Thursday, February 04, 2010

Galley of Forbidden Rose

The galley has arrived.





And the betas are on board.



Once upon a time this galley would have been a big ole pack of paper, brought to the door by UPS.  Now it is a pdf file, and I print it out myself and mark it up and e-mail a list of corrections back to the admirable Editorial Assistant at Berkley.

This is much more efficient. 

The galley is when you see 3000 things you want to change and you can fix 32 typos. 

9 comments:

  1. Yay! So glad it's one step closer to hitting my bookshelf.

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  2. Hi Katrina --

    There is a whole 'publication schedule' thingum they do in New York.
    With dates.

    Actual dates for book proposal and manuscript submission and editorial comment and writer response and the cover being shot and the cover blurb being approved and marketing meetings and godknowswhatall.

    They have all this laid out a year in advance. It is, like, chiselled into stone.

    I, who do not make plans for what I'll do this afternoon, let along next Saturday, find this disconcerting.

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  3. *raises hand for future ARC*

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  4. When I get my hands on them I'll do a 'reply to the posting and win an ARC' contest.

    They've given me a really pretty font. Some offshoot of Garamond, I think. The book designer is Kristin del Rosario.

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  5. Curious: how do you use your betas?

    Do you have betas before you send your book to your editor (or agent)? Are they the same betas you use when you finish your edits? How many times do you have betas read your book on average? Or do you have different betas for different steps in the writing/revision process?

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  7. I don't show the manuscript when I'm working on it. Not to anyone.

    I DO discuss the whole plot, at length, with the dog, who is very supportive.
    And I kvetch to the DH and The Kid and the blog about this sticky plot point or that.

    But the betas are the only folks who see the written work before submission. They see the manuscript only once, and it's in final form, just before it goes to the editor.

    I want them to approach the story with fresh eyes.

    My knowledgeable and wise betas,
    (I put them in the acks and send them boxes of chocolates. It is never enough to properly thank them.)
    say stuff like --

    "Can you chop the villain into small bits at the end of Chapter Thirty-two?"

    or
    "At this point I don't have the least idea what is going on."

    or
    "Six is a long, dull chapter that should be put in the bottom of a parrot cage."

    or
    "Could we have a good deal less with the intense introspection from all parties please."

    and other such useful and interesting commentary.

    Much later . . . months later . . .
    I send the betas a copy of the galleys. This is not to proofread it, since that excruciatingly dull job is my own proper work and one does not exploit one's betas.
    The betas get the galley so they can see what I did with their comments and how everything changed in the finished product.

    It happens, however, that I get a great deal of proofreading out of this. Two of the betas are the sort who glance down a page and point to the middle of line 21 and say, "Not 'he'. It should be 'her'."

    And I say "Whaaat? Huh?"

    These betas are kind enough to highlight any typos they catch as they read through.
    They apparently can't help seeing typos and it annoys them no end
    and isn't it wonderful we all have different sorts of brains?

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  8. *sigh* I wish I could keep my story to myself as I'm writing, but I've found that it (sort of) helps me to exchange chapters w/ another writer along the way. This is mainly because I'm not so good at the being productive thing on my own, and if I have someone anticipating a chapter, I write more quickly.

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  9. It's fifty/fifty, I think -- the folks who need to sit on their work like a broody hen and the folks who can hand it around and talk about it.

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