From: nicky.matthews@btinternet.com   
      
   On Monday, September 1, 2014 1:02:05 PM UTC+1, Jacey Bedford wrote:   
   > For the traditionally published authors here. Some advice required.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > On average, how long does it take you to deal with the page proofs?   
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   >    
   >    
   > Have you usually had the opportunity to go through the copy edits before    
   >    
   > the page proof stage?   
   >    
   Yes. I don't know how usual that is though. I worked with the same copyeditor   
   on a number of books by which time we'd trained each other up pretty well.   
   She'd say ' I know you are going to want to keep this but I just want to point   
   out...'   
   and then I'd say - 'No that was actually a mistake - so glad you found it...'   
   We shared a lot of chocolate and coffee to get there though and it usually   
   took a full day sitting together and working through it. However, I do make an   
   enormous number of    
   mistakes unlike many of my published friends who never make any errors of   
   punctuation or typing.    
   >    
   > This time round, for reasons of speed (due to a delay at the publisher's    
   >    
   > end with edits) I ended up having to do the copy edit check and the page    
   >    
   > proof (galley) check in one pass. I only had three days to page proof a    
   >    
   > 171,000 word (532 page) novel. I did it, but only by hitting my desk as    
   >    
   > I rolled out of bed in the morning and staying there until I fell asleep    
   >    
   > over my keyboard at night.   
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   >    
   >    
   > The copy edit picked up mainly punctuation, but also Americanised my    
   >    
   > British English, so I acquired a few gottens and a lot of -ize endings    
   >    
   > as well as discovering that there is no word in the USA equivalent to    
   >    
   > the British 'boffin'. (We ended up with 'scientist' but that really    
   >    
   > doesn't cover it.)   
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   > Anyhow, I thought I'd ask how this tallies with your experience. I do    
   >    
   > feel as though the check was rushed and worry that I could have done it    
   >    
   > better given more time. What's your experience?   
      
   I think Bloomsbury are unusually thorough - each manuscript went through desk   
   editor, copy editor, proof editor and me - so a different individual was   
   checking at every stage. I also checked bound proofs. Mistakes still got   
   through!   
    I hate edits so I would hit them intensively over a couple of days and   
   actually had a good reputation for getting things done fast. I think they were   
   asking rather a lot of you as your book is way longer than any of mine.   
   >    
   > Luckily it still goes through a final proof-read at the publisher's end.   
      
   That's always good - though beware sometimes they add a whole new set of cock   
   ups. In one book of mine the printer misread the editor's mark up and inserted   
   a highly mangled paragraph - twice! Sometimes its a 'Cat in the Hat' situation   
   where every clean    
   up produces a new error!   
      
   Congratulations for getting it turned round so fast! It is worth rushing so   
   that you don't miss your publishing slot. DAW probably have a faster turn   
   round time than Bloomsbury anyway when commission to publication is around two   
   years.   
      
   Nicky   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)