Rewrites and Editing and Proofreading . . . Oh, My!

We're coming up to the all-important stage of my latest novel, which will be released very soon. As any author knows it is tough enough to write a novel that has well over 100,000 words. The writing of a book takes an idea, planning, some sort of an outline and concrete thoughts concerning how to tell the story. That's not to mention specific character development and how these personalities will be shared and interact. These are all very important ingredients that work together to form a manuscript.

But then the fun begins.

If you are a writer/author and you want to put your work in front of people, then you are very much aware that several sets of eyes need to examine your work before the final product hits the market. Mistakes will remain if you do not have others review the copy. A professional editor is essential. What stays? What goes? What needs to be reworked? What needs to be told in a different way?

But, there is more.

Even after rewrites and major edits have been performed, the actual proofreading of the manuscript needs to take place. I go over my text a minimum of five times and have done it as many as twelve times. That's just me. I'm a stickler for details. My proofreader goes over the document four times. Thank goodness we double space the rough copy! We'd really be cross-eyed if we didn't have the extra white area. Spelling and sentence structure is one thing, but looking for periods, commas, apostrophes and quotation marks can be a living nightmare.

And we're still not done.

My publisher works on the font size, the margins and the spacing. A pdf version of the story is generated. Then my proofreader and I get a final opportunity to correct any errors in the copy that will be going to print. If you haven't caught a punctuation error by then --- well, this is your last chance. Normally that process has to be done with quick turnaround.

Any published author realizes that a reader will find an error somewhere and that will be one of the first comments about the book. But, this imperfection won't be due to a lack of effort. 

To my fellow writers out there--how tedious is your editing and proofreading process?  How many sets of eyes review your work?  How many times do you read through a manuscript yourself?

James Ross
Author of Lifetime Loser , Finish Line , Tuey's Course , Opur's Blade , Pabby's Score
jamesross@authorjamesross.com
Website: www.AuthorJamesRoss.com
Twitter: golfnovels and JamesRossBooks
Publisher Website: www.Xlibris.com and www.nightengalepress.com
Blog: http://www.authorjamesross.blogspot.com/
Purchase link: http://golftwitt.com/46ey