B - Q&A: Carl Zimmer on writing popular-science books

Jones N. Q&A: Carl Zimmer on writing popular-science books. Nature 2010;463:737
(doi:10.1038/463737a)

Second in a series of five interviews with authors who write science books, Carl Zimmer - with his eight popular-science books - describes how passion has been breeding his popular success. He chooses subjects that other people have not written about but also something that he is fascinated by. A scientist, who wants to write a book, has to work at night and drop out of teaching for a while so he should love the subject of the book. As for the editing process, he outlines that a lot of editors do not put much work into the editing process and sometimes authors have to hire freelance editors to get the guidance they need.

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