Paksworld

I’m presently one-third of the way through the page proofs for Echoes of Betrayal and have found few (but as usual, in page proofs, puzzling) errors.  Page proofs are the last chance to fix things.  This time (probably because of the error in the Kings map) I got a proof of the corrected map, which has Lyonya on it this time.  Yay!

Books “read” differently in different physical configurations, because of the way the human eye takes in visual information.   I learned this with my first published work, the short local-news columns I once did for the county weekly newspaper.   Coming out of my typewriter, these were 3 double-spaced pages; in the newspaper, in standard newspaper columns (arranged however it was convenient that week) they read differently–flowing prose can look pretty jerky in a single column strung down the length of a page, with the last paragraph up at the top–to accommodate a particular ad on the same page.

Over time, and with a consistent printed form (such as book pages) the writer learns to read manuscript and intuit how it will read on the printed page.   Reading it aloud helps–but most people read silently and are still limited by the eye’s handling of all those symbols.

No matter how experienced the writer at making that adjustment, reading the work on page proofs–the font and font size just as they will be in the book–is always a bit of a surprise.   It’s not like reading it on the computer OR on the printout…or, quite, in a book, since the book pages are printed on normal typing-size paper, with cryptic little marks at the top, sides, and bottom.   (Cut-lines and centering marks.)

For me, the sign that the book is going well is when I realize I’ve read a couple of pages as Story  and have forgotten to look for errors.   When I’m quite content to look for errors only and ignore anything bigger than phrases…not so good.   And too late now–because changes other than correcting printers’ errors will cost me money (writers are charged for changing things this late.)  In every book, I see things I wish I’d done just a little differently: this word instead of that, this punctuation choice instead of that, maybe this phrase should be in that other sentences, etc.

So far it’s a clean set of pages (three pages with an error–one with two–in 150 pages of proofs.  That’s clean.  I remember one that was much, much, MUCH worse, including not having the editor-requested changes in it.   Since I had the editor’s email to show, and the editor agreed with me, putting back in about 8 pages of revisions didn’t cost me anything, but Production was not happy.  Someone had not sent them the revisions.

The writer sees in proofs things readers cannot see: sees the various draft versions of a scene, like ghostly shadows behind the now-settled print.  Should I have taken out that sentence now hovering scarcely visible between the two on the page?   Should I have left in that bit which–in one draft–I’d excised, and then restored in the next?    Didn’t we fix that rather clomping sentence at the revision stage?  Or is that one the copy editor changed for me, and I changed back, and someone preferred the CE’s version?

The software that changes MS Word to whatever the designer wanted (font, font size, etc.) has some peculiarities still.  This time, it chose to capitalize the second word of a two-word sentence.  The first word is the end of one line, and the second starts the next line.    Sigh.  Farther down that page, a sentence of dialogue breaks before the end of the line and then starts as if it were a new paragraph.

On the first reading,  I don’t mark the corrections; I just turn the page sideways and go on reading.   The next round, I’ll put the corrections on the pages.    And then I’ll send the whole thing back to Production, as well as email the corrections to them (since there are few) and we’ll hope the final book has all the corrections in it.  (Professional proof-readers are also involved and will catch some things I miss, most likely.  They can’t be distracted by the story.)