So, I spent three days (well, ok, two and a half) working on my first ever copy edits! For those who aren't familiar with the process, that's when a nice person with a red pen (or in this case, with "track changes" on) makes notes about things like punctuation, capitalization, and other slightly questionable details. Then I as the author go through and either agree with them (leave them alone), disagree with them (change them back), and otherwise add anything that might be missing.
This is my LAST chance to make big changes. (big changes being anything more than a typo fix) Or, rather, it WAS my last chance. 'Cause I turned those bad boys in this morning!
I also got the chance to do my dedication (that I've been planning almost since the beginning) and my acknowledgments. My greatest fear right now is that I've forgotten someone in the acknowledgments, and that's just gonna kill me.
Things I learned while doing copyedits:
The word "Realtor" is actually a trademarked term, and should be changed to "real estate agent" when possible.
I use a ton of commas where semi-colons would do.
The word "T-shirt" should be capitalized like that.
Proper grammar sounds SO freakin' wrong, in a lot of cases.
Per The Editor, in first-person PoVs, voice trumps proper grammar. (I was so relieved to hear that)
Contrary to the little doubting voice that creeps in now and then, this story isn't half bad!
Had a great chat with The Agent tonight too, he was just calling to check in since we hadn't talked in a while.
My goal is to have the first draft of Book 2 done by the end of March. Hopefully, this will give my beta-slaves plenty of time to check it out and get it back to me before I have to have it in to The Editor.
I'm excited!
Seems editing never ends, does it?
ReplyDeleteGood luck with those edits.