Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of harrisons fortyyear obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. For example, the typesetter had inexplicably swapped the word latitude for. Dava sobels longitude achieved bestselling status on the new york times nonfiction list in both hardcover and paperback. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. For the best results, we recommend a microsoft word docdocx or a kpf file created with kindle create. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of.
Proper manuscript format for a novel first manuscript. The binder would sew the gatherings sometimes also called signatures through their inner hinges and attached to cords in the spine to form the book block. How to format your book for self publication bookstand. The subtitle here tells the reader exactly what the book is about. An inability to calculate longitude had been the cause of many disasters at sea, prompting the british government to launch the longitude prize in. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time pdf epub book. Typesetting and formatting your book completelynovel. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a bestselling book by dava sobel about john harrison, an 18thcentury clockmaker who created the first clock chronometer sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at seaan important development in navigation. Ultimately, it also proves the point that genius or success my addition is one per cent inspiration and ninetynine per cent perspiration as edison told us not so long ago.
Be sure to tailor your submission to meet their preferences. That it has done so speaks well for the reading public in this country. In the hand press period up to about 1820 books were manufactured by printing text on both sides of a full sheet of paper and then folding the paper one or more times into a group of leaves or gathering. In the same format as his newbery honor title the great fire 1995, murphy. After finding the precise coordinates, in minutes and seconds, for your lines of latitude and longitude, write them out in the correct order. Part biography, part history, part scientific exploration, longitude relates the quest for an accurate way to determine longitude. Historically, these terms referred to the format of the book, a technical term. In most cases, the ebook maker regardless of whether its a vendor or an opensource project will decide to adapt and use an existing format, or to have some underlying programming language to. The directions below are for ms word 7 and 10 the most. Under spacing, set before and after to 0 pt, and line spacing to single. Sobel has done the impossible and made horology sexy no mean feat new scientist anyone alive in the 18th century would have known that the longitude problem was.
Apr 28, 2011 anyone alive in the 18th century would have known that the longitude problem was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day and had been for centuries. Youve written your book, now it is time to put it all together. The first line of a paragraph is indented one half inch, or 5 characters, from the margin. How to format print and ebook files that translate correctly. The image of the lone genius, prevailing against the odds to make a better world, is an attractive one. As you prepare your ebook, consider whether your content should have a fixed or reflowable format. The story of john longitude harrison disproves this. The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest.
While sailors can readily gauge latitude by the height of the sun or guiding stars above the horizon, the measurement of longitude bedeviled navigators for. Please note that many agents and publishers have a preferred format. One of the things writers tend to obsess over is the proper format for submitting their manuscripts to agents and editors. Download our free guide to typesetting and uploading your book on completelynovel. This explains how john harrison, discovered how to. Exterior top, bottom, and outer edge and interior or gutter, where the book is bound. At sea, there were no landmarks by which ones eastwest position could be tracked. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from folio the largest, to quarto smaller and octavo still smaller. How to format your novel manuscript the editors blog. For your reference, we provided these longitude quotes with page numbers using the following version of the book. In most cases, the ebook maker regardless of whether its a vendor or an opensource project will decide to adapt and use an existing format, or to have some underlying programming language to make coding the format easier.
Page numbering begins with 1 on the second page of the manuscript the first page of actual text, and each chapter begins on its own page. The margins are set so that there are 25 lines per page, with each line having a maximum of 60 characters. Here are the basics steps on formatting your manuscript in microsoft word for self publication. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of harrisons forty epubyear obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. It was intended for nonscientific types and the author did a good job keeping the reader interested. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time 10th anniversary ed by sobel, dava isbn. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 192 pages and is available in hardcover format. Andrewes, the man who first invited her to write about the longitude symposium he was hosting in 1994 and thereby inspired what proved to be a surprisingly popular book. Skip a couple of spaces and begin the text of the chapter. Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library staff as they consider how to handle.
The basic rules for formatting a novel manuscript are detailed below. May 17, 2014 an inability to calculate longitude had been the cause of many disasters at sea, prompting the british government to launch the longitude prize in 1714. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Longitude from dava sobel is a fascinating account of how a virtually unknown watchmaker named john harrison conquered one of the oldest and thorniest problems surrounding the ocean voyages the problem of accurately measuring longitude, which stumped even the best of scientific minds for centuries. Adapt your manuscript for each agent or publisher most will be remarkably similar. Your manuscript should be clean and professionallookingafter that, its your story that will make or break your submission. Start with your line of latitude, writing the degrees, then the minutes, then the seconds. For one thing, a novel manuscript requires a separate title page. Long, long meetings are spent debating the merits of a, b or c trade formats. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading longitude. Oct 19, 1995 longitude from dava sobel is a fascinating account of how a virtually unknown watchmaker named john harrison conquered one of the oldest and thorniest problems surrounding the ocean voyages the problem of accurately measuring longitude, which stumped even the best of scientific minds for centuries.
