Water: All That Matters

By Prof. Paul Younger

Bioethics: All That Matters

By Prof. Donna Dickenson

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

The publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, tasked me with launching the new All That Matters Series offering some brief but informative summaries, mostly by well-known scholars, and aimed at University students. The campaign also involved launching the first few titles in the Series, including Prof Younger’s Water and Prof Dickenson’s Bioethics.

Water: All That Matters brings together the ecological, geographical, political and scientific aspects of water. Its various chapters ranging from ‘H2O – the molecular marvel’ to ‘The miracle of the blue planet’ and ‘Use, abuse, or lose? Water as a resource’ raise the most pressing issues surrounding water. Prof Younger offers a concise but greatly stimulating overview of what the ‘science of water’ involves and how we go about harnessing water for our purposes. He also conveys water’s ecological centrality and its social importance.

Bioethics: All That Matters, by award-winning author Donna Dickenson, doesn’t presuppose any scientific background: all that readers need to know about stem cell technology, reproductive tourism, modern genetics or cognitive enhancement is clearly explained.

What it demands is an open mind, willing to move beyond the usual truisms like ‘science is playing God’, or, from the opposite camp, ‘science will bring us perfect happiness’.

The challenge

Launching a new Series of ‘introductions aimed at University/ Secondary school students’ in an overcrowded market was inevitably going to demand a lot of time and effort. In order to persuade journalists to cover the individual titles, I devised as many feature ideas as possible linked to topics in the news.

The solution

Read the books carefully and work closely with the authors to gain a good knowledge of their subject in order to find many original media pitches.

The result

I was able to obtain extensive coverage both for the All That Matters Series and for the individual launch titles including Water and Bioethics.

Several of the most coveted cultural Festivals invited the authors to talk including The Telegraph’s Ways with Words, Cheltenham’s Science Festival, Oxford Literary Festival and How the Light Gets In (Hay-on-Wye Philosophy Festival).

Moreover, The Bookseller (the publishing industry’s leading weekly) featured a one-page article announcing the new Series, The Guardian newspaper reviewed all of the Series’ new titles, and the Mail Online’s science section published a long piece about Paul Younger’s Water. His title was also covered in scientific/ environmental publications including Geographical, Geology Today, and digital magazine The Ecologist. Prof Younger’s local media, The Journal (Newcastle) marked the book’s launch with an author’s interview.

Prof. Donna Dickenson’s book was reviewed in leading academic weekly, Times Higher Education, she was also interviewed by BBC Radio 5 Live (Up All Night, their magazine programme aimed at a global audience) and by the Oxford media, including the local BBC since the gave a talk at the Oxford Literary Festival.