Some features of good non-fiction writing include the following:

Content rich 
A strong article or book contains substantive material that readers can learn from or glean some valuable information from. Very good articles are those that readers consider worthy of saving or bookmarking for future reference.

Relevant
No book or article can be relevant for every reader. Some topics have wide appeal and relevance (example, over-the counter-medications for the common cold) while others obviously have a small niche audience (vaccinations for adults traveling to southeastern Asia.) Your topic may have a small or wide audience, but it should be relevant to at least some readers. 

Knowledgeable
A well-written article should demonstrate that the author is well informed about the topic, while maintaining a language and a level of detail that is appropriate for the target audience.

Qualified
Most readers value authors who are qualified to write about the subject matter, which goes beyond self-taught familiarity with the subject. Qualification involves formal designation, while knowledge is about experience.

Interesting
Not every person who is knowledgeable and qualified can write something interesting about the topic. But, being interesting isn't always important, depending on the purpose of the article. Some readers or publications prefer lists or charts that are full of accurate facts, some are looking for a reference piece, and some are looking for an interesting read with a thought-provoking, inspiring, or reassuring message. Tailoring how interesting your medical writing should be is about understanding your audience, and most importantly, the publisher's objective.

Depth, breadth, specific, detailed 
Depth, breath and specifics also depend on knowing your audience. Some readers are looking for a wide range of information about a broad topic, without too much detail, while others are interested in understanding a topic in great depth. Most well written articles and books are content rich, but do not have to have the qualities of depth, breath, specifics and detail. Instead, the author and publisher select the purpose of the piece and stick with either depth or breadth, unless it is intended to be an encyclopedic reference source.

Insightful 
Most readers are looking for some form of insight. This means that the author provides additional information about the topic or a different interpretation of the subject matter that makes the article or book more valuable.
Insight is a characteristic that is not judged uniformly by all readers. A reader considers an author who agrees with his or her own (the reader’s) overarching beliefs as insightful. When the author’s 'insight' is based on a different core viewpoint than that of the reader (example, vaccines are safe vs. vaccines are not safe) the reader is likely to dismiss the article, the author, and possibly the publication, even if the author is qualified and knowledgeable.  

Helpful, useful
Most readers of health and medical articles are looking for something helpful. This could be simply to understand a health condition, to learn how to take a medication, or to know when a symptom is normal vs. worrisome.

Practical 
Most readers are looking for information, knowledge or how-to that is easy to apply. This means that most readers cannot take on enormous, overarching, life changing plans and advice.

Timely, current
When it comes to health information, updated information is considered better than old information. When readers see health and wellness articles with well-established advice, most readers expect some type of acknowledgment from the author that, 'this has been the prevailing method for years, and new research continues to uphold this as the gold standard.' 

Real
Readers expect a genuine tone and voice from the writer, particularly from books and articles about health. An artificial or condescending or 'miracle cure' attitude is typically dismissed.

Honest 
Honesty is highly valued, and your audience can easily perceive your level of honesty.

Friendly 
Most of the time, the tone of a health, wellness or medical article should be pleasant- but not too casual to the point of not being authoritative or untrustworthy. Reference articles do not need to be friendly.

Balanced
An easy way to bring a sense of balance to a health article is to share a few facts. Instead of saying, 'the vast majority of people who take medication Y do not experience side effects,' it is more balanced to say, 'of the 70,000 Americans who use medication Y, approximately 4.7% experience side effects.' This takes the appearance of bias out of the equation.

Not offensive
Articles that offend the reader are a huge turnoff. In fact, articles that insult anyone are generally regarded poorly, even if the target of the insult is very different from the reader.

Not bitter
Healthcare can be a highly political subject. Controversial topics can make for good writing, but a bitter or angry tone makes the author sound as if they have an agenda, which discredits the article as being not geared towards helping the reader.

Funny
This is a tricky one. If you have a great sense of humor, you can try it. But humor in medical writing requires an exceptionally talented writer, and it doesn't usually work.

Organized, flowing 
Well-structured material is critical. When it comes to writing health or scientific books and articles for the public, the science can be complicated, and logical organization is the trick to making difficult material interesting and understandable.

