Tag Archives: Copy editing

Road to Publication #19: Completing the ARCs

Posted on October 8, 2012 | 15 comments

Whew! Anyone want to take a breath with me? Breathe in, Breathe out. Breathe in, Breathe out. Ahhhh feels good, doesn’t it?

So, yes, the arcs are done. What did I find?

There were a few odd editing errors. I mean… really odd editing errors. For instance, a sentence ended a paragraph in the original version. All of the rest of that paragraph was deleted, but that particular sentence remained, but was added to a different paragraph where it made no sense. Yeah, weird… I know.

What I also came across were places where a string of speech was removed for one reason or another, leaving what was left behind “hollow”… meaning someone answered a question that was never asked, or things like that. Yes, weird again.

I also found a sentence where a word was missing, but it was in the original text. Isn’t that odd? I guess I took for granted that the file would be cut and pasted. Apparently not.

What I marked mostly was something that I DON’T think they will fix, even though I asked for it. The reason is that I just saw the same thing in a published novel from this publisher.

It’s silly, and very anal I will admit… but on my Kindle, if a sentence falls off with a “…” at the end… if placed correctly, the “…” will be treated as its own word and end up all by itself on a line. I asked that ending “…” ellipses be attached to the final word in each case where they appear.

Like I said… I can ask, right? I hope they do it, because I think it will look better.

The hard part of this whole project was transferring all my notes from my Kindle onto an Excel spreadsheet so they could review it in the format that they requested. I suppose it would have been easier if I edited on my computer in PDF format, then I could have just created the spreadsheet at the same time.

Yes, in retrospect it would have been easier, but if I come across this again, I will probably do it the same way. The reason is that I enjoyed the experience of reading it on the Kindle, as my readers will see it. It just looked “different.”

(And it’s cool having the cover with my name on it appearing in my Kindle Carousel 🙂 )

Ah… vanity… definitely my favorite sin.

Oh! Impromptu movie game! Anyone know who said that line, and what movie it came from?

Self-Editing For Self-Published Fiction (advancedfictionwriting.com)
My Book Is Ready for Publishing (muponisi.wordpress.com)
effective editing: it’s not terminal or is it? (roxieh.wordpress.com)
So what does an editor do, exactly? (heydeadguy.typepad.com)
Life Happens, and the Novel Continues (vitaro.wordpress.com)
Copy editing jargon explained: the standfirst (alisonharmer.wordpress.com)
Self-Publishing ‘Properly’, Or: Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is (dan-harris.net)
Self-Editing (niaforrester.com)
Can e-book sellers survive the tablet war? (stuff.co.nz)
Step, step, step … the novel progresses (lindacassidylewis.com)

15 Comments

Posted in Road to Publication

Tagged Amazon Kindle, betting published, Business Services, Communications, connect the dots, Copy editing, deadlines, E-book, editing, editor, Google, Kindle, Paragraph, Publishing, Sentence (linguistics), too much to do, working with an editor, working with deadlines, Writing and Editing

Road to Publication #18: Reviewing the ARCs, OH NO!

Posted on October 1, 2012 | 36 comments

Holy Crud. This is not happening. I just found out why you DON’T want to have two works being published at exactly the same time… and even worse… by two different publishers.

I was stunned this morning when the first round edits for Connect the Dots came through. I thought I would have another week. I have two weeks to finish the ARC edit (the very last edit) of Last Winter Red AND finish the first round edit for Connect the Dots.

Okay. Breathe. It’s all good. This is a great problem to have. People are going to spit at you for having this problem. Take a deep breath. Chocolate helps. Good. Relax.

Okay. No problem. I can do this.

So… back to Last Winter Red. I started reading it on Kindle last night. I made a lot of highlights on the ARC with the handy Kindle Notes feature.

The reason for some of my notes is because my writing style has changed a lot in the last few months since I worked on Last Winter Red, and things don’t seem right to me anymore.

I did find a missing quotation mark at the end of a sentence. Easy fix (I hope).

