throw another bear in the canoe - This is Christmas music, right?

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This is Christmas music, right?

Dec. 6th, 2005 at 1:30 PM

Yay! The CEM of Blood and Iron is here. I get to spend the next week or so going through it and making sure it doesn't suck.

Things I love about copy-edited manuscripts include the lists of proper nouns that come with them. They tell you so much about a book.

For example, let me offer you the double-yous:

Weyland Smith, the Weyland Smith
Whiskey - see Kelpie
William Butler Yeats
William the Bastard (aka William the Conqueror)
Wotan

*g*

Now, don't you want to read this book?

Mood: working
Music:Jesus Christ Superstar - Damned for All Time

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blood & iron

Comments

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wychwood wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 09:28 pm (UTC)

Now, don't you want to read this book?

Yes! *g* So get it published already... ;)

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menin_aeide wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 09:34 pm (UTC)

Grrr. You've no idea, woman.

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dreadpiratetait wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 09:35 pm (UTC)

Well, d'uh!

I find one of the most annoying things about copyediting is creating the style sheet. Which is why I tend to proofread more often. :-)

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 09:42 pm (UTC)

They must be an INCREDIBLE pain in the butt to make. But man, they're fantastic reading. It's like the whole book, in alphabetical order.

If I could go back in time, I'd bring Dickens a concordance of his work....

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dreadpiratetait wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:22 pm (UTC)

I think he might die before you finished.

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janni wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 09:48 pm (UTC)

I sent my own style sheet with the last book--pulled it together when I was going through the last round of edits before the book got sent to the copyeditor.

Hopefully was useful to the copyeditor. I know it was useful to me, as it forced me to look at a few places where I was less consistent than I'd realized, and make decisions as to what my style was for various things.

It was fun to look at the list of things that came up. :-)

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cmpriest wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 09:39 pm (UTC)

Yeah - I laughed to see "Death Nugget" in mine.
I'd forgotten at first that I named a little black car that ...

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 09:43 pm (UTC)

*g* This is the part where I always get really excited. The hard work is almost over with....

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medievalist wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:14 pm (UTC)

A better use of your time . . .

You know, really, wouldn't you be better off writing something new?

Just send the ms. to me; I'll take care of it for you . . ..

In all seriousness, I'm about to fly from LA to NY for a week, in a hotel, and am consoling myself with e-books.

Are you aware you're oervre is available in nicely done e-books, of the sort that should garner you royalties (I'm astonished at how often writers have no idea that their books are legally available).

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:18 pm (UTC)

Re: A better use of your time . . .

I'm quite happy that, yes, all three books have been published as e-editions. They seem to be selling pretty well, too. *g*

Nice, because I make a bigger royalty percentage on those.

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juliansinger wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:35 pm (UTC)

Re: A better use of your time . . .

I can make random guesses (having to do with the expense of the printing process) but why do you get a bigger royalty percentage on e-books?

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:39 pm (UTC)

Re: A better use of your time . . .

Exactly. *g* Lower production costs. More money for meeeeeeee.

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wadethomasiii wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:37 pm (UTC)

Re: A better use of your time . . .now (Ebooks)

I bought Worldwired as an ebook; on sunday. goddamn it you are keeping me from my own words! it rawks by the way.

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lnhammer wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:20 pm (UTC)

You didn't include a style sheet? Huh.

---L.

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:22 pm (UTC)

Who includes a style sheet? That's the copy-editor's job. I don't use Web11 or the Chicago manual of style--she'd just have to change everything anyway.

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(no subject) -

janni - Dec. 7th, 2005 04:46 am (UTC)

matociquala wrote:

Dec. 7th, 2005 04:47 am (UTC)

I've never hada problem with that.

Freaking typesetters who can't get the goddamned e on the end of breathe, those I have problems with. :-P

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janni wrote:

Dec. 7th, 2005 04:46 am (UTC)

I'd always learned that while including a style sheet wasn't by any means required, it was a good idea, and tended to result in getting a better copyedit overall. Not so much for house-style issues (though I did go ahead and point out that I'd used serial commas throughout), but for the issues that are unique to one's own book--spelling of character names, capitalization of one's own proper nouns, that sort of thing.

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cadmus wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:26 pm (UTC)

I only want to read it if there are trolls!

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:27 pm (UTC)

No trolls in this one. There's a troll in Stratford Man, however...

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cadmus wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:29 pm (UTC)

Does that make this Science Fiction then? *grin*

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:30 pm (UTC)

You tell me!

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cpolk wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:41 pm (UTC)

I want to read it.

In the tub this time.

I'm just about done my re-read of scardown, so worldwired and I have a date.

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 6th, 2005 10:50 pm (UTC)

If you get the pages wet, I'll know.

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dancingwriter wrote:

Dec. 7th, 2005 12:34 am (UTC)

With W's like those, of course I want to read it!

I envy you your style sheet, though. Yesterday I got back the CE'd MS of the second book in my Egypt series, and the style sheet is only half a page long; it doesn't even list any of the proper names (which I would have thought absolutely necessary, since ancient Egyptian names can be transliterated so many different ways, and I'm not sure I was consistent in the spellings I chose). As a copy editor myself, I always find this sort of thing particularly irksome, since I know what kind of style sheet *I* would put together....

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matociquala wrote:

Dec. 7th, 2005 12:52 am (UTC)

...man. That's not real good CEing. Is this for a major press? 'Cause I might be moved to complain.

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joecrow wrote:

Dec. 7th, 2005 06:25 am (UTC)

Well, yeah! But I did before, so that might not count.

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faithhopetricks wrote:

Dec. 8th, 2005 09:08 am (UTC)

Now, don't you want to read this book?

YES PLEASE STOP TORTURING ME GIMMEEEEEE

....ahem.

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