Letter from Pattie
Pattie was the first copyeditor I worked with and I continue to ask for her when I do a book for McGraw-Hill. I’m not sure what to look for in a copyeditor but she seems nice in the phone conversations I have had with her. I don’t often speak with people on the east cost, where I grew up and the sound of her voice makes me homesick. But, I’m not three thousand miles away by accident.
She opens the letter:
“Dear Paul,
“Attached to this e-mail is the first batch (Chapters 1-8) of your electronically copyedited manuscript, ready for your review.”
This does sound so bad. And if the experience is like all of my previous ones, there are generally not a lot of changes. Pattie does say that she has her best talent on the job and warns me (nicely) that this particular woman uses a fine-toothed comb to seek perfection with every turn of the page.
She does say that I can disagree if I want and the letter instructs on what to do and what not to do. By book four, I’m feeling like an old pro. The anxiousness is still there though and I plan on waiting a day to open chapter one. Once I begin, I can’t stop.
It is not only the revisiting of the subject I had spent the previous three months with, reviewing the “colorful analogies” (my editor’s phrase for the back cover and part of what this blog will cover), and reading what another set of (highly-trained and keenly focused) eyes might see in the manuscript that neither my editor nor I saw. But as the blog progresses, we will explore those “analogies” as they occur so you can treat this blog as sort of an online bibliography.
The letter continues:
“Please bear in mind that any and all changes to the manuscript should be made at this time, because content changes in page proofs are costly and time consuming, and will not be allowed.”
They once said that the cost of this type of thing came out of my pocket! I’m not sure why someone would decide to change anything at that stage of the process considering the mistress-like relationship you have had with the book over the past six, nine, twelve months should have left you enough time to tweak the words to everyone’s satisfaction and not make any last minute changes.
“The copyeditor will not see the manuscript again, so when you return it to me your changes must be final.
“Our usual amount of time allowed for authors to review each batch of their copyedited manuscripts is one week.”
It’s August. It’s hot. It is porch-sitting weather with a sweaty glass full of gin and tonic. See why, once I get started I can’t stop. Perhaps there are not that many changes.
“Please let me know if you won’t be able to meet this date (although in the past you’ve always spoiled me with your fast turnaround!).” I re-read the whole letter again after reading this wondering does Pattie add these little asides at the end or does she write each of these letters individually. I’m not the type to ask but its true, I’ll get them back to her by Monday night, all eight, four days early.
She continues: “Also, please remember that you don’t have to wait until you’ve reviewed a whole batch before you return it to me. You can send me chapters individually as you finish with them. This will help me get a head start on finalizing them for the compositor.
“The copyeditor is due to send me the end of the manuscript next Wednesday, so you should have them by the end of next week.” With the promise that more will arrive almost before I send her the first batch.
So I’ll strap myself in and begin Saturday morning and officially begin the blog posting starting on Monday. This should be fun for those that buy the book and want to learn more and if you happen to stop by, with luck, you will want to buy the book and learn even more cool stuff about mutual funds.
