Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Arrival of Copyedits

Book 6 has been moved temporarily to the backburner, much to my chagrin. I'm really looking forward to diving into a new book and getting some writing done. I feel like I'm getting rusty. Too many days not actually writing new words results in dust collecting on the brain. However, I can't complain too much as I've only gotten the first chapter of the book written and hadn't gained too much momentum when I was forced to stop.

And the reason for switching gears? The copyedits for Wait for Dusk (Book 5) arrived on my doorstep this morning. With my publisher, there are several stages to the publication of a book. There's the submission of the rough draft, the revision (which can be repeated if necessary), the copyedits, and the first round of galley edits. I believe there is also a second round, but I'm not involved in that round (yay me!) In the copyedit stage, I look over the grammar and other logic-related changes made to the text of the book by a copyeditor, making sure that I agree with everything that has been changed. I also look for any grammar errors or typos that might have been missed. This is my LAST chance to make any kind of large changes to the manuscript.

Usually, I make some minor tweaks to the novel, but this time my editor sent along a list of things that I need to tweak so I will be including a few "inserts" as well. These are whole typed paragraphs that will be inserted into the original text.

Right now, I have the first 50 pages edited and I am hoping to finish the first 100 pages tonight. I've got approximately two weeks to get the copyedits done, but I am itching to get back to Book 6. Time is ticking away and everyday that I spend on the copyedits is a day that I'm not spending on Book 6.

7 comments:

Melanie Golden said...

I wish you the best of luck with your edits, and I hope that you can get through them quickly. =D

Jocelynn Drake said...

Thanks! It doesn't look like they are going to be too painful and I've been kind of looking forward to rereading this book.

Melanie Golden said...

Do you know of any contests giving away copies of your books? I have the worst time finding ANYTHING at my local bookstore.

Jocelynn Drake said...

I don't currently know of any contests giving away my books. I'll take another look at my supplies and the calendar. I'll try to run another contest or two soon.

Brenda Hyde said...

How frustrating to have to stop one thing to do another, but it's cool that it's at that stage already:) I can't wait!

Tamara Hightower said...

Good luck with the edits. I know how fruastrating it can be to have to backtrack, but I've found it does me a world of good :) Can't wait to see the book out on the shelves.

Jocelynn Drake said...

Thanks everyone! I'm enjoying going back through book 5. I had forgotten how dark and violent this one is.