Echo of the big bang

摘要

Stephen Hawking may have taken science to the bedside table, but the phenomenon is over. The attitude of publishers and booksellers towards popular science writing has changed, and the market is not as buoyant as it was a decade ago. Gone are the days when publishers were falling over themselves to acquire the next Brief History of Time or Longitude, and were happy to pay big bucks to fend off the competition. Whereas authors could once command six-figure advances for books on cutting-edge science or narrative-driven histories of the subject, most today struggle to get a deal, let alone shift several thousand copies of their books. This is not to say that the audience for serious popular science has evaporated: there are still plenty of readers hungry for authoritative, well-written, interesting books. But the 'trade' — the commercial sector of the publishing market—has raised the bar for what kinds of book find their way on to the bookstands.