The committee is currently working on two events for the World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) designed specifically for ABSW members (though technically speaking the entire WCSJ is an ABSW event!).
The first event is an ABSW Science Book Sale, which will run in a basement during the conference. Leftover review books have been donated by Nature's Phil Campbell, New Scientist's Jeremy Webb, and The Economist's Fiametta Rocco. Fifty of these books will be given away free to WCSJ participants from developing countries attending the conference on scholarship (they'll also be able to buy science books at a reduced rate). The remainder will be sold off to raise money to help republish the ABSW career guide So You Want To Be a Science Writer?. We need volunteers to support the book sale by helping to collect and deliver the books (anyone with a car in Central London?), and to help man the sales desk during the lunch breaks (an honesty box system will be in place at all other times). Please contact me if you are able to help.
In the second event, Anna Lewcock and I are working on a 'Lunch for Authors and Editors' at 1pm on Wednesday 1st July. They hope to bring together some of the figures in popular science book publishing, be they agents, editors, or buyers. Speakers include popular science writer John Gribbin. The idea is to give a small window into the world of writing and publishing a popular science book, and give everyone the opportunity to ask questions and network. If you have any suggestions for speakers, or wish to be involved in some way, please contact me or Anna Lewcock. The event will be free but lunch is not. Please check closer to the time whether you need to bring lunch with you.
Finally, the ABSW award for Best Newcomer in Science Journalism will be presented to the winner at a gala reception at the WCSJ. Further information, and a form for entry, can be found online.
Natasha Loder
ABSW Committee
Showing posts with label Science Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science Books. Show all posts
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Behind The Twitching Curtain - ABSW Briefing on How To Write A Popular Science Book.
By Edward Wawrzynczak
The first of a new series of ABSW Briefings kicked off in style at The Geological Society in London on March 13th with a capacity audience keen to learn How To Write A Popular Science Book.
The first of a new series of ABSW Briefings kicked off in style at The Geological Society in London on March 13th with a capacity audience keen to learn How To Write A Popular Science Book.
L to r: Gabrielle Walker, Peter Tallack and Richard Hollingham. Picture: Ted Nield
How strange is the world of popular science book publishing. Celebrity scientists get massive advances and publicity, although publishers cannot guarantee to sell enough books to cover their costs, while the rest of us struggle to get published and can only hope to make a bean or two along the way.
Publishers plan their marketing years ahead yet, if a topic is hot, they commission ‘crash’ books with deadlines so short they threaten to reduce their writers to jabbering jellies. At the same time, editors cannot agree what makes popular science books successful and seem to have little idea who actually reads them.
Is it any wonder that budding authors find the prospect of writing the right sort of book and finding a publisher so daunting? To help steer a path through the confusion, the briefing’s panel of experts shared their experiences, offered sound guidance, and answered questions from the floor.
Peter Tallack, author, editor, one-time publisher, literary agent and proprietor of The Science Factory, considered what commissioning editors look for in a popular science book. He stressed how important it is to write a really meaty proposal that stands out and makes an immediate impact. He outlined all the essential points that a proposal needs to address and highlighted the key pitfalls to avoid.
BBC presenter and writer Richard Hollingham (How to Clone the Perfect Blonde, and Blood and Guts in the pipeline) described his experience of writing popular science and the satisfaction involved in covering a subject in depth. He pointed out the key role of narrative, the need to plot out stories and link characters between chapters, and the importance of allocating the time needed to bring everything together.
Finally, Gabrielle Walker, freelance broadcaster and author (Snowball Earth, An Ocean of Air, The Hot Topic, and a new book about Antarctica on the way) discussed writing different types of narrative, offered her perspective on what makes a proposal successful, and amplified the vital role played by the agent. She also made pertinent comments about what the writer can do for the reader.
People are keen to know about the world. They want to venture behind the ‘twitching curtain’ to grasp what interesting and amazing things lie beyond. The writer who understands science and tells good stories can open a window to this hidden world, an exciting world the reader would otherwise be to unable to see into. If you believe it’s worth doing, make sure you convey that sense of excitement.
Edward Wawrzynczak is a freelance science writer based in Surrey.
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Discussing Popular Science - Report of a one-day conference at Imperial College
By Edward Wawrzyncak
What is popular science? A simple enough question, one might think, but there is no handy definition that offers an adequate answer. This was richly demonstrated by a one-day conference ‘Discussing Popular Science’ held at Imperial College under the auspices of the Science Communication group on 22nd February 2008. The meeting, which was organised by Alice Bell and co-chaired by Jon Turney, attracted a diverse mix of participants willing to join in energetic but good-natured debate. The eager audience was treated to some excellent talks enlivened by specimens of rare and beautiful books.
