The journey to publication is a rough one, as all authors know, and it never really ends. It's always hard...it's just a different kind of hard. But I am in no way complaining!!!! I enjoy the challenges! And I thrive on working hard and seeing what comes of all that hard work.
Right now I am in the final stage of editing for Soap Dreams, one of my short novels that is releasing in 2011. This is the galley proof stage, where my editor has prepared a PDF file of my story. No longer can I make changes directly to the manuscript. This is how the final product will look, unless I make notes on a separate document and let her know what needs to be changed. This is my absolute last chance to make changes or correct grammar and punctuation.
So far I have found one missing period, one period that should be a comma, and an ellipse that should be a period. Amazing how little things like that can be missed! There are some other spots where I am changing a word here and there or eliminating a word, just to make it flow better. Also there is a spot where a dog is mentioned, but after having taken out a dog reference earlier in the story, realized we needed to take this one out too.
I'm going to read through one more time....but I still worry. We've already done 3 rounds of copy edits and a round of line edits. And we still managed to miss these things. Will there still be some we miss?? I hope not...but it could happen.
As far as I know, there is only one line in A Bitch Named Karma where a period is missing. And there's also that horrible formatting error, that even though was fixed after the galley round, somehow it reverted and there was no way to fix it after that. :(
What do readers think when they see these types of mistakes?? I know what I used to think: "Who did this awful editing job???" But I don't think that way anymore. We are all human and mistakes happen. I am more forgiving of tiny typos, but if there gets to be too many, I wonder how much time and work the author and team of editors really put into it. If they didn't want to put in the hard work that is essential to producing a quality product, why should I give them my money and time to read it???
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Mistakes happen yes, and I don't mind one or two mistakes in a hundred page novel, but some books are just full of them and then I really think negatively about writer and editor.
ReplyDeleteThe book has to be really convincing to balance that out.
But: it's good that you're caring so much about the book that you read it so often. At some point it has to be enough, of course, but the more you can read it, the better for you and your reputation.
Nahno ∗ McLein ™
Wow! another publication- I'm in awe. Best of luck with your editing- and remember you are your own worst critic. I truly hope it turns out ok.
ReplyDeleteI can live with a misplaced comma or the rare typo in a manuscript. I know that by the time we went through my debut novel Ordinary Angels as many times as it took from submission to galleys, it seemed like there couldn't POSSIBLY be any more mistakes, but in that last round, I found a couple of typos. I know how it is, and I don't mind a mistake or two.
ReplyDeleteIt's when it's riddled with careless errors -- that annoys me. I think it's a sign of disrespect to the reader not to put out the best product possible... and I'm sure you have!
Thanks Summer! Never hurts to be extra sure!!
ReplyDeleteIndia, my thoughts exactly. When I see a book riddled with mistakes, I feel almost insulted....like the author and editor didn't feel it important to take the time to put out the best product possible for me, their reader. Why should I care about the book when they obviously didn't??? A typo here and there is forgivable...but multiples...nope.
There is this one blog...can't remember the name, but she reviews self-published books. As soon as she gets to 15 mistakes, she puts the book down and then blogs about how many pages in she got. Many of them barely make it 20 pages. That is just sad. Last time I checked, there was only a couple books she read through entirely.
I was thumbing through one of my cookbooks yesterday..two typos on one page!! You can't have typos in a cook book!!
I love the cover!!! I'm very excited and after A Bitch Named Karma I can't wait to see what these new releases are all about!
ReplyDeletePublication has to be both nerve wrecking and exhilirating! I can't imainge!!! I know that reading ABNK I didn't notice any errors (regardless whether they were there are not). Minor is the key, as long as they're minor people can look past them!
I'm doing line edits as we speak and hoping for some fabulous news when I start querying very soon!
Hope you are well! I miss our chats!
I have said it before but I really love the cover
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