When you get the manuscript back from the copy editor (via the publisher) it’s conveniently referred to as “the copy edit” or “the copy edits.”\u00a0\u00a0 (Plural for its many pages, I guess.)<\/p>\n
You find out at this point that your carefully prepared manuscript has mistakes in it.\u00a0 You changed something but left one word of the old version of that sentence and did not see it<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, the shame!\u00a0\u00a0 You misspelled something–and you a writer of many years, how could<\/em> you!?\u00a0 Oh, more shame.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At least, when you start with a computer file printed on the publisher’s printer (all I sent in was the computer file), you don’t have to see that your typewriter has a badly worn “o”, or that you aren’t striking the keys with even pressure.<\/p>\n But now the manuscript has sprouted red marks.\u00a0\u00a0 The red marks tell the printer that — is an em-dash (longer than a hyphen.)\u00a0\u00a0 Red marks point out the missing spaces, the extra spaces, etc., things in capital letters that should be lower case, and things in lower case that should be capital letters.\u00a0\u00a0 All this is good.<\/p>\n Somewhat trickier to deal with are places where the writer doesn’t agree with a red mark\u00a0 (your character’s last name may be Macleod, not MacLeod) or where the copy editor isn’t sure, and asks a question, neatly printed off to the side.\u00a0\u00a0 Never mind that you wrote the book and knew what you meant when you wrote it–it’s been weeks if not months since you looked at that part of\u00a0 it, and right this minute…what did you mean?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is the word you’re sure you spelled correctly actually incorrectly spelled?\u00a0 (And where did you leave the dictionary, the last time you wandered out of the room with it, enthralled by a new word…?)<\/p>\n The dictionary was beside the bed, not the desk.\u00a0 We’re both right; I prefer the other spelling.\u00a0 Stet.\u00a0\u00a0 I was wrong on another one (not spelling–I’d simply had a brain-blink and put in a similar, but wrong, word.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The CE noted that the same place had been given two different names about ten pages apart.\u00a0 Oops.<\/p>\n I’m over halfway through the 800+ pages of manuscript.\u00a0\u00a0 Some pages have nothing but printers’ marks–the em dash, a warning to notice a letter with an accent.\u00a0 Others have many marks, every one of which must be checked for accuracy (even copy editors can make mistakes) and agreement )in this case, with the style of the previous books.\u00a0 Marshal-General is always capitalized, just as “Pope” is.\u00a0\u00a0 I did not get my note to the copy editor actually emailed to the publisher, so the copy editor did not know that.)<\/p>\n I have at least another couple of days on this, because I need to check with my editor (off at a convention; back on Monday) to see if she made the textual deletions I’ve found, or if the copy editor did.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Editor’s deletions stand; copy editor’s deletions (if that’s what they are) we’ll talk about.<\/p>\n The copy edit (and author’s review of the copy edit) is an important step on the road to final publication, so it’s always a relief to get past that.\u00a0 Not that I am, now.\u00a0\u00a0 I need to get back to the kitchen table, where it’s all laid out.\u00a0 Pages done, pages to do, dictionary, two sharp pencils, pencil sharpener….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you get the manuscript back from the copy editor (via the publisher) it’s conveniently referred to as “the copy edit” or “the copy edits.”\u00a0\u00a0 (Plural for its many pages, I guess.) You find out at this point that your carefully prepared manuscript has mistakes in it.\u00a0 You changed something but left one word of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,5],"tags":[31,107],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing","category-the-writing-life","tag-the-book-business","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}