Ricki Lewis: Human Genetics: The Basics

HUMAN GENETICS: THE BASICS, SECOND EDITION
Ricki Lewis
Routledge, December 13, 2016, $25.95
ISBN-13: 978-1138668010; ISBN-10: 113866801X;
ebook, 13-9781315406985

Lewis reports:

The new, second edition of my short, sweet, and cheap Human Genetics: The Basics has been updated with inspiration and stories from my weekly DNA Science blog http://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/. The Basics books cover a topic in six to 12 chapters. Human Genetics is the only natural science book. Other topics in the series include anthropology, gender, logic, terrorism, and Shakespeare.

The series editor recruited me in 2009 after he had read my human genetics textbook. I was able to write this book because it is not a textbook (no pedagogical elements), and therefore doesn’t violate my non-compete clause with my other publisher. I received a small advance for the first edition, but turned one down for the second. Doing so expedited the process of getting the go-ahead, and I needed to fit preparing the second edition around working on three textbook projects.

For both editions, I submitted a three-page proposal with a paragraph devoted to each of the six chapters. Interestingly, reviewers of the first edition suggested that I swap the first and last chapters. What a difference! The original first chapter, “From Ancestry to Destiny,” indeed works much better at the end. Reviewers also requested cases and examples from outside the U.S., as most readers are in Europe. My report on the U.S. Precision Medicine Initiative, for example, follows discussion of the U.K. 100,000 Genomes Project.

Because I’ve been writing about genetics non-stop since getting my Ph.D. in 1980, I didn’t need to do research, just lots of organizing, cutting-and-pasting, and writing transitions. The first edition took about four months, and the second about six weeks.

While writing Human Genetics: The Basics, I envisioned the rare disease families whom I blog about so often, and their compelling need to understand what is happening. The book is also ideal for new hires at pharmaceutical companies who need to get up to speed fast, or anyone who wants to understand the genetic principles that underlie news reports.

Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis, was great to work with. I received the entire copy-edited manuscript at once, in page-proof stage, for example. That sped up the review and publication process.

Contact info:

• Ricki Lewis, 518-210-2017, rickilewis54@gmail.com, http://www.rickilewis.com/
• Book website: https://www.routledge.com/Human-Genetics-The-Basics-2nd-Edition/Lewis/p/book/9781138668010
• Blog website: http://blogs.plos.org/dnascience/

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