I Got A Book Deal!

Out of Patients with Matthew Zachary

I am privileged to have lived an unordinary life. No one asks to get sick, yet here we are, drafted into a life born of our condition, fueled by the right amount of rage and disappointment, and motivated to do our best to plug the holes in the dam that we can.

From fixing Macs in the 1990s at Omnicom, giving piano concerts for the American Cancer Society, sitting on the Advisory Board of Google Health, volunteering for the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, kicking off Health2.0, and moonlighting with Stand Up To Cancer, to founding Stupid Cancer, hosting The Stupid Cancer Show, producing the OMG! Cancer Summit and CancerCon, and reinventing myself with #OutOfPatients and OffScrip Health, it's been a very "Forrest Gump-ish" ride.

Hearing "Write a book!" was a near-weekly suggestion throughout those years, yet I never felt it was the right time. The shelves in my office at Stupid Cancer featured hundreds of books, wall-to-wall. Human lives put to paper, some of whom are no longer with us.

Well, now it's time – and it's official.

For the past year, I've been in a stealth mode partnership with award-winning collaborative writer Debra Ollivier to create an extraordinary—and wholly original—book proposal. Together, with representation by literary agent Amanda Annis, at Trident Media Group, I am ecstatic to announce that "Permission To Be Pissed: A Practical Field Guide To American Healthcare" sold to Mayo Clinic Press.

Note: This is not a memoir.

Like "The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship," my book will tell the story of American Healthcare as it pertains to history, activism, progress, and how ordinary citizens can change the world one act at a time. Stories of those upon whose shoulders I stand, as well as today's advocates working on behalf of one patient or one million.

A comedy book at its core, coupled with some "Dummies" ethos, and brainless explainers, I envision a world where it lives in the back pocket of every American who has been screwed by healthcare or is hoping not to get screwed in advance.

It is time to stop depending on the industry to bend toward justice. It is time for all Americans to know all of the secret tips, tricks, and hacks hiding in plain sight and for the unsilent minority of patient advocates to have our voices and our stories heard by Millions of Americans.

Stay tuned.

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