But wait, there’s more!
That’s what I was thinking when I opened an email with hundreds of little (but seriously important) copy edits to my manuscript. Thankfully, my publisher has people on staff to make sure I don’t look like a complete idiot. I like to think my spelling and grammar are perfect, but they are not. And I had a couple consistency issues (aka major gaffes in my mind) that some readers would have caught. We all know how evil the Internet is. I don’t need to be getting mean reviews saying, “HER HAIR WAS BLOND ON PAGE 55 AND YOU SAY IT’S BROWN ON PAGE 263.” I imagine such a review being in all caps because, like I said, the Internet is evil.
The copy edits arrived in a weird-looking document. This is normal, I guess. My publisher sent me a tutorial about it entitled, “Why does my manuscript look so weird?” It’s like they read my mind.
The different colors represent formatting (ie, section breaks, italicization, etc), which is important when they typeset the book. I didn’t bother thoroughly investigating what all the color coding means. I trust whatever they’re doing.
The edits will probably take me a few days. Most of them are along the lines of changing “ok” to “okay” and adding/removing commas and hyphens and other things that I don’t use properly. Ha. I need to get the name of the person who did my edits and send her a thank you note. She caught some things that would have bugged me forever if they’d gone to print.
In the “How to Review Your Copyedited Manuscript” document from Macmillan, it says, “This is the last stage at which you can make substantive edits to your manuscript.” This is at once terrifying and exciting. It takes me back to the dreaded SAT when the proctor said, “Pencils down, folks!”
I’m ready, though. Let’s do this.
Awesome fact: Even though final copy edits are in progress, you can pre-order the book on Amazon. Do it! You will have to wait 9 months to get it, sorry. That’s why authors call books their babies.