The day before yesterday, my copy of The Open Laboratory 2007, the second annual science blogging anthology, arrived in the mail.
So yesterday, Reed and I met at a coffee shop and looked it over. It looks great! Reed knows what he's doing and is a perfectionist, so of course the book looks perfect.
So, I went back online to Lulu.com and approved the book to be sold in various online and offline bookstores. The book information will be sent to Bowker's Books In Print and once approved by Bowker, Lulu will upload the title to their distribution network. This process is generally completed within 2-3 weeks. You can expect to see the book listed on Amazon.com and other online retailers within the next 6 to 8 weeks.
As for brick stores, let's hope they pick the book out from the catalogue. But you can help in this department. Each one of you, no matter where you live, probably have a favourite local independent bookstore. Next time you visit there, tell them you'd like to see them carry this item:
The Open Laboratory: The Best Science Writing on Blogs 2007 (Lulu.com, 2008; ISBN: 978-1-4357-0832-7).
I know I'll be calling Nancy at Quail Ridge Books and Katharine at Market Street Books around here.
The book will always be available online on Lulu.com - just go here and place your order (you can save money by buying a downloadable PDF, but then you will miss the feel of holding a pretty book in your hands and it does make a difference). Buy an extra copy and donate it to your local library. Use it in the classroom (or suggest it to a teacher you know). Buy a few and save them for next year's Christmas presents.
The proceeds will go to BlogTogether.org and will be used for the organization of the next Science Blogging Conference and the editing of the next edition of the anthology next year. If this is something you want to support, keep in mind that the royalties are greater if you buy directly from Lulu.com than from any other source.
If you work for MSM and want a review copy of the PDF, contact Reed about it. I will also try to see if Lulu.com will print a few review copies of the book for me to distribute to science magazines and journals that are interested in reviewing it. Note to authors: I am still working on getting the free copy for each one of you like Lulu.com did for last year's anthology authors.
The first review is already out! You can read it in today's issue of Nature:
The editor of this second anthology of the best scientific communiques from the blogosphere thinks blogs offer new ways to discuss science. The Open Laboratory 2007: the Best Science Writing on Blogs (Lulu.com, 2008) takes the curious approach of using dead tree format to highlight the diversity of scientific ideas, opinions and voices flowing across the Internet. Every year a different guest editor -- here Reed Cartwright, a blogger and genetics and bioinformatics postdoc from North Carolina State University -- picks the best posts to coincide with the Science Blogging Conference (in North Carolina on 19 January). First-hand accounts bring to life the stresses of a graduate student, a mother returning to the bench and an archaeologist's joy at unearthing mammoth fossils. Topics tackled are as varied as the writers, from Viagra and tapeworms to trepanning. Explanations are often offered with a personal twist, such as a father's tale of his child's Asperger's syndrome. The measured voices of trustworthy academics make medical research easy to swallow. If you are overwhelmed by the surge in science-related blogging and don't know where to start, then this compilation may help you steer a course through the sea of perspectives on offer -- or inspire you to start a blog yourself.
Now, buy The Book!
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Got mine a few days ago, looks nice. To be honest, I bought it mostly as archive. "what?" you say. "I didn't notice any of your mumblings being nominated!" Ahh, yes, but I found out a little something about what can happen when one's random-arse comments get extensively quoted in a later post....
so with that motivation for purchase and with an approach of skepticism that I needed a hardcopy of stuff I can just read online, I started thumbing through. I did notice myself reading a few things that I would never have looked at from the list of titles that Bora put up a while back. there is still something to be said for a book....
I received mine a few days ago and have been reading a little every night. Although I read many of the entries while judging, there is something about holding the pretty book in my hand and reading them again that gives me such pleasure ....
Bora and Reed did an outstanding job of putting this together. I look forward to reading the next one!
Looking is very good and the topics inside are very interesting. I want to buy one copy. Unfortunately, it's too much expensive for me. Last year the page number is more, but cheaper 10$ (just 19.95$), I am a poor student, but I want the real copy, not pdf version. No way, I may have to buy it late, because I need time to collect money. Hope it is not gonna be late, I am afraid that it is out of print. T_T waiting for me at least for 3 months, then I will get you.