The first edition of the novel was published in 1995, and was written by dava sobel. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time chapter 2. Aug 10, 2001 long, long meetings are spent debating the merits of a, b or c trade formats. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time kindle edition by sobel, dava. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time is a bestselling book by dava sobel about john harrison, an 18thcentury clockmaker who created. Frankly, i learned much about the process of setting up longitude on our maps and globessomething, i am. These steps include including setting up the correct trim size, setting up the correct margins, formatting the text, and numbering the pages. Twelve point, times new roman or courier new, if you insist, black. Jun 30, 2009 ebook formats are no longer created from scratch. In most cases, the changes required will be minor tweaks. Longitude, bloomsbury publishing usa, 2010 208 pages. Selfpublishing expert carla king covers all the formatting bases you need to know such as.
Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Here are 7 novels with unusual and unconventional narrative formats. A fascinating problem it was ptolemy in geographia, written in the 2nd century, who. Click the format list the dropdown at the bottom of the dialog box and choose paragraph. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his. In the standard format, section text is doublespaced, leftaligned, and set in a 12point courier font. Begin numbering with the first page of the actual novel. Mar 24, 2011 for a nonfiction book this read very well. Unlike parallels of latitude, which are fixed by nature, longitude is. In a published book, chapters generally begin onethird to halfway down the page. You may decide to format your manuscript when you start or you may choose to do it. This sample novel excerpt shows some of the ways in which novel format differs from short story format. Christopher lehmannhaupt, new york times a simple tale, brilliantly told.
Oct 30, 2007 roughly onequarter of the many letters i received after the publication of longitude complained that the book contained no pictures, maps, or diagrams. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific. Dava sobel is the bestselling author of longitude, galileos daughter, and. Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking. This loudly expressed interest in illustrations led to the illustrated longitude, published simultaneously in england and the united states in 1998, with 180 images selected and captioned by my. Epub for digital editions ebook reader the epub format is perfect for reading on smaller screens, because the lines of text reflow and adjust to accommodate varying font sizes and screen sizes. Longitude is the story of english clockmaker john harrison and how he figured out how to track longitude, or the eastwest position of ships.
But the design of the pages inside those covers have just as much impact and require the same amount of careful consideration. Jan 05, 2011 adapt your manuscript for each agent or publisher most will be remarkably similar. The publication of longitude taught me that a book can actually improve by virtue of being read. You should lay out the text of the novel itself out using the following rules. For any agent or publisher without a specific format, follow an accepted format for novel manuscripts, such as this one font. However, formatting rules can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study.
The problem of longitude was long regarded as unsolvable. The greek astronomers could measure latitude as early as the third century b. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world. It was the first nonfiction book, i think, that i really couldnt put down.
Reliable information about the coronavirus covid19 is available from the world health organization current situation, international travel. Former new york times reporter sobel coauthor, arthritis. Under indentation special, set first line indent to 0. Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that the longitude problem was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day. The importance of format and feel books the guardian. That is the same size as a lot of hardbacks, although in the us agents. About 12 the way down the page, centered, enter the full manuscript title all caps or mixed caps. Longitude reads like a novel, but is the true story of john harrisons search for a time piece to aid. Frankly, i learned much about the process of setting up longitude on our maps and globessomething, i am sure many of us take for granted. When longitude first appeared in 1995, sobels lucid, insightful little book had a single imperfection. For help formatting a quality ebook, see this stepbystep guide. Center the chapter title, even if its only chapter one or chapter 1, about onethird of the way down the page.
As a book collector, i thought it might be helpful for you to know the different formats in which you can find books. You can upload and convert your ebook manuscript file from several supported formats. Jan 06, 2020 write degrees, then minutes, then seconds. It gives the publisher or literary agent room to make notes. American library association nonfiction outstanding books for the college bound and. Since theres no easy way to measure, say, three inches from the top of the page in word, one way to position your chapter headings is to start them at the top of the page and then drop them down by a specific number of lines carriage returns. Washington post book world as much a tale of intrigue as it is of sciencea book full of gems for anyone interested in history, geography, astronomy, navigation, clockmaking, andnot the leastplain old human ambition and greed. The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. Formats that are more suited to smaller screens like epub tend to lose page formatting when displayed on a computer screen. Webarchive template wayback links all articles with unsourced statements articles with unsourced statements from october 2015. Longitude is a book thats worth reading and rereading to learn how ideas can be turned into fact.
Dava sobels 1995 book first came without illustrations, but to meet reader demands, her publisher released the illustrated longitude. One telltale sign of a selfpublished book is tiny, tiny margins. Think of the author, sitting at their computer toiling away and finally creating the final draft of their story. The true story of a lone genius who solved goodreads. When many firsttime selfpublishers consider the design elements of their book they only think of the front cover. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time. The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time by dava sobel, neil frw armstrong. Numerous attentive readers took the trouble to write to me to point out typos or other errors in the text, which the publisher then corrected in subsequent editions.
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