As an experienced populariser, Professor Robin Wilson (Gresham College), author of Four Colours Suffice (2002), shared his experience of bringing mathematics to the public. He offered some valuable tips about writing a popular science book. Try to define your audience: why should they be interested, how much do they know, and what do you need to tell them? If you have to get technical, make sure the narrative still flows; you can always use footnotes, add an appendix, or urge your readers to skip the complicated bits. And strive to get your facts right; omissions are inevitable but inaccuracy is inexcusable.
Oliver Hochadel (Vienna) outlined why the search for mankind’s origins is attractive as a topic of popularisation: it involves tales of adventure, exotic peoples and far-flung places, and not a lab coat in sight. Books penned by fossil hunters, such as Richard Leakey’s Origins (1977) and Donald Johanson’s Lucy (1981), do more than simply convey scientific information to the public. They help to legitimise the public profile of palaeoanthropology, allow the protagonists to write their place into history, extend the field of academic battle, and offer a place to speculate about the big questions. The author’s point of view clearly dictates what scientific facts are put before the public, and biases how the reader is meant to understand them.
Judging the veracity of the facts in a popular science book is not easy. Dr. Jon Adams (London School of Economics) explored the boundary between fact and fiction. Fictional devices help to convey facts: they organise content, add interest, and enliven prose. Novels fictionalising science can therefore both entertain and educate and, even when they oversimplify, they can convey important messages. The problem comes when these messages are corrupted. The recent novels of Michael Crichton, such as Next (2006), are a case in point. Such books mix genuine scientific data and convincing fictitious data in a way that makes it hard for the layperson to distinguish one from the other. The jury is still out on the potential threat posed by this intentional blurring of fact and fiction.
Three speakers presented historical case studies of popularisation. Melanie Keene (Cambridge University) described the children’s book The Fossil Spirit (1854) by John Mill, which presents the geological history of the world imaginatively through the fantastic tales of an Indian fakir remembering his many and varied incarnations. Dr Amirouche Moktefi (Strasbourg) analysed The Game of Logic (1887), a book and game devised by the mathematician Charles Dodgson (and published under his better-known pen name of Lewis Carroll), which proved too tedious to be popular and too simplified to be taken seriously. Dr Katy Price (Anglia Ruskin University) discussed the serialisation of Bertrand Russell’s ABC of Relativity (1925) in ‘The New Leader’, the newspaper of the independent Labour Party, and the meaning of relativistic concepts in the context of the labour movement.
Two talks focused on popularisation using pictures. Alice Bell (Imperial College) examined the ways in which scientific concepts can be usefully relayed by cartoons, which are visually engaging, have a readily discerned narrative structure, and are good at conveying causation. Katherine Gillieson (University of Reading) demonstrated the striking illustrations contained within a series of children’s books published by Max Parrish in the 1950s and 1960s, which used Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education), a systematic approach to the pictorial depiction of information that influenced the style of the graphics used in newspapers and magazines today.
What can one conclude? Science popularisation has a long history during the course of which a variety of approaches have been tried to make science intelligible. Judging by the presentations at this conference, scientific exposition in written form is clearly complemented by the creative use of stories, characterisation, metaphor, humour and illustration. Unfortunately, what works is not necessarily successful, and what succeeds is not always correct. Nonetheless, the conference did underline that ingenious popularisers have plenty of scope to work inventively with the various tools that help to convey the meaning of science to a lay audience.
EDWARD WAWRZYNCZAK is a freelance science writer based in Surrey
What is popular science? A simple enough question, one might think, but there is no handy definition that offers an adequate answer. This was richly demonstrated by a one-day conference ‘Discussing Popular Science’ held at Imperial College under the auspices of the Science Communication group on 22nd February 2008. The meeting, which was organised by Alice Bell and co-chaired by Jon Turney, attracted a diverse mix of participants willing to join in energetic but good-natured debate. The eager audience was treated to some excellent talks enlivened by specimens of rare and beautiful books.
As an experienced populariser, Professor Robin Wilson (Gresham College), author of Four Colours Suffice (2002), shared his experience of bringing mathematics to the public. He offered some valuable tips about writing a popular science book. Try to define your audience: why should they be interested, how much do they know, and what do you need to tell them? If you have to get technical, make sure the narrative still flows; you can always use footnotes, add an appendix, or urge your readers to skip the complicated bits. And strive to get your facts right; omissions are inevitable but inaccuracy is inexcusable.
