My Experience as a Paladin Author

by Michael Morse

Writing is wonderful . . . having people actually read what you have written is even better. Paladin Press provided me with that opportunity in 2007, when it published my book, Rescuing Providence. I had written a good book; what was published was much better, even considered great by many of the thousands of people who have read it. Editing, layout, and design of the book have everything to do with that, I’ve learned.

Knowing that people in the publishing industry found my words something to value gave me the confidence to continue. Since the book came out, I’ve had a dozen or so op-eds published in The Providence Journal, had my articles published in JEMS (Journal of Emergency Medicine), EMS World, EMS 1, and The Writer magazine. My second book is struggling along, the problem being that I’m simply not as proud of it as I am Rescuing Providence. The words are similar, the story as good if not better than the original, but the “other” publisher treated my words as a commodity and little more. Without the hard work, expert editing, and more than a little love that went into Rescuing Providence, my second is just another EMS book.

Thanks to Paladin Press I found my writer’s voice and use it almost daily at my little place on the Web, www.rescuingprovidence.com, where things I’ve written are forwarded all over the world.

All this because somebody at a reputable publisher saw something in my work and gave it a chance that many passed on. The people I had direct contact with at Paladin Press — Jon Ford, Donna DuVall, and Jeanne Vaughn — returned my phone calls, returned my e-mails, and turned my manuscript into a book worthy of promoting, which I did with pride.

Rescuing Providence has opened many doors for me, gotten me speaking engagements, and earned the respect of my peers and even the emergency room physicians at Rhode Island Hospital, who as interns receive a copy of the book compliments of the director of emergency medicine at Brown University, Dr. Francis Sullivan.

To this day, five years later, I still am considered by the people I work with as “the guy who wrote the book!”

Thank you, Paladin Press, for making my book, and my publishing experience, great.