The new project appealed to him because it had an obvious structure-a chapter for every experiment-and would be short. Before The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, he’d written several books, including in-depth biographies about scientists who did complex work. The main criterion Johnson uses when deciding whether to turn a story into a book is whether he can imagine being absorbed in the project for two or more years. “I just sat down and listed all of the other things I wanted to write about and there was so much there,” she says.
(It’s still the most-read story ever on the High Country News website.) A couple of publishers contacted her about writing a book. The story came out just when people were starting to talk about colony collapse disorder, in March 2007. Nordhaus started thinking about a book when she was writing her 4,700-word bee story and noticed that she was leaving out more material than usual. The first thing to ask yourself is whether there’s enough material for a book. So which articles can become books? And how do you turn six brilliant pages on glossy paper into a tome that can grace a parent’s shelf? I talked to writers, agents, and a book editor to find out. All three articles were quickly followed by inquiries from publishers or agents. Each started as an article in, respectively, High Country News, The New York Times, and Sports Illustrated. These books all have something in common: They weren’t originally intended as books. In The Sports Gene, David Epstein examines the debate over nature versus nurture in the world of sports.
The Ten Most Beautiful Experimentsis George Johnson’s look at … well, 10 beautiful science experiments. Hannah Nordhaus’s 2011 book The Beekeeper’s Lamenttells the story of troubled honeybees through one beekeeper. Guide to Using Alt-text to Make Images More Accessible.Sample Script & Survey for Tracking Source Diversity.Finding Diverse Sources for Science Stories.Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Resources.Tip Sheet for Newcomers to Science Writing.Where to Get Started at The Open Notebook.Navigating the Science Journalism World.
0 kommentar(er)
