Wednesday 18 August 2010

Scheduling 18th August 2010

Scheduling is one of the big headaches we encounter with some of our authors; some have the patience of a saint, while others....

The production of a book, from contract to release has a natural cycle to follow.

We start off with the cover design. (Now, this part of the process can run concurrently with the next phase, but we always do it first. I personally don’t like to see “Coming Soon” placeholder graphics rather than the finished cover. That’s me, and I won’t add the book to the web site as a Coming Soon title until the cover is finished.)

The next stage is what we call the story edits. With some books, we can usually bypass this or incorporate it into the next set of edits. It depends on the book, the author, the quality of the writing (which had better be pretty good to get contracted in the first place) and the coherence of the plot. We will also look at copyright issues, and if necessary any potential libel pitfalls.
Once this stage has been done by the editor it goes back to the author for the marked corrections/ discussion points to be dealt with.

After this we get onto the main copy edits (confusingly this can be called line edits, as can the next process). Here the main guts of the book are overhauled on a line by line and word for word basis. It’s here we’ll tend to deal with the main faults, incorrect word usage, incorrect capitalisation and above all, mixed tenses and Point of View. I’m quite sure my editors will now jump on my back for the things I missed from that list, but it’s for illustration. This stage of the process can often throw up story edit points too.

Once returned and checked these edits are sent to the author to fix.

The penultimate stage (for an e-book) is the proof editing. Here another editor goes over the response from the previous set of edits and marks further corrections. This may be mistakes introduced by the author in correcting others, or it can be points not raised by the copy or story editors.

Finally, these too go to the author to fix.

Once complete the book can be formatted and released.

If the book is going to print, then there is usually an additional stage called the “Print Errata” where the author is sent the print formatted book and asked to check it thoroughly. Partly this is to pick up formatting points missed by the publisher, but it’s also a chance to pick up typos that have been otherwise missed.

Once processed the print book can be released to the printer and hence to marke
t.
There shouldn’t be any errors by now I hear you say. WRONG with a capital W. I defy you to pick up three mass market paperbacks in a row and not find a single error in any of them. I’d confidently predict at least one glaring mistake in at least two of them, but I digress.

I’m meant to be talking about scheduling not editing and this is where that old favourite chaos theory bites you in the ass. Finite queue theory too, but hey, let’s not get too technical here, - I’m not a geek – well not that much.

The sequence the books will go to the story editor is clear, we’ll do them in the sequence they the contracts were signed.

Let’s just deal with three books A, B and C which were contracted a day apart:

Book A goes to the story editor, gets done and sent to the author.

Book B then gets done and is sent to its author.

Book C is deemed not to need a story edit.

Book C is obviously available to go to the copy editor first.

Now’s let’s suppose the author of Book B doesn’t have as much to do as the author of Book A and is naturally quicker anyway so Book B comes back well before Book A.

The copy editor is sent Book C and as this is a long one it takes some time.

Book B comes back three weeks before Book A but Book C isn’t finished until a further week later.

Which book should go to the copy editor first?

We take the approach, the oldest book available goes to the next stage, so for us that’s Book A. This is a lose-lose game – you can argue the other way with just as much logic.

So now Book C is with the author, Book A is in copy edit and Book B is cooling its heels.
Book A is finished with the copy editor and goes to the author, Book B goes to the copy editor and then Book C comes back from an author who really doesn’t like half the points the copy editor made and wants an explanation.

Do we insist the copy editor finishes Book B before responding to the Book C author? What would be the decision if in fact it had been Book A?

Hopefully by now you have got the picture and I don’t need to add more steps to this to show you just how incredibly complex it is to keep everything moving. Make that twenty books rather than three, some of them short stories, some of them novellas and some novels, introduce more editors into the mix and perhaps you’ll have some sympathy for the poor person who sorts all this out on a day to day, week by week basis.

All I can say thank heaven it isn’t me.

2 comments:

  1. Amen. I'm glad it isn't me, either. I'd tweak someone's temper or ego and then take it all personal and quit in a fit of guilt. I'm not cut out for that end of the business.

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  2. Believe me, Deborah, there are times when I feel exactly that way. Paulette is rather better at it than me. LOL

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