Brooke Borel: Infested

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

INFESTED:
HOW THE BED BUG INFILTRATED OUR BEDROOMS
AND TOOK OVER THE WORLD
Brooke Borel
University of Chicago Press, May 15, 2015, $26
ISBN-13: 9780226041933

Borel reports:

I came to the idea for Infested in exactly opposite the way you’re supposed to: I had a topic, not a story. Still, bed bugs were in the news when I started informally chatting with agents in early 2011 and it was enough to get a bite (pun, of course, intended).

Brooke Borel

I’d already personally suffered through bed bugs three times, and had written short news pieces on the ways bed bugs had evolved insecticide resistance for Popular Science. During interviews for those articles, I learned two tantalizing pieces of the insect’s story. First, even though the bed bug seemed new to me, it actually was an ancient pest — the uptick in infestations was really just a return to longstanding cohabitation. Second, scientists had been going to great lengths to rear the bug in the lab in order to study it, including one former army entomologist who had fed a population on his own arms and legs since the early seventies. Who doesn’t want to learn more about that?

My lovely agent, Paul Lucas at Janklow and Nesbit, patiently led me through the proposal process. I cobbled together a possible narrative, although the real story remained murky until I had been reporting it out for at least a year. A lot of publishers turned us down. Even the four or so places where the proposal made it to committee, ultimately told us the subject matter was just too gross. (I disagree! That’s a selling point for a lot of readers.) The University of Chicago Press saw the potential, and became a great partner.

From there, I ran a Kickstarter to help fund reporting trips. I eventually received a book grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which helped fund more trips, paid for book art, and provided financial support while I edited and fact-checked.

Four years, ten reporting trips, dozens of interviews, hundreds of documents, countless Internet rabbit holes (who knew there was so much bed bug music on YouTube?), a surprising twist later, and the book is out.

An old nursery rhyme says it best:

The June bug’s got the golden wing,
The lightning bug the flame,
The bed bug’s got no wing at all,
But he gets there just the same.

Contact info:

Author: Brooke Borel: brookeborel@gmail.com, www.brookeborel.com
Agent: Paul Lucas, 212.421.1700, plucas@janklow.com
Publicist: Carrie Adams, 773.702.4216, cadams@press.uchicago.edu
Blog: http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/our-modern-plagues
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/476011687/bed-bug-the-return-of-the-worlds-most-reviled-hous
Sloan: http://www.sloan.org/major-program-areas/public-understanding-of-science-and-technology/books/

NASW members: will your book be published soon? Take advantage of this opportunity for shameless self-promotion.

Tell your fellow NASW members how you came up with the idea for your book, developed a proposal, found an agent and publisher, funded and conducted research, and put the book together. Include what you wish you had known before you started this project, or had done differently.

See https://www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines.

Send info and images to Lynne Lamberg, NASW book editor, llamberg@nasw.org.

Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines for information on submitting your report.

Publication of NASW author reports in Advance Copy does not constitute NASW's endorsement of any publication or the ideas, values, or material contained within or espoused by authors or their books. We hope this column stimulates productive discussions on important topics now and in the future as both science and societies progress. We welcome your discussion in the comments section below.