I'm writing again

I've started writing another book, this time it's a non-fiction book about all of the elements of the periodic table. In the book I discuss the properties and uses of the elements and also interesting facts about them. I'm not sure if or when I'll get it published. I've been working on it for less than a week and I already have over 14,000 words. I already have cover art too!

11/20/2009

Gordon..

Great , it'll be finished before you know it.
Have you ever noticed writers and artists are the
ones who always struggle and struggle.....

Cheers..Joe

You can send a book proposal, Peter, to Science Publishers (USA), here:

http://www.scipub.net/publication-proposals.html

Good luck with this!

Update: As of right now, I have almost 27,000 words. The book is comming along surprisingly fast (I think this is the fastest I've ever written a book). Well, its about a subject I enjoy. I'm not done yet, there will still be more to come.

Writing about things you know and enjoy makes a big difference.
I can sense your excitement.

Who is the target market?

It sounds a lot like a book I read recently, The Planets. It told facts, myths and stories about each planet and was fascinating.

Do you include myths, stories? That might make it interesting to science students.

Carol

The book is about the properties and uses of the elements of the periodic table. I also include info on the origin of each element's name and the year it was discovered. The book will also have a glossary that will give info on things like atoms, radioactivity, isotopes, ect. The target market would be people interested in science, chemistry, and the natural world.

P.S. I might also include a section on element collecting (one of my hobbies) and include info on where to find elements and possilbly on the elements contained in common minerals.

It sounds like a good idea, and I really liked Carol's suggestion about adding in myths and stories. Interspersing info on element collecting (and maybe photos of your coins), and where to find elements sounds like it could result in a fun book, esp. if there isn't anything currently like that on the market.

I just asked who the target market is, due to my cursed practicality of who will buy the effort at the end. Shelagh linked to a science publisher, but they're going to want academic qualifications, no matter how good the ms is. If you don't have those, you might try writing it as a "science for kids" sort of thing and seeking a general-interest pub instead of a hard-core science one.

Well, I know I can publish it through E-Book Time, which also publishes Of Orbs and Lords, as a paperback. When the publication fee, copyright fee, and all the other fees are added together it'll cost about $575 - $600, so I'll have to figure out how to come up with the money, but I still have plenty of time to figure that one out. Unfortunately, the only academic qualification I can claim in the field is the fact that I got streight As in chemistry in high school. In most of my knowledge about the elements I'm self-taught. I already have a nice photo of some of my element samples for the cover and I'll probably include some more images in the book. A picture of the periodic table is going to be a must.

P. Gordon Kennedy wrote:

Well, I know I can publish it through E-Book Time, which also publishes Of Orbs and Lords, as a paperback. When the publication fee, copyright fee, and all the other fees are added together it'll cost about $575 - $600

Is this your first choice?

They're the only publisher I'm framillier with.

BTW: I just passed 30,000 words!

P. Gordon Kennedy wrote:

P.S. I might also include a section on element collecting (one of my hobbies) and include info on where to find elements and possilbly on the elements contained in common minerals.

Will there be some tips about where best to pan for gold? I could use some to pay off the cost of my movie

P. Gordon Kennedy wrote:

They're the only publisher I'm framillier with.

Well, I guess I'm out of line again, but I don't get this. You're articulate, you can write (except for that "framillier" thing, lol), and the idea sounds good. Especially if where to pan for gold is added! Why not try a publisher that will pay YOU and actually get it out to readers? E-book Time will always be there if it doesn't pan out (ar, ar).

I could try looking for another publisher, but that'll have to wait until I have the manuscript completed, edited, and proofread. I just know that E-Book Time is a sure bet (I hear major publishing houses reject something like 98% of manuscript submissions). I am including some tips on where some element samples can be obtained, such as copper in electrical wires, silver in old "mercury" dimes, and tungsten in incandescent light bulb filaments. I may also include some info on elements in common minerals/gemstones and possibly a "suguested further reading" section.

A Ahad wrote:

P. Gordon Kennedy wrote:

P.S. I might also include a section on element collecting (one of my hobbies) and include info on where to find elements and possilbly on the elements contained in common minerals.

Will there be some tips about where best to pan for gold? I could use some to pay off the cost of my movie

A Ahad... I have been on the gold subject for two years. Learn how the earth makes gold, and you will know where to look. Several of my friends and me are going out (Nevada) when the snow starts to melt.

Technically, the earth does not make gold. Gold is an element and therefore cannot be made from other elements via chemical processes. By definition an element is a substance that cannot be reduced into simpler substances by chemical means. Gold (element 79) and all elements heavier than iron (26) are made in supernova explosions. Man-made elements, neptunium (93) and higher are made in nuclear reactors and particle accelerators. Gold can be made by bashing the right combination of atomic nuculi together in an accelerator, but by that method it would cost millions of dollars to make a barely visible amount of gold (far more than the gold is worth). Alchemists once thought lead could be transformed into gold by using a mythical substance called the philosopher's stone. However, this is not possible in reality as both gold (79) and lead (82) are elements and one element cannot be transformed into another by chemical means. The decay of radioactive elements, such as uranium (92) transforms one element into another (uranium decays into thorium via alpha particle emission), but that is a nuclear process, not a chemical process.

Gordon said:

"Gold (element 79) and all elements heavier than iron (26) are made in supernova explosions."

"Technically, the earth does not make gold."

These to statements don't seem to go together?

Gold is formed under heat, and pressure...it must be made from something?

Those statements go together perfectly fine. If gold is not made on the earth, it must be made somewhere else and that somewhere else is supernova explosions. The gold on earth has been here since the earth formed and was created by supernovas that happened long before the earth and sun came into existance. Gold is made from something, it is made by the fusion of other lighter atomic nuceli. Fusion of elements heavier than iron takes more energy than it produces, so that's why those elements are formed in supernovas rather than in the cores of ordianry stars during their lifetimes. Even at the center of the earth there is not enough heat and pressure to fuse nuceli together, let alone to make gold. The pressures and tempretures needed to create gold via nuculer fusion from lighter elements exceed the pressures and tempretures found at the center of the sun (again, that's why gold is made in supernovas).

The elemental make up of gold is not affected by changes in heat and pressure, etc in the Earth's crust. The theories of nucleosynthesis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleosynthesis

where Peter rightly said heavy elements, such as Gold, were created through fusion of lighter atomic nuclei in past supernova explosions in the universe, is a valid point.

I think where Domenic is coming from is that the quantity of gold deposits you're likely to find at a particular location on the Earth's surface is governed by the type of rock, the local geological and geomorphological conditions that happen to have existed there, etc.

I did an overlay of magnetic fields over fault lines, and found they match. These are the same areas they have found gold, lead, and silver.

I did this for the state of Nevada.

Domenic

It is true that geological processes can cause gold to become concentrated in certain areas of earth's crust (they mine gold in such areas), but this does not constitute making gold. It is simply taking already existing gold and concentrating it.

P. Gordon Kennedy wrote:

I just know that E-Book Time is a sure bet (I hear major publishing houses reject something like 98% of manuscript submissions).

Something like 96% of them are unpublishable, so that rejection rate means nothing.