Bijal P. Trivedi—Breath from Salt: A Deadly Genetic Disease, a New Era in Science, and the Patients and Families Who Changed Medicine Forever

BREATH FROM SALT:
A DEADLY GENETIC DISEASE, A NEW ERA IN SCIENCE,
AND THE PATIENTS AND FAMILIES
WHO CHANGED MEDICINE FOREVER
Bijal P. Trivedi
BenBella Books, September 8, 2020, $28.95, Kindle: $20.08
ISBN-10: 1948836378; ISBN-13: 9781948836371
ASIN: B084RM6ZCF

Trivedi reports:

Breath from Salt grew out of a Discover magazine assignment. My mission was to investigate the backstory behind a new drug, Kalydeco (ivacaftor), that was being touted as a revolutionary life-saving medicine for 4% of children with a rare and fatal disease, cystic fibrosis. That was in 2012.

While researching the story, I interviewed a couple whose son had died of the disease. Despite the heartache, they didn’t walk away from the cystic fibrosis community. Instead, they doubled down to help with efforts to find a treatment. They’ve raised more than $250 million for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, money that was invested in drug research.

Meeting them made me want to follow the story—and produce a book about it. Over the next seven years, I interviewed families, physicians, scientists, patients, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs.

By 2019, a pharmaceutical company had developed three more FDA-approved medicines for cystic fibrosis. There are now treatments for more than 90% of those born with this lethal hereditary disease. These medicines also made medical history: they launched the age of personalized medicine.

This was my first book and it took about a year to figure out the story and write a proposal, which I did by following instructions laid out in Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get It Published by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato, along with insight and feedback from colleagues.

I shopped the proposal around to 10 agents. I went with Ethan Bassoff, who is now with the Ross Yoon Agency. Ethan garnered interest from three publishers, all with very modest advances. I chose BenBella Books. They were incredibly flexible and supportive during the entire project.

Since my advance was modest, I had to fund most of the travel, all of the transcription and the illustrations for the book.

For my next book, I’d hire a research assistant (a smart, young college grad) much earlier in the process and find an independent artist to work with rather than hiring a firm.

Contact info:

Bijal P. Trivedi, bijal_trivedi@mac.com, https://www.bijaltrivedi.com/, https://www.bijaltrivedi.com/breath-from-salt, @BijalPTrivedi
Book: https://www.benbellabooks.com/shop/breath-from-salt/
Publicist: Lindsay Marshall, lindsay@benbellabooks.com
Agent: Ethan Bassoff, ethan@rossyoon.com

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