Galley slave

[pbray]

One of the least fun parts of the process is the painstakingly careful reading of galleys. Your eyes burn, your brain melts, and you find yourself instant messaging a friend because you can no longer remember how to spell the word 'been', as in had been seen which you hear in your head as had beeeen seen.

Convinced that the book sucks, since no prose is improved by concentrating on the punctuation over the unfolding storylines, the ordeal is redeemed when you stumble across a gem. Such as the one I found at lunch today:

"Surely you cannot doubt the loyalty and devotion of your followers?"

It was not their loyalty he doubted, it was their intelligence.

Still, all in all, I'm grateful to receive the galleys and to have one last chance to try and correct any mistakes before the book hits the stores. At least I'll know that I've done my part, whenever the inevitable typos are discovered.

Comments

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Heee! I love that line. I loved it the first time I read it. :-)

And just remember, if you wonder if it's "had ben" or "had been" or even "had bean":
Had Ben seen the ghost? Yes, the ghost had been seen. By Ben.
Had Bean seen the ghost? Yes, which is truly remarkable for a Muppet bunny.

(g,d,r)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

And then you make the jump from "haaad beeeeeen seeeeeen" to "raaaaai-neeeeeer beeeeeer" and it's all over but the weeping. :)

We feel your pain. :)

But that is an awesome, laugh-out-loud line. Hee. Can't wait to read the book. :)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

The beeeeer in Raaaineeer falls mainly in my gullet. Or something like that :-)

[larryhammer]

I get that way on my third pass through copy editing something.

---L.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how the most common words are the ones that suddenly leap up and appear completely foreign.

[rosefox]

Your icon keeps confusing me into thinking therealjae is writing a book!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hee! We must have taken our lizards from the same free icon file. Oddly enough, I'd rotated it 270 degrees so it looked better to me, and therealjae must have done the same thing.

[janni.livejournal.com]

That's 'cause it's really spelled "bien," of course. I'm surprised the copyeditor didn't catch that.

(ducks and runs)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

*Pelts you with leftover m&m's*

It's amazing how eight hours of sleep improves the quality of the galleys. It must be that the mistakes magically correct themselves overnight.

[demarazare.livejournal.com]

As someone on the other end of that publishing spectrum, I am touched that you do in fact go through the galleys in detail, page by page... my academic authors don't seem to bother!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

It's my name on the cover of the book, and I couldn't imagine doing anything less.

Of course just because I catch a mistake doesn't mean that it gets corrected before the book goes to press. Collating the changes from the various copies of the galleys and making sure they get to production is a step that is fraught with peril. But at least this way when mistakes are found (and I know they will be), I can take comfort in the fact that I did my best to weed them out ahead of time.

Well that, and I'm an anal-retentive control freak.

[(Anonymous)]

That sounds about right to me. Regular revisions can make the brain a little melty, and I'm sure the melt factor just goes up the further along the process you are. Congrats on getting the galleys done, or nearly done. & your gem is in fact a gem. I'll be looking for this lizardy book when it comes out.

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

Sorry - the anonymous comment was from me. I thought I was logged in. I hate anonymous posts because I always try to guess who it was. Usually I can tell from the tone of the post, but heh, you never would have guessed it was me.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting, and for spotting that it was an anonymous comment. That happens to me sometimes too, when LJ just isn't cooperating.

I don't mind anonmyous comment, but it's always nice to know who is commenting. And this way I get to see your cool icon :-)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I hope you'll enjoy it.