Just got my copyedits for A LITTLE TASTE OF POISON...

[rj_anderson]

And here I'd been thinking this would be the week I could finally get to a couple of other authors' manuscripts I'd promised to comment on! The best laid plans...
I confess to opening the Word document with a little trepidation, as one never knows what sorts of things will come up in copyedits or how much work it's going to be. Plus I haven't looked

Comments

[deva_fagan]

Woohoo! Congratulations on moving one step closer to finished book!

I always felt especially good whenever I got a good CE comment -- as you say, they are mostly all business!

[rj_anderson]

You have good reason to be, after what you've had to contend with! Even my CE's for Pocket were a lot fussier and involved more cranky "STET STET STET"ing than this round...

[olmue]

Very nice editorial response! Is this a sequel to A Pocket Full of Murder?

[rj_anderson]

Yes! It's coming out this fall. I'm planning to do a proper cover / jacket copy post soon, maybe even with an excerpt from the first chapter...

[olmue]

Yay! I really enjoyed the first one. :)

[rj_anderson]

*beams gratefully at you*

[imbecamiel]

That's awesome! How well I know the trepidation of opening an edited document or feedback, waiting to see if I've missed something catastrophic or truly embarrassing... So glad things are looking good!

(Your mention of the positive feedback was actually a really good reminder for me. It is so easy to get too focused on the work-to-be-done side of copyediting, especially on a deadline, that I often do forget to mention those things that were nicely done or enjoyable unless I'm giving feedback for a friend.)

[rj_anderson]

Wow, at least two friends of mine are copyeditors and I never knew until today!

Yeah, even just one comment at the end of the manuscript to say "I enjoyed this!" or a couple of in-line remarks about bits you especially liked can make an author's day. Especially as we've all heard stories of nice things other CE's have said to other authors, and so tend to dolefully assume that if no such remarks appear in our manuscript, the CE must have found the book a dreary chore to read and was just too professional to say so...

However, I have great respect and admiration for copyeditors and am always grateful for their help. For instance, my CE just caught me trying to seat an entire four-year college's worth of students at two dining tables. :)

[kerravonsen]

For instance, my CE just caught me trying to seat an entire four-year college's worth of students at two dining tables.

Ooops!

[rj_anderson]

They're just really loooooooong dining tables. In a really looooooong dining room. Right?

[persephone_kore]

Hi and welcome back!

(I also edit but mostly nonfiction.)

Um...

*finally allows enough javascript to be able to see the prove-you're-human test LJ keeps demanding*

[rj_anderson]

Hello! So nice to see you again!