"The popular science genre is dead"

However, when you go to any bookstore, you can see a large number of foreign, translated popular science literature.

I haven't seen a lot of fresh popular science literature, yes, there are a lot of books, but these are mostly books published abroad a hundred years ago, and they are not the first edition published in our country. Or is it just on our DV? In general, I agree with Mikhailov, the genre, if not dead, then in agony.

I agree with Mikhailov. The genre that can be called a "scientific fairy tale" – "Karik and Valya", etc. - died before anyone else. In Mummy Trolls author for kids (!!!) gives Latin names of real plants and insects. Take the novels of Murdoch ("Bruno's Dream") or Fowles ("The Magus") - the Latin names of spiders are given. It seems to be a trifle, but it reflects the level of both the writer and the reader. This is generally speaking.

Foreign books contain many illustrations and little text. They're TOO popular. And ours are very poorly illustrated. People now want to see and know through the image and the topic to it. However, readers ' wishes can be managed through advertising, through school and university education. There are specialists who can write a popular book on spiders, insects, plants, fungi, etc.in our country. There is, however, one strange paradox: abroad you can buy an atlas-determinant for a variety of groups. Our students still identify spiders based on Tyschenko's book. I would not say that such qualifiers would remain unclaimed – they simply do not write them, because it is damn difficult, requires the highest professionalism.

dear colleagues!
Let's distinguish between popular science and nonfiction literature.
The first one will be in demand very little - mostly among amateurs,

since most professionals involved in entomology believe that

they have grown out of this age to buy popular science literature.
And most people are now interested in detective stories and other "Reading materials".
As for scientific publications, they are very popular. Using your own example

I will say that the problem often occurs in the additional circulation. All difficulties in

paying for the publication itself (biologists don't always have the money to pay 10 bucks each

for one copy of the published book). And the demand for a normally developed grid

there will always be colleagues.

dear colleagues!
Let's distinguish between popular science and nonfiction literature.
The first one will be in demand very little - mostly among amateurs,

since most professionals involved in entomology believe that

they have grown out of this age to buy popular science literature.
And most people are now interested in detective stories and other "Reading materials".
As for scientific publications, they are very popular. Using your own example

I will say that the problem often occurs in the additional circulation. All difficulties in

paying for the publication itself (biologists don't always have the money to pay 10 bucks each

for one copy of the published book). And the demand for a normally developed grid

there will always be colleagues.

not your truth: I am a specialist in my group, but I would love to buy popular science atlases-determinants of spiders, fungi, plants, etc. But where are they? What is published in the KMK is not comparable to similar Japanese and even Chinese publications.

Popular science literature has been and, I think, will continue to be popular with specialists in any topic, but those who want to expand their horizons (but not go into the topic at the professional level). I'm not a physicist, not a chemist, it's hard for me to read "field theory", but it's interesting to read popular books about Landau and his works (as an example), I generally like to poke my nose into various natural science areas, and how to do it without popular science literature. And such books were not enough in my childhood, despite the circulation (mid-80s), and now they are practically nonexistent. It's hard for me to find out what kind of place to apply them to, just like a photo album about nature? It is difficult to determine by them, it is not always interesting to consider (butterflies (and even then, not all)- it is clear, but ticks, millipedes, lichens, etc.). But with them, the question is solved, look at Berlov's work.

If we talk about popular science literature, then at present it is rather a shortage than an overabundance. I'm talking about determinants. During my school years (the 90s), there were enough of them. I myself have about 10 pieces of that time lying around. Now with the determinants (no matter what group, insects, fish, etc.) in my opinion very little. Probably not at all. Literature for specialists is distributed mainly by acquaintance (among colleagues) or at conferences, congresses, and similar meetings.

