Tag Archives: Art of Clinical Microbiology

“On Sale Now”

Confessions of a Microbiologist, ,

book_4380

Just to let you know that this book is now on sale. Just click on this link

The price of the book covers the printing, publishing and shipping costs, with a bit of a discount for those wanting to buy more than one copy.

I got 200 books printed as a 1st edition, and have donated about 20 copies. So there is about 180 left to sell. I have no idea how well or how badly they will sell, I will just have to wait and see…

I have never sold anything in my life before!, so hopefully it will go smoothly. Just let me know if you encounter any problems.

As a clinical microbiology book (as you are probably aware, this is not a textbook in the classical sense of the word) it is probably quite unique. There is unlikely to have been a similar book published before, and probably never will be again!

To those people who decide to buy a copy, for themselves or their laboratory, many thanks. It is much appreciated. For those who decide not to, no problem whatsoever.

This will be the last post dedicated to this book. Normal service will resume with the next post!

Michael

 

“Book”

The Art of Microbiology,

book_4380

After what seems like an eternity, I finally got my book “The Art of Clinical Microbiology” published and have got 200 copies printed off for the first edition.

I plan to first of all donate some copies to family, friends and colleagues, and then sell the rest on my website and on Amazon.

Given the rather niche market involved, I doubt it will be a bestseller!

Over the next couple of weeks I will work out how to put a Paypal account onto my website, how to advertise a book on the Internet, and do various other bits and pieces that I have no experience with whatsoever.

I am first and foremost a Clinical Microbiologist, and a bit part blogger and author. I am definitely not a marketer or salesperson!

Oh and I will need to organise a price as well. It won’t be expensive, just enough to cover the printing costs. (You don’t write a microbiology book looking for financial profit… ) And there will of course be a significant discount for subscribers to my website.

So what is next?

The title of my next book will be “The Lean, Mean, Microbiology Machine”, which will of course be about efficient workflow and all the different types of automation that are now available in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Again I don’t expect it to reach the Top 100 Paperbacks, but I do look forward to writing it nevertheless…

Michael

“Publish or Perish”

The Art of Microbiology, ,

You will probably have heard this saying before, the idea being that if you don’t regularly write articles for ‘research’ journals then your career will start to go backwards.

I think there may be a modicum of truth to this, particularly if you are planning to climb up the greasy (and slightly corporatised) academic pole of a tertiary university hospital.

Having said that, when I look around at my colleagues in microbiology, some publish profusely and others completely ignore this avenue. Fortunately none, as far as I am aware, have ‘perished’ due to failing to publish.

It is also worthwhile noting, just how commercialised the whole business of publishing research articles has become… With the advent of ‘Open Access’ journals, where the contributor pays, and not the user, the ease with which one can get something published has changed dramatically. I will not comment on the quality of the articles…

I would get an average of two emails a day in my Inbox asking/pestering me to publish an article in some (Open Access) journal or other, no doubt at significant expense to myself!

So from a personal point of view I have been fairly quiet on the publication front recently. However, always wanting to be a little bit different from my colleagues, and never being one to conform to what is traditionally expected, I have opted to bring out my own publication, “The Art of Clinical Microbiology”.

book

This is a book which draws on content from this website, presented in a nicely ordered format and with some other bits and pieces included.

The manuscript goes to the printers in the next few days so I will keep you posted on how to get hold of a copy in due course.

And the nicest part of the whole process was getting the ISBN (publication) number for the book. That’s when the reality (and satisfaction) of writing your own book hits home!

Michael