It's finally here. UPS just delivered the first copy of my second book, Losing Weight with Your Diabetes Medication. The subtitle, "How Byetta and Other Drugs Can Help You Lose More Weight than You Ever Thought Possible," tells what the book is really about.
The book took a long time coming. I first proposed it to a publisher back on September 15, 2006.
"Have you thought about a book on Byetta?" was my question to Matthew Lore, who at that time was vice president and publisher of Marlowe & Company in New York City. "It is a miracle drug for many people, myself included. As of today, I have lost 80 pounds in the seven months since I started taking it. The book could cover just Byetta or be broadened to include the other GLP-1 inhibitors and could also include the gliptins. You could even get me to write it...."
At the time I had no idea what I was getting myself into, because this was destined to be the first book that I wrote alone. Back in 2003 Matthew had asked me to be one of the co-authors of The New Glucose Revolution: What Makes My Blood Glucose Go Up...and Down? At the time, the lead author, Professor Jennie Brand-Miller of the University of Sydney and Kaye Foster-Powell already had an agreement with Matthew and needed an American co-author.
My name was still Rick Mendosa when that book appeared. Five other editions -- for the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, Taiwan, Italy, and a second U.S. edition in 2006 with my new name (as well as some new material) -- have subsequently appeared. This book was about the glycemic index more than about anything else.
I thought that my second book would be just as easy as my first one. Wrong.
It happens that Matthew contacted me originally back in January 1996, less than a week after he got his diabetes diagnosis. "I want to thank you profusely for your on-line diabetic resource guide....Your listing expands the information I have access to exponentially. Everything about this list is fantastic. I'm incredibly appreciative and moved that someone has taken the time to put this out there."
That was a great start to a long-standing relationship. Then in July 1998, after Matthew had become Marlowe & Company's senior editor responsible for publishing that imprint's diabetes books, he wrote me again.
When he re-read some of my glycemic index articles, Matthew wrote, he noticed that in August 1996 I had reviewed the Australian edition of Dr. Brand-Miller's first book about the glycemic index for people with diabetes for Diabetes Interview magazine (now Diabetes Health). That article, which is now on my website, happens to be my first published article about diabetes as I segued from writing about small business. I closed that review by writing, "The overall importance of The G.I. Factor for people with diabetes can hardly be overstated. The only problem is its availability."
It turned out that Matthew solved that problem by publishing The G.I. Factor here as The Glucose Revolution. Since then, he has published at least a dozen more of Dr. Brand-Miller's books on the glycemic index totaling more than 3 million copies now in print. In August 1999 he thanked me for introducing him to the book by taking me out to lunch at a fine restaurant near San Francisco, where we we met in person for the first time.
"Have you thought about a book on Byetta?" was my question to Matthew Lore, who at that time was vice president and publisher of Marlowe & Company in New York City. "It is a miracle drug for many people, myself included. As of today, I have lost 80 pounds in the seven months since I started taking it. The book could cover just Byetta or be broadened to include the other GLP-1 inhibitors and could also include the gliptins. You could even get me to write it...."
At the time I had no idea what I was getting myself into, because this was destined to be the first book that I wrote alone. Back in 2003 Matthew had asked me to be one of the co-authors of The New Glucose Revolution: What Makes My Blood Glucose Go Up...and Down? At the time, the lead author, Professor Jennie Brand-Miller of the University of Sydney and Kaye Foster-Powell already had an agreement with Matthew and needed an American co-author.
My name was still Rick Mendosa when that book appeared. Five other editions -- for the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, Taiwan, Italy, and a second U.S. edition in 2006 with my new name (as well as some new material) -- have subsequently appeared. This book was about the glycemic index more than about anything else.
I thought that my second book would be just as easy as my first one. Wrong.
It happens that Matthew contacted me originally back in January 1996, less than a week after he got his diabetes diagnosis. "I want to thank you profusely for your on-line diabetic resource guide....Your listing expands the information I have access to exponentially. Everything about this list is fantastic. I'm incredibly appreciative and moved that someone has taken the time to put this out there."
That was a great start to a long-standing relationship. Then in July 1998, after Matthew had become Marlowe & Company's senior editor responsible for publishing that imprint's diabetes books, he wrote me again.
When he re-read some of my glycemic index articles, Matthew wrote, he noticed that in August 1996 I had reviewed the Australian edition of Dr. Brand-Miller's first book about the glycemic index for people with diabetes for Diabetes Interview magazine (now Diabetes Health). That article, which is now on my website, happens to be my first published article about diabetes as I segued from writing about small business. I closed that review by writing, "The overall importance of The G.I. Factor for people with diabetes can hardly be overstated. The only problem is its availability."
It turned out that Matthew solved that problem by publishing The G.I. Factor here as The Glucose Revolution. Since then, he has published at least a dozen more of Dr. Brand-Miller's books on the glycemic index totaling more than 3 million copies now in print. In August 1999 he thanked me for introducing him to the book by taking me out to lunch at a fine restaurant near San Francisco, where we we met in person for the first time.
