No, it doesn't mean I'm going away... Relax. Or sigh in disgust.
I've finished the proofs of Kaanan's Way and will be sending them back to the publisher by April 6. Yes, I found a bunch of little stuff I missed on my previous FOUR passes through the complete manuscript. How does that happen?
The grueling work that is proof reading requires focus like few other sedentary activities. We can read a book casually, then think "what did I just read?" and go back over it again. Do that when you're proof reading a manuscript and you'll miss stuff, I guarantee it. And yes, you can go over it again, but the point is, it's so easy to lose focus and get caught up in the story instead of watching like the proverbial hawk for errors. Tiny errors. A letter here... a missing comma (or one too many) there. A paragraph that should be broken up, or two that should be combined. A missing quotation mark. A misspelling the spell-checker misses because you have TWO versions of the word (including the incorrect one) in your electronic file.
I found a misspelling on the TITLE PAGE! How does that happen? I found a missing quotation mark on the SECOND PAGE of the first chapter! I found an incorrect form of a verb on the SAME PAGE! How do we miss this stuff???
So here I am, having gone through the proofs and finding nearly 50 errors and changes I missed the previous FOUR times through it. And I wonder, should I do it again? And again? And again?
I've decided... I wouldn't be a proof reader for all the gold in them-thar hills!
And Away We Go...
I've finished the proofs of Kaanan's Way and will be sending them back to the publisher by April 6. Yes, I found a bunch of little stuff I missed on my previous FOUR passes through the complete manuscript. How does that happen?
The grueling work that is proof reading requires focus like few other sedentary activities. We can read a book casually, then think "what did I just read?" and go back over it again. Do that when you're proof reading a manuscript and you'll miss stuff, I guarantee it. And yes, you can go over it again, but the point is, it's so easy to lose focus and get caught up in the story instead of watching like the proverbial hawk for errors. Tiny errors. A letter here... a missing comma (or one too many) there. A paragraph that should be broken up, or two that should be combined. A missing quotation mark. A misspelling the spell-checker misses because you have TWO versions of the word (including the incorrect one) in your electronic file.
I found a misspelling on the TITLE PAGE! How does that happen? I found a missing quotation mark on the SECOND PAGE of the first chapter! I found an incorrect form of a verb on the SAME PAGE! How do we miss this stuff???
So here I am, having gone through the proofs and finding nearly 50 errors and changes I missed the previous FOUR times through it. And I wonder, should I do it again? And again? And again?
I've decided... I wouldn't be a proof reader for all the gold in them-thar hills!
And Away We Go...
No comments:
Post a Comment