Just a little update on Death from the Skies! I got the laid-out version last week; a hard copy that is printed the same way it will be when it’s in book form. It has pictures and everything! Very cool.
I’m going through it looking for mistakes. Even after so many eyes have been on it, there are still some, since it had to be converted from copy-edited version to galley proof (which means transcription errors). My favorite is when a exponent gets un-superscripted, so, for example, 1020 becomes 1020. That makes me laugh, since it changes the number a wee bit.
Anyway, I’m going through the last chapter now, and even though I have now read this book like five times, I’m still enjoying reading it. That means everyone else will worship it and it will sell a bazillion copies. Right?
Hrmph.
Anyway, I’ll be done soon, and then there won’t be much left for me to do with it except wait patiently for it to come out in October.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
No problems Phil, I’ll buy one!
April 7th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I certainly look forward to it’s release.
I hope I can procure a copy before they are all ripped away…
April 7th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I’ll be another set of eyes for mistakes if you send me a copy!
April 7th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I’ll give you a bazillion dollars for your laid-out version. I’ll even change the 1020 thing in my head if it makes you happy.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Hi,
This a serious question, exposing my ignorance of the book publishing industry.
If I read your posting correctly, you wrote your book using a computer.
Your manuscript was then converted to another computer system. And this conversion process wasn’t a “full-fidelity” process apparently as you mention transcription errors.
This either means the entire book was re-typed, or that even in the 21st century, there remain incompatibilities between the tools authors use to create books and the tools used to produce books.
In either case, the mind boggles.
Or I’ve completely misunderstood.
thanks!
April 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
How do I sign up to become a Beta Tester?
April 7th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
So they reduced the speed of light to 3 * 108 m/s?
April 7th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Sounds like you’re almost there! Exciting!
April 7th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I’m similarly stunned at the concept of ‘transcription errors’ between copy-edit time and typesetting time.
Don Knuth lives in vain.
He once took several years (decades?) to invent computer typesetting and typography (TeX and MetaFont) because he couldn’t get the mathematics in his computer books properly reproduced.
And we still can’t get it right…
April 7th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I don’t know about a bazillion, but you’ll definitely sell somewhere between 1020 and 1020 copies of your book!
April 7th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
**ahem** that’s “between 1020 and 10^20″. Damn you HTML errors!
Is “between 1020 and 1020″ even a number? Maybe a surreal number…
April 7th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Assuming my understanding of calculus is right, and assuming the theory of limits is true, then the number between 1020 and 1020 is 1020.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
mike says: “If I read your posting correctly, you wrote your book using a computer. Your manuscript was then converted to another computer system. And this conversion process wasn’t a “full-fidelity” process apparently as you mention transcription errors.
This either means the entire book was re-typed, or that even in the 21st century, there remain incompatibilities between the tools authors use to create books and the tools used to produce books.”
Hi Mike -
It depends completely on who the publisher is and what process they use. I’m currently in the same boat as Phil, although a bit behind, formatting “The Saucer Fleet.” My publisher wants the finished files in PDF because I’m doing the actual formatting. Those files can go directly to the negative burning program from which the printing plates are made.
In Phil’s case, he did the more-typical author route of writing/proofing his manuscript in a word processor and sent those files to his publisher who then created the layout. That means a translation from wp files to publisher layout software. This is not a completely clean process and formatting errors like the superscript thing are really common. “Transcription” in this case means data formats, not a literal re-typing (if I’m all wet here, Phil, please speak up).
BTW, if you’ll allow me a blatant commercial plug, you can check out my page for “The Saucer Fleet.” Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see the connection.
http://www.arapress.com/saucer.html
- Jack
April 7th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I’ll buy an extra copy and make your sales reach 1021 ending this pointless discussion !
April 7th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Is Brad Pitt going to be in the movie adaptation?
April 7th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
“Is Brad Pitt going to be in the movie adaptation?”
Nah, Will Wheaton.
April 7th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Lately I bought your first book and I noticed you’ve done your literature well… Death from the skies sounds really exiting, now I hope this book is more than just a plain exiting piece of lecture. With the literature behind the lecture right, I’ll be sure to give it a lovely read; is it?
Cheers, from half way around the world
April 7th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
At work, I get Firefox to read me my web-browsing, and the engine behind the voice simulation doesn’t understand superscripts, so it ignores them: “one thousand twenty becomes one thousand twenty.”
Oh well, if I hear it say that there are “one thousand eleven stars in the milky way galaxy,” I think I can figure out what happened there. I’m looking forward to your book. It should be a great read, and just in time to be a birthday present to me.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Poo, <sup> doesn’t work in comments here, I guess.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Can we start worshipping it now, and avoid the rush in October?
April 7th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
October?? Nuts. I was hoping for some nice space-reading in the summer. Oh well, I suppose these things take time.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
MandyDax: do you know if your screen-reader would read out the “title” attribute if that number was wrapped in an [abbr] tag? If it did then that might be a good thing for web developers to do to increase accessibility.
Really looking forward to your book BA!
April 7th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Its one of life’s fine moments when you create something you’re actually happy with. Looking forward to your new book.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:34 am
the number between 1020 and 1020 is 1020.
Nonsense. between 1020 and 1020 lies a gap, and that’s where God lives!
But seriously, between 1020 and 1020 is the third personality of 1020… the one that makes the happiness turn to anger so quickly… the one that must punish the small animals until it’s simply not enough, and larger targets must be found.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Phil, darling, we’ll make sure your book sells a gajillion copies! I can’t wait for October – I just hope it comes out before my trip to Mexico! Wanna be on the beach reading your book!
Then I’ll have to read it again when I’m sober…
April 8th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Can we get a pic of the cover?
April 8th, 2008 at 5:34 am
(Continuing pointless discussion)
By convention, usually the range is exclusive of the upper bound…
April 8th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Can I borrow (1 Bazillion times price of book) dollars to buy a Bazillion copies?
April 8th, 2008 at 6:22 am
We’re all waiting with bated breath.
Except PZ, of course, who’s waiting with baited breath.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:14 am
October?
garbishe!
April 8th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Congratulations on being so close to completion. It must nicely combine great relief with a sense of accomplishment. I look forward to reading it.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:32 am
There will be advance copies at T.A.M. 6, won’t there?
April 8th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Wait! What if a tiny blackhole at the centre of the solar system (or somewhere in the Swiss-French border) swallows the Earth, or a GRB goes off close by, or an asteroid from beyond planet X slams onto the Earth, before your book releases??? *GASP*
April 8th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Phil,
Please try to catch all the typos. I’m using a new edition of an Astronomy textbook and it’s riddled with typos. I’m really pissed at the typo in a figure that screws up the value of the speed of light! And it was even incorrect in the electronic version of the figure on the DVD.
And if you don’t catch all of the typos, I’ll email you.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I have heard before how someone wrote a manuscript in LaTeX, only to have it transformed into a Word (!) document by a sweat shop in South-East Asia. Talk about perversion! The author in question spent the entire lifetime of the book’s edition picking out typos.
For scientific publishing there is absolutely no reason to use anything other than LaTeX, preferably with a dedicated style (i.e., “class”). Why some publishers not do this is beyond me…
April 8th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I produced my latest manuscript entirely using interpretive dance.
You woulnd’t believe the errors I found.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Can’t wait Phil. I’ll definitely be buying one. So that makes only 999 gazillion, 999 zillion, 999 katrillion.. etc, etc….999 trillion, 999 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 999 to go!
Hey wow, isn’t that exactly how many dumbass creationists it takes to screw in a light bulb? Hmmmm
April 9th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Random thought -
If the Coen brothers make a sci-fi end-of-the-world flick, maybe they’ll include a battered, beat-up, soaked in bank robbery blue dye copy of DFTS as the “user manual”
(A more typical Coen brothers movie would follow the exploits of a bunch of UFOlogists or other woo-woo believers as the roam around trying to catch up with sightings and always just miss them, because there really nothing there, which everyone in the movie except the heros will understand. Stanton Freeman is scary enough to be the villain… Think he would sue if they used a heavy-set guy with a replica of his beard and the initials SF in the role?)
April 9th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Phil, can Peter and I backstop you? Not on science, which you have handled: but P. in particular is the poorfreader’s proofreader.
He catches what I miss in MSs, which is saying something.
Best! D.