There is another option: the Internet (dear Mylabris probably had this in mind). Based on personal experience, it's not even a bad option. At the beginning of this year, we sat down.we wrote a book (http://herpeto-volga.apus.ru/forum/index.php?topic=2.0). I apologize for the ad. Almost the entire circulation sold out before October, i.e. for a year... I.e. people are interested, looking for information on the Internet, not finding it on the shelves of stores.

If you publish separate journals on entomology, then naturally the demand will not be great. But there is a demand for scientific and popular science publications. It's just that if we combined physics, chemistry, entomology, cytology, and anything else, the demand would be much higher. Yes, and every interested person would be interested in digging in different areas, and people would have more interest in different areas if they learned interesting things. And when there is no information, then there is no interest.

Here in the next branch ( http://molbiol.ru/forums/index.php?showtop...t=0#entry442296 There is a discussion of one interview entitled "The popular science genre is dead" in relation to entomological popular science literature. The author, publisher K. G. Mikhailov, on the basis of the fact that he cannot sell the popular science books published by him, makes a conclusion about the death of this genre. However, when you go to any bookstore, you can see a large number of foreign, translated popular science literature. What is the paradox of this phenomenon? Why is foreign popular science literature lying on the shelves, but they don't want to print such domestic literature?

The fact that today it is almost impossible to buy a competent popular science book in an ordinary bookstore is a fact (a pleasant exception was the recent purchase of the book "The Wonderful World of Beetles" by S. S. Izhevsky in one of the stores in Kursk). It seems to me that this state of affairs is primarily due to the reluctance of publishers to work with this "capricious" genre. During the Soviet era, the publication of popular science literature was controlled by the state, as, indeed , the publication of all other literature, while the issue of profits from sales of publications remained as if in the background. Now the situation is completely different - any publishing house (with the exception of those that are particularly funded from outside, for example, those that publish religious literature) is primarily a commercial structure, the main motive of which is to make a profit. This mercantile approach defines the range of modern bookstores-they sell only what people are ready to "buy" en masse - i.e. crime and romance novels... And popular science literature is a big risk for the publisher - it is not known how readers will accept the book and whether the costs will pay off. For example, the book I mentioned about beetles has been sitting on the counter of the store since 2002 - during this time it was pretty shabby, someone even tore off a corner from the first page-but no one bought it, until I found it on one of the inconspicuous book stands at the back of the store - at the end of 2006...
As for the Russian reissue of foreign popular science literature, it has its own nuances. Such books have already been sold in other countries before, and therefore a Russian publisher can get information about how the book was received by readers, how successful its sales were. If this statistic satisfies the publisher, it can already, with a lower risk of going bust, start publishing this book in Russia. However, the quality of this literature is sometimes very dubious, and it can be called rather "pseudoscientific-popular" - basically, such books are full of colorful photos, often with incorrect comments, plus they suffer from an almost complete lack of cognitive text (either a pseudoscientific surrogate, or absolutely "childish" information). This again brings such literature closer to what the masses are ready to buy, who do not like "abstruse" comments, but are delighted with colorful photos on coated paper.
My vision for solving this problem is that the publication of popular science literature needs funding, and on a permanent basis-if not from the state (which, apparently, is unlikely to ever condescend to such "minor" problems), then from some public funds or organizations. In the meantime, we are all reading together about the adventures of Madman

But gentlemen, do not forget about magazines, many-Chemistry and life, Nature, Geo, etc. are happy to publish HIGH-QUALITY scientific. pop. materials, including on insects. I have a friend who is a butterfly faunalist. and a great photographer, so his material with photos goes in magazines with a bang!

I am familiar with this problem firsthand.
3 years ago, I tried to publish my book, but after a year of running around publishing houses, conversations and various meetings, I was convinced that even profiled publishing houses like Aquarium and others like it are simply afraid to publish this...
On the other hand, they also publish absolutely illiterate and very dubious "books", which the language cannot even be called such.
In general, apparently, it's just that the "market "is really focused on" read - and-forget " literature, which publishers themselves clearly feel, as a result of which they do not risk investing money in other projects...