Writing a Textbook……….Again!

Written by: Niamtu

‘

In 2011 I was honored to to have been asked to write a major cosmetic surgery text book for Elsevier, the largest medical publishing company in the world. The first edition was over 1,000 pages and had over 3,000 pictures. I did all of this myself except for a great chapter on rhinolasty by my good friend and cosmetic surgeon par excellence Dr. Angelo Cuzalina. Looking back, I am not sure how I actually found the time to devote to such a project.

This book, despite having almost a $300 price tag sold quite well and was translated into a Latin version for Spanish speaking countries. I have heard from surgeons all over the world who purchased this textbook and I am very honored to have written it. When I finished the first version, I said that would be my last major writing project of that magnitude. I enjoy writing and have written 4 other smaller textbooks and hundreds of scientific articles, but the big book took all my spare time for 2 years.

Well, never say never! I received a call from London from the plastic surgery division of Elsevier and was informed that my book is one that sold well enough to be rewritten as a second edition. This was a huge compliment as there are thousands of textbooks written every year but only a small percentage are chosen for future editions. I was really going to tell them no, but I started thinking that it is quite an honor to write a major cosmetic surgery text for the plastic surgery division of the largest medical textbook publisher in the world. I signed the final contracts several months ago and have been writing in every bit of my spare time since January. I have spent some weekends typing for 10 hours. I have to thank my wife for being a textbook widow and my staff for assisting with all the thousands of new pictures and videos that are required for a new text.

This second edition will be a totally new book and not a reheated version of the first text. I have rewritten each chapter and retaken 98% of all the previous photographs. In addition I have invited friends from plastic surgery, facial plastic surgery, dermatology, oculoplastic surgery and oral and maxillofacial surgery to add new chapters to this edition. For the surgeons that bought the first version, this will be a totally new book.

So as I pass up most of my free time again for a solid year, I am excited to turn out what I believe will be a classic cosmetic facial surgery text. The first version was simply titled Cosmetic Facial Surgery, and the second version will be my opus, which might be a good name. I will keep my friends posted of the progress and the availability date which I hope will be 2016.

IMGP0689