What is odd, is every once in a while I stopped and said “Is that what he said?” or “Did I write that?” or “Wait. That makes absolutely no sense.”

I’m wondering if I even wrote some of these things, or if they were edited to the point of losing “something”. I want to go through the whole thing, make notes, and then go back to my original copy and see if I need to smack myself upside the head for past mistakes.

Maybe I do. At this point, I’m not sure what happened.

Either way, I think some more changes are in order.

What makes me cringe over this is that I could have made these changes months ago. I am tucking this away as a “lesson’s learned” though.

I did have a bad feeling about not reviewing the full version before it went to copy editing. You know that deep clawing pit-in-your-stomach feeling when you think you lost control of something?

To make sure this doesn’t happen again, I MADE SURE before I signed the contract with Still Moments Publishing for “Connect the Dots” that I WOULD have a chance to review a final before it went to final editing. Not only that, I will get to see a FULL VERSION as it stands through each round of the editing process.

For a control freak like me, this is a huge relief… because I know I will not be down to the wire and fixing errors I would have seen earlier.

This is not J.Taylor Publishing’s fault either. It is the way they work. All publishers are different, and as an author, I need to be ready for this.

What I need to do now is finish reading and marking. Then I want to go back again reading carefully for spelling/punctuation errors, and then I need to document and changes necessary on a spreadsheet.

I need to do this within one week, so I can devote the next week to Connect the Dots.

Once again, sleep may become optional.

My Book Is Ready for Publishing (muponisi.wordpress.com)
Self-Editing (niaforrester.com)
Self-Editing For Self-Published Fiction (advancedfictionwriting.com)
So what does an editor do, exactly? (heydeadguy.typepad.com)
effective editing: it’s not terminal or is it? (roxieh.wordpress.com)

36 Comments

Posted in Road to Publication

Tagged ARC, Arts, Business, Communications, connect the dots, Copy editing, copyediting, critique, editing, Fiction, getting published, Kindle, publish, Publishing, Review, self publishing, Short Stories, Short story, Writers Resources, writing, Writing and Editing, Writing help

Road to Publication #17: Getting the ARCs for final approval

Posted on September 24, 2012 | 31 comments

Why is my blood pressure up today? The Advance Release Copies (ARCs) for the Make Believe Anthology have been released.

They arrived while I was at work, and unable to download them. I see a flurry of “Yay” and “high-fives” from a few of the other authors during the day as they review their own, and see the other author’s work for the first time.

They seemed excited.

I’m not excited.

Excited is definitely not the word for it. I think nauseous covers it about right.

I think part of my problem is that the first 500 words were recently released. I found a sentence in the wrong place. My heart sank. I contacted the publisher, and they said to go ahead and fix it for the first page release, and to make sure I fix it when I got the ARCs. Whew!

But now I’m worried about what else I might find. Maybe I’m overreacting. I hope I’m overreacting.

Okay. Enough stalling. I’m going to download it to my Kindle now.

Okay. Wow. So cool to see it for the first time. I need to fix any errors in mine in the next two weeks and return it. So… sorry ladies, but I will read yours later.

I flip to my story, and my gaze hovers over the cover page. Yep. That’s my name. Feels good.

I flip to the next page. Something’s wrong. Have you ever stared at something, not even read it, and known something was not right?

The formatting. Oh, crud. The Font in my title pages is important. It gives an emotional impact… a “feel” of being outside. They replaced it with a blocky, emotionless ruggedly bold text.

The first “first 500” that was sent to me to post on-line had the correct font. Hopefully this will be a simple fix.

Before I really get down to reading, I receive an email with the instructions on how to notify them of changes, and what kind of changes will be accepted. One phrase stood out.

“We won’t guarantee all your final changes will be made, but now is the last possible time for you to make them.”

Now my blood pressure is pumping because I never had the chance to “okay” a final completed version before it went to ARCs. I have no idea if the changes that I discussed with the editor “piece meal” were inserted correctly BEFORE it was sent to copy editing.