5/25/2007

Okay, so I've handed in Q4 -- the last fourth of the book. Hooray! Take a day to celebrate and then there's a bit of clean up.

Here are most of the book projects (the ones that weren't already vacationing elsewhere) bagged and tagged and checking their boarding passes for Ohio. Also, a list for the photographer of what goes where with what.

And then there's Author Review. The stuff on the page that's still black is the original. All the pretty colors come from rounds with my editor, the copy editor, the technical editor, the editor again and then back to me. Changes to the text and a lot of midrash.

If you haven't ever gone through editing before, then you are unaware, likely, of the wonders of "track changes". This handy little Word tool allows you to pass a document around and have everyone throw in their two cents. And you can see who did what, turn the changes on and off, accept and reject changes... So, for this pass, I turn the changes off and read it to see if it makes sense. As if I had never read it before. If anything strikes me as weird, I turn the changes back on and see if I can figure out what happened.

It's a strange process. I think that I am pretty good at being edited. I like to joke that that's what graduate school for. I try to bear in mind that everyone working on the project is trying to make it better and, really, I agree with 95% of the changes. Still, I find myself feeling vaguely grumpy and having to really drag myself over to the chair. It's exciting to see it so close to done, and also slightly nervous-making that this is the last chance to get it all right. (It's not really. I'll see it one more time in layout).

In more exciting news, I am heading out to Columbus on Thursday! TNNA happens next weekend, and the photoshoot for the book is in Columbus starting the following Monday. So, really, seldom before has someone been so excited about a visit to Columbus.

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