Editing Editing Editing!
I received the edits from the editor at my publisher about a week before Christmas. I promptly got the flu, and a week later pneumonia.
I was originally supposed to have edits done with 10 days (according to my contract), but my editor, without knowing I was sick, said she didn’t expect the edits back until January. Whew. I am glad to have had the extra time. The holidays were a whirlwind here, as my husband was coming home after working in Chicago for the last seven weeks, and with my girls and all their holiday busy-ness, and me with my holiday busy-ness. Then there was all that napping I had to do, when I could, to heal up. Oh, and I have that annoying day job thing.
I definitely appreciated the extra time to get the edits done.
My hard deadline to have them back to my editor is by Monday, January 5th. I have almost completed the edits. Maybe an additional couple of hours, and I will be satisfied that I addressed all of the things that needed to be addressed. The vast majority of edits were style-sheet related, and all I had to do was accept the changes as I encountered them. Only two sections needed re-writing to get rid of some “back story dumping.” The odd thing is that I knew these two sections were weak to begin with. I knew already where my story was weak, and those were exactly the places that the editor pointed out. This makes me feel good in many ways – the story is really good! She thought it was good enough not to make too many suggestions of changes! When does that ever happen?? I don’t know, but I’m thankful.
So, the edits progress, and I will return an edited manuscript to her by the time I go to bed Sunday night. Then it will be a wait for the second round of edits, if there are any.
This thing is getting more real by the day!
In the meantime, I’m struggling to pin down an idea I can work on readily, so that a second manuscript can be in the works before this one goes to print. I have some partial ideas, but nothing complete. I need to figure that out, and soon!
