Adrian Dingle: The Elements

THE ELEMENTS — A TOUR OF THE PERIODIC TABLE (US)
THE ELEMENTS — AN ENCYCLOPEDIC TOUR OF THE PERIODIC TABLE (U.K.)
Adrian Dingle
U.S. version, Metro Books, June 12, 2017, $8.98
U.K. version, Quad Books, June 15, 2017, £10.29
U.S. ISBN-13: 9781435164635
U.K. ISBN-10: 0857625055; ISBN-13: 978-0857625052

Dingle reports:

Much of my work as a writer involves work-for-hire projects where I am tasked with bringing the ideas of others to fruition. My almost three decades of high school and college chemistry teaching experience helps me pitch complex ideas at an appropriate level to a general audience. My latest book, The Elements — A Tour of The Periodic Table, is one example.

I worked with Quad Books in the U.K. for the production of the text, editing, technical review, and image checks. In the U.S., the publisher is Metro Books, an imprint of Sterling Publishing, which in turn is a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble.

It took me approximately 11 months from being asked to write the book (thanks to a couple of Twitter connections), to its publication. As is usual with a WFH project, I received a flat fee without royalties.

Since research for the majority of the elements already has been done, the bulk of my work involved collating and re-engineering from many well-established sources. However, the slightly less well-known elements often offered opportunities for digging a little deeper. I was particularly interested in recent news and scientific articles about elements that have very few established applications and uses. A number of the lanthanoids and actinoids fall into this category. Since the chemistry of those elements is constantly evolving, I hoped they would offer some of the most fertile ground for writing about less extensively reported chemistry.

I’ve worked on a number of projects about the periodic table over the years. One of the recurring (and frustrating) themes of such projects is that restrictions regarding word or page count prevent discussion of each of the current 118 elements. That was true with this book, too. Luckily, my next WFH project — a children’s book about the periodic table with an emphasis on illustrations and design — will allow me to include all 118 elements.

Contact info:

• Adrian Dingle, 404-434-1488, adrian@adriandingleschemistrypages.com
• Website: http://www.adriandingleschemistrypages.com
• Blog: http://www.adriandingleschemistrypages.com/blog
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/adchempages

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