Clear
Often, clarity is more important than attention-grabbing material. If you can be interesting and clear at the same time, then you will be able to keep readers engaged and informed.

Succinct
If you can avoid repetition and get your point across briefly, readers are more apt to enjoy your material. 
 
One of the ways that your audience shows appreciation and approval of what you have written is by sharing it with others. When a reader shares something that you wrote, this is a statement that they found your article useful and are comfortable being associated with it. This is a huge compliment to any author. It is impossible for any piece to have all of the qualities listed above, but if your writing has most of those qualities, it is more likely to be well received.
Find out more about how to get a job as a health and wellness writer here.

Self-Publishing Tips for Physicians, by George Smolinski MD
I often am asked, “I have a great idea for a book (or alternatively, ‘I have a book I wrote’), how do I publish it?” Publishing a book, like many things in life, can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it, but in today’s world of eBooks and digital media consumption, producing your own book is can be a fairly painless task.
 
Its estimated that over 80% of Americans feel that they have the makings of a great book rumbling around in their brain, but only a select few ever put a pen to paper (or fingers to a keyboard) and write their book. Part of the reluctance stems from the intimidating nature of trying to get one’s book accepted for publication by a major publishing house, but fortunately in today’s world, there’s an easy work-around. Its called Kindle Direct Publishing.Let’s back up a bit. I’ll take for granted that you already have your book written and edited. That is by far the hardest part, but unless you have a book done already, most of this blog post will unfortunately not apply to you. Assuming you do have your book written, there are several key questions that many people have regarding self-publishing. I’ll answer these in the following paragraphs to help you on your way to self-publishing success.

1.    I have a great book idea, how can I get it in front of a publisher?

This is a superb question, but let’s take a look at some realistic appraisals of the publishing industry. First, although the concept of being picked up by Random House or the like has definite allure, its pretty close to impossible to have your book reviewed and accepted by them. Here’s a fun fact: One of the most successful book series of all time—Harry Potter—was rejected by over a dozen publishers and even the small publisher who did accept it (Bloomsbury) initially rejected the book. It was only when the editor’s eight year old daughter read the first chapter and deemed it worthy that the book was published. In competitive genres like self-help, medical texts, and fiction, its nearly impossible for a publishing house to notice you. As such, I highly recommend that you look at publishing on Kindle (and alternatively, or in addition, iBooks), as their Kindle Direct Publishing and iBooks Author publishing platforms are incredibly easy to use. You simply upload your book, your cover, write up a description for your book, choose your price, and that’s it! That way, your book is guaranteed to be published AND you retain control over pricing, distribution, and promotion. I’ve co-authored a book that covers the details of the Kindle Direct Publishing platform and gives you step-by-step instructions on how to get your book onto Kindle, “How To Publish A Book: Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing & Build Your Business Now!”, available on Amazon by following this link.

2.    How much will it cost me to self-publish a book?
This is a superb question, and the honest answer is “zero dollars to well over $5000 dollars”. In today’s digital age, if you have the skill (or time to learn the skill) to lay out your book into a format accepted by Kindle Direct Publishing (such as a MOBI format) or iBooks (an ePub format) and design your own cover, you can do it yourself! As a matter of fact, I did just that with a children’s book I published myself with my twin sons back in 2013, “The Story Of Jubby Jubby Jow Jow” (Note 1: this is an actual book you can still find on Amazon. Note 2: my sons were 7 when we published this). The layout and cover are very important, as a great-looking book--both inside the book and the cover--will provide your reader with an optimal reading experience. However, if you haven’t the time or skill to do this, you can easily outsource the cover creation and layout of the book. Websites such as Fiverr.com and our own Gutenberg Reloaded site (www.gutenbergreloaded.com) have contractors that can produce a book layout and cover at a reasonable price. Normally, for a great cover and layout, a price of $200-$300 will yield a great looking book and cover design without breaking the bank. Obviously, top designers will charge far more, even into the thousands of dollars for a book cover, but for most self-published authors starting out, that’s a bit out of reach.

3.    How much will I get paid if I write a book?
Yet another great question, and the answer is, “It depends on how hard you want to work!”
Truthfully, when you self-publish a book, there’s numerous options available to help you promote your book, and the better your book is promoted, the more money you’ll earn from royalties. This is a lot of work, but can yield great results if you know how to promote a book effectively. Amazon’s royalty structure for eBooks priced from $2.99 to $9.99 is 70% to the author, 30% to Amazon. That’s a pretty reasonable royalty share, but know that for books from $0.99 to $2.98, the share is only 35% to the author, and 65% to Amazon. But, for even for the baseline $2.99 book, you’ll earn $2.08 for each sale. That may not seem like a lot, but top sellers on Amazon sell dozens, even hundreds of books each day. If you can effectively promote your book (something that we also help folks with), you have a great chance of earning a reasonable amount of money with your book publication.
 
In closing, publishing a book today is easier than ever, and if you’ve already written your book, you’ve done the hardest part! The entire publishing part is simple, straightforward, and by using contractors to outsource the cover and layout design, you can easily get your book published in a very short time. We are always happy to discuss the book publication process and answer questions—please contact us at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help!

Why do you want to write a book?

• Do you have a creative story, a personal story or useful information that you want to share with others? Do you want to write fiction or non-fiction?
• Do you have enough information to write a whole book (at least 50,000 words) or just enough for an article (350-2000 words) or to create your own  blog (5000-50,000 words)?
• Do you want to write a book because you want to provide information for others, because you want to make money from book sales or because you want to promote and market yourself or your business? Rank these three in order and always keep your priorities for writing a book in mind to help you stay on task.
• Would you be willing to pay to self-publish your book, or do you want to have it published through a professional publisher?

Professional Publishing
It can be very difficult to get a publisher to look at your book idea. You must have a well-written proposal. I have already had many doctors tell me, ‘I just want to run this great idea by a publisher.’ If you are not already an established author, it is not easy to get a publisher to listen to your idea. You must have an excellent, well-written, clear and flawless book proposal.
Self Publishing
It is a good idea to look into self-publishing before you approach a publisher so that you can get a handle on the cost of getting a book in print. Calculate the costs of editing, printing, marketing etc. Estimate how many copies of your book will sell. Do you think your book would be profitable if you self publish it? Any publisher will do the same calculations; so think the numbers through even if you prefer to write your book using a publisher.
Building a Brand
Consider starting by writing an article about your topic of interest. Then gauge reader's comments and interest in your topic as you construct your book proposal. You can consider submitting an article to nonclinicaldoctors.com to see if you are ready to hear reader's responses to your writing. (article submission guidelines here.)

1.Tailor your marketing to the right audience.
No matter how great your book is, you know that it is a good fit for some audiences, but even you, as the author, realize that isn't right for everyone. Don't waste your time on low yield marketing by posting to social media audiences that are probably not interested in your topic. Find groups and websites with established interested in the topic that you have written about. And take the time to compose posts, articles or short videos that are consistent with your target audience's interests and style.

2. Use social media effectively.
Social media is the key to marketing, especially if you do not have a huge budget. But keep in mind that over-tweeting or over-posting can seem spammy and will drive prospective readers away from your book instead of towards it.

3. Be honest
When you promote your book- don't promise anything that your book doesn't deliver. This opens the door to disappointed readers- who will write bad reviews because they didn’t get what they were promised.

4. Network with peers in your field.
Don’t look at peers as competitors. You and your peers are all in the same professional community and you can learn from each other.

5. Be yourself
Don’t pretend to be someone more accomplished or more qualified or smarter or better than who you really are. Make sure that your bio and everything you post is authentic.

6. Promote others
Don't hesitate to promote or recommend others who have done strong work in your field. You will become more believable and you will be viewed as a better resource if you promote others and not only yourself.

7. Continue to improve
Self-publishing is still relatively new. Some of last year’s suggestions for marketing are already outdated. The most popular social media sites are constantly evolving, and some are even becoming obsolete. If you have self- published a book that you want to market, know that you are part of a relatively new industry that will continue to change very quickly.