Page Proofs
Hit the 3/4 mark on the page proofs yesterday. I should finish them today, fiddle with some repeated word issues tomorrow and mail tomorrow PM just before my makeup ballet class.
Then I get to go back to writing. Figured out some things on Thistle Downe and a few ways to rewrite Trance Dancer proposal.
I'm quite pleased with the page proofs. only 8 corrections so far. 2 of them are continuity issues that I think should have been caught by the CE.
This is a remarkable improvement over my first 8-10 novels. In the bad old days I submitted hard copy. The editor and CE did their work on the paper. Then the work was farmed out -- usually overseas -- and the entire corrected MS was typed into a machine that formatted the novel for printing as a book. Page proofs in those days generally had 80-100 corrections. I could tell when the typists shift changed. The nature and number of corrections in each section changed. I'd go from out and out non-sensical typos to reversed letters to reversed words.
In those days a book with 8 or fewer errors was considered perfect and the author got blamed by the readers for every mistake.
Now I submit electronic copy. The editor and CE may print out and work on paper copies, but then only the changes are entered on the original E copy. Computers format for book printing and spit out the Page Proofs before going to full production. I like this version a lot better. I still get blamed for the errors. But there are a lot fewer of them.
Then I get to go back to writing. Figured out some things on Thistle Downe and a few ways to rewrite Trance Dancer proposal.
I'm quite pleased with the page proofs. only 8 corrections so far. 2 of them are continuity issues that I think should have been caught by the CE.
This is a remarkable improvement over my first 8-10 novels. In the bad old days I submitted hard copy. The editor and CE did their work on the paper. Then the work was farmed out -- usually overseas -- and the entire corrected MS was typed into a machine that formatted the novel for printing as a book. Page proofs in those days generally had 80-100 corrections. I could tell when the typists shift changed. The nature and number of corrections in each section changed. I'd go from out and out non-sensical typos to reversed letters to reversed words.
In those days a book with 8 or fewer errors was considered perfect and the author got blamed by the readers for every mistake.
Now I submit electronic copy. The editor and CE may print out and work on paper copies, but then only the changes are entered on the original E copy. Computers format for book printing and spit out the Page Proofs before going to full production. I like this version a lot better. I still get blamed for the errors. But there are a lot fewer of them.