biancadarc.com Blog

Working on Copyedits

This weekend, I’m making a big push to get my copyedits of ONCE BITTEN, TWICE DEAD done. It’s funny… I’m not used to this kind of thing from my prior experience with small press publishers. In the small press, we do everything electronically, making intense use of the “Track Changes” function in Word. We usually do two rounds of edits with our editor, then get a FLE (Final Line Editor) – a fresh set of editor eyes – to read it and give a final round of edits.

My experience with the big boy press so far has been a lot different. For one thing, they use paper. Reams and reams of paper. I’ve had to learn a new set of markings called “Proofreader’s Marks” which I call hieroglyphics. LOL. I keep a little cheat sheet next to me as I sort through these mounds of paper so I can do my best to figure out what the heck these notations are all over the pages.

The manuscript I’m working on at the moment was edited by someone after my own heart. She actually color coded the marks. I love it! If you have to make a mess on a giant wad of paper, you should at least make it an organized, color-coded mess. hee hee.

It’s slow going because I need to figure out what the hieroglyphics mean and then figure out what the color coding means and then look at the changes made and either agree to them or try to fix them some other way. (Using the eraser end of the pencil a LOT.)

Another thing – since these are copyedits, there are all kinds of weird markings in there for the typesetter. Weird symbols that tell them where to insert spaces or chapter headings or italics or whatever. Things I don’t have to really worry about, but that catch my eye because I have to look at them to make sure they’re not something meant for me.

I’m about mid-way through the manuscript now and I’ve only found two – count ‘em, TWO – pages without any markings on them. LOL! When I first saw all the notes I got really, really scared, but it’s really not that bad. Most of the hieroglyphics aren’t meant for me, which makes it easier now that I’m learning to read the marks.

Still, what a learning curve!