I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues

As my friends and family members (and really, anyone who has dealt with me in the past two years) can attest, I’ve been editing this book for a LONG time.  For the past six months or so, every time my editor has sent me another set of proof pages, I’ve sighed with relief, thinking that this round of edits must be the last one before the book goes to press. And every time, I’m wrong.  As I’ve learned, books have notoriously drawn-out editing processes, and going from draft pages to uncorrected proofs to first-pass pages to second- and third-pass (and sometimes fourth-pass) pages to an actual ink-and-pulp book can take years.

Today, in what’s called the “blues” proof stage of book editing, I made my last edits — actual last edits — to THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE before it goes to press.  The book comes out in ten weeks, and I’ve had eight or ten whacks at these pages, so it’s really late in the process to be making edits.  However, in the event that the author/editor finds last-minute typos (which I did — small ones, like “New Yok” instead of “New York”), the publisher can pay the printer to fix individual mistakes before the book is printed.

So the final tiny mistakes have been fixed, and after two-plus years of writing, I am officially done with this book.  At least until reprint edits are due…

By the way, in case you’re wondering how typos can survive a two-year editing process, they can — even in big, important places.  Seen here is the Advance Readers Copy of my book, which featured a very unfortunate typo on the spine.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 at 12:00 am .