Galley proofs editing complete

Whew!  I just finished scrutinizing the galley proofs for Blood Atonement.  As careful as I’ve been with its editing, it’s shocking to me how various methods of editing changes one’s perspective.

I’ve editing on the computer using various fonts and size, screen window widths and heights, hard copy, and even reviewed it on my Kindle.  I’ve studied, skimmed, scanned, read aloud, and concentrated.  Every version I find things I missed.  When Editor Mary from Writers AMuse Me Publishing insisted I edit using the galley proofs and annotate any changes on another document, I thought “this won’t take long.”  I finally finished a slow and comprehensive edit–close to 40 hours!  As usual, she was right.  Better word choices, notice of repetitions popped like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Of course, part of these hours were spent annotating incorrect italicized font sizes, but that turned out to be my Mac using “Preview” software. I’ve used Preview for viewing PDFs since I’ve had my Mac–more than four years–and it’s worked perfectly.  This is the first time it let me down, and hard at that.

It’s stunning to me how incorrect word choices or errors pop out at various times. It’s like the subconscious reminds the writer “you’re not in charge here.”