Oliver Hochadel (Vienna) outlined why the search for mankind’s origins is attractive as a topic of popularisation: it involves tales of adventure, exotic peoples and far-flung places, and not a lab coat in sight. Books penned by fossil hunters, such as Richard Leakey’s Origins (1977) and Donald Johanson’s Lucy (1981), do more than simply convey scientific information to the public. They help to legitimise the public profile of palaeoanthropology, allow the protagonists to write their place into history, extend the field of academic battle, and offer a place to speculate about the big questions. The author’s point of view clearly dictates what scientific facts are put before the public, and biases how the reader is meant to understand them.
Judging the veracity of the facts in a popular science book is not easy. Dr. Jon Adams (London School of Economics) explored the boundary between fact and fiction. Fictional devices help to convey facts: they organise content, add interest, and enliven prose. Novels fictionalising science can therefore both entertain and educate and, even when they oversimplify, they can convey important messages. The problem comes when these messages are corrupted. The recent novels of Michael Crichton, such as Next (2006), are a case in point. Such books mix genuine scientific data and convincing fictitious data in a way that makes it hard for the layperson to distinguish one from the other. The jury is still out on the potential threat posed by this intentional blurring of fact and fiction.
Three speakers presented historical case studies of popularisation. Melanie Keene (Cambridge University) described the children’s book The Fossil Spirit (1854) by John Mill, which presents the geological history of the world imaginatively through the fantastic tales of an Indian fakir remembering his many and varied incarnations. Dr Amirouche Moktefi (Strasbourg) analysed The Game of Logic (1887), a book and game devised by the mathematician Charles Dodgson (and published under his better-known pen name of Lewis Carroll), which proved too tedious to be popular and too simplified to be taken seriously. Dr Katy Price (Anglia Ruskin University) discussed the serialisation of Bertrand Russell’s ABC of Relativity (1925) in ‘The New Leader’, the newspaper of the independent Labour Party, and the meaning of relativistic concepts in the context of the labour movement.
Two talks focused on popularisation using pictures. Alice Bell (Imperial College) examined the ways in which scientific concepts can be usefully relayed by cartoons, which are visually engaging, have a readily discerned narrative structure, and are good at conveying causation. Katherine Gillieson (University of Reading) demonstrated the striking illustrations contained within a series of children’s books published by Max Parrish in the 1950s and 1960s, which used Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education), a systematic approach to the pictorial depiction of information that influenced the style of the graphics used in newspapers and magazines today.
What can one conclude? Science popularisation has a long history during the course of which a variety of approaches have been tried to make science intelligible. Judging by the presentations at this conference, scientific exposition in written form is clearly complemented by the creative use of stories, characterisation, metaphor, humour and illustration. Unfortunately, what works is not necessarily successful, and what succeeds is not always correct. Nonetheless, the conference did underline that ingenious popularisers have plenty of scope to work inventively with the various tools that help to convey the meaning of science to a lay audience.
EDWARD WAWRZYNCZAK is a freelance science writer based in Surrey
The Royal Society Prizes for Science Books - judging underway
With the judging process for the Royal Society Prizes for science books now underway, the search has begun for the best science books published in 2007. The Prizes were originally established in 1988 with the aim of encouraging the writing, publishing and reading of good and accessible popular science books.
A total of over 150 books for both the Junior and General Prize have been submitted from around the world and will be judged by two separate panels. The junior winner will be decided by groups of children from over 100 schools, libraries, science centres and youth groups who are part of an innovative judging panel.
This year the prize is managed by the Royal Society and funded by the Beecroft Trust. The awards ceremony will take place at the Royal Society on Monday 16 June 2008.
Further information about the Prizes is available at http://royalsociety.org/sciencebooks
Scott Kier - Project Manager, Royal Society Prizes for Science Books
A total of over 150 books for both the Junior and General Prize have been submitted from around the world and will be judged by two separate panels. The junior winner will be decided by groups of children from over 100 schools, libraries, science centres and youth groups who are part of an innovative judging panel.
This year the prize is managed by the Royal Society and funded by the Beecroft Trust. The awards ceremony will take place at the Royal Society on Monday 16 June 2008.
Further information about the Prizes is available at http://royalsociety.org/sciencebooks
Scott Kier - Project Manager, Royal Society Prizes for Science Books
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