Latest Book Update

Saturday, January 16, I got the proofread version of Copper Road to review and approve. You remember that my editor had been very sick. I was pleased to get the pages because it showed me she was getting better. Plus, I was glad to get the pages because it means the book is one step closer to release.

The proofread version looked like a manuscript, not a “book.” The text looked like it does on my screen, or on paper if I printed it out. Melissa used Track Changes to catch the final things, and there were final things, even though Erin, my developmental editor, and Tuppence, my copyeditor, were both very good and caught 90% of the “it” for “in,” “and” for “an,” inconsistent hyphen use and the occasional double space (which usually occurred where I’d removed a word.) There still were some, though. The most frustrating to find, even with Track Changes, were where the two spaces occurred at the end of a line. I had to turn on the Paragraph Reveal feature to find those.

I sent it back on Monday, and Tuesday I got layout pages.

Now… Layout pages! That’s where your manuscript looks like a book. There are blank pages (end papers), a title page and a copyright page. The spacing is no longer double-spaced, but looks like text on the page of a book. Falstaff uses a special character underneath the number of each chapter, and a feature kind of like a drop cap with each section break. (It’s not as distracting as I just made it sound.) For the first time, I could proofread my Dedication, Acknowledgements and About the Author pages.

Sadly, there were still a few errors (about five) that slipped through the other reviews. I sent them back Tuesday evening. I think this version will form the basis of Advanced Reader Copies or ARCS. And at this point, having sent the book back, I can’t make any further changes.

(I mean, if it were dire, I probably could call it back. Theoretically, you can make changes at any time, even if only in later editions if there are any, but as a practical matter, no.)

Yesterday, I sent an author photo, and approved the same bio for the back cover of the book as the inside cover.

You all, it’s getting real!