing talents away from academic pursuits and toward money-making writing. In this book he tells the reader how to follow in his footsteps. This 287-page soft-covered manual explains why and how to write books, magazine articles, screenplays and even software.

Becoming a professional writer is not easy, and Dr. Ruben does not pretend that it is. He is quite frank about how difficult it is to become (and remain) established, especially in the areas of movies and television. A professional writer must be persistent and patient and have a high tolerance for rejection — qualities that are not always found in mental health workers. It helps, of course, to be able to write; that is, to express an idea on paper as eloquently as in speech or even more so. Being creative and well organized are essential, and it doesn’t hurt potential writers to have a hypo-manic enthusiasm for their work.

In 9 chapters, this book takes the reader through the steps required to write for various media. The last chapter is a truly indispensable list of target markets, with names and addresses of publishers, and information about who is accepting what, and for how much.

It is perhaps unnecessary to state that this book will be of interest to mental health workers who wish to write professionally. It certainly will not be of interest to anyone else.

Apparently, one of Dr. Ruben’s prime reasons for becoming a writer was the fact that, in an age of shrinking resources and managed care, the financial situation of psychologists in the United States is less than ideal. So when Dr. Ruben asserts that mental health workers can carry on a fairly dedicated writing sideline in their “spare time,” it may be wise to remember that US psychologists may have more spare time than Canadian psychiatrists.

This “boundary problem” aside, I would recommend this book to anyone in the mental health field interested in writing for money. And I would remind the reader of what Samuel Johnson thought of anyone who writes for any other reason: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”