The Publishing Journey: Step 11- First Pages
From my project manager:
Hi Allyson!
I’m attaching your designed pages here. They look fantastic! This is the time to do a thorough read-through of your first pages to make sure there are no formatting issues (i.e. the chapter numbers are out of order, there are line breaks where they shouldn’t be, etc.) You may also address any typos that have been missed in previous edits. Besides formatting issues, we are only accepting typo corrections as this point. You will be charged extra if your edits exceed six pages.
Ok, here we go.
Two title pages, is that right?
Oh dear, the second title page uses the same fonts as on the cover, but here the italic script part looks awfully fancy – curlicue girly-cue. Would look right if this were a Regency romance, but not for my rather gritty New York tale.
And now for the author’s disclaimer: “This is a fictional work, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.” Wait, this is a historical novel! It has real historical figures in it – Augustine Palmer, James O’Neill – and they are drawn as true to life as my research could make them – this can’t be right!
Dedication to my grand-daughters – ugly spacing.
Shucks, they used the same girly-cue font for the “Chapter One” heading. It’s so fancy it’s almost illegible.
I like the way they used a little pause symbol whenever I indicated a change in time that wasn’t big enough for a new chapter – very elegant!
Aha! A line break where it shouldn’t be – just as I was warned!
Another formatting error – they missed a chapter change – here is Chapter Eight treated like a new paragraph!
How