Thank Goodness for the Experts
In another post, I laid out the production timeline for getting my book from dream to reality. Today, I'll explain two critical steps: Copy Editing and Typesetting.
Copy Editing
The copyeditor’s job is to polish the book while adhering to the publisher’s style guide, by checking grammar, spelling, tone, wordiness, transitions, and syntax.
Here are the biggest changes she made to my manuscript:
She added a lot of commas. I used to love the Oxford comma, then I didn't. Now I get to love it again, because it's required by the Chicago Manual of Style. My copyeditor also added commas in places where I didn’t know they belonged. Consider this phrase: “When my daughter Morgan travelled to France…” The way I wrote it (with no commas) implied that Morgan is one of my many daughters. Since she is my only daughter, the correct punctuation is: “When my daughter, Morgan, travelled to France…” I found this tip online: If you are not sure whether commas should be placed around a name or title, try crossing the name/title out and reading the sentence in context without it. If the sentence makes sense, you probably need the commas; if the sentence doesn’t make sense, you probably do not need the commas. I needed those commas… and so many more!
She standardized my spelling. These weren’t mistakes per se. For example, I used the American spelling of “traveled,” which she changed to “travelled.” She also removed the hyphen from compound words like autopilot and mismatch, and in accordance with my publisher’s style, most numbers from one to a hundred are written out.
The best part: She reformatted my entire Notes section and cleaned up all my messy (and sometimes incomplete) references to adhere to Chicago rules. This was a huge job and I will be forever grateful for her attention to detail!
We’ve done two rounds of edits each, and now the manuscript is ready to be passed to the proofreader and design team.
Typesetting
Typesetting is the process of formatting the interior layout of the book so it’s print-ready. Designers decide how the title, subtitle and epigraph look on the first page of each chapter. They format the headings, sub-headings, and lists. They create graphics and images. Finally, they choose how the text looks on the page—font, font size, margins, and spacing (between lines, words and letters). All of these have fancy terms, of course: leading refers to the space between lines of text, kerning is the space between two letters, and tracking is the spacing throughout a block of text.
Readers may not notice good design, but they certainly notice bad design. These choices influence readability, flow, and legibility. Poorly designed books are not just aesthetically displeasing. They can also make it more difficult for the reader to process and understand the content, and can lead to eye strain and headaches.
My publisher sent me some samples a couple months ago. Most of these elements looked great to me on the first draft, and others I wanted to change. I asked the designers to increase the leading, make an alteration to one graphic, and reduce the font size on the pull quotes. But these were minor edits: I'm gladly deferring to their expertise.
Knowing when to let it go
When I was working on the developmental edits, it was a vulnerable process; my ideas, advice and stories--and my ability to convey them-- were being scrutinized and evaluated. Is it smart? Evocative? Concise? Will it make people think?
In other words: Can I be proud of it?
Copy editing and typesetting, on the other hand, are different. I can hold myself and my identity as a writer at a distance from these changes, which are much more technical. Yet I still find myself pausing on certain passages, re-reading them, wondering if they're good enough, knowing that it's nearly time to let them go.
It reminds me that one of the hardest parts of creating art is knowing when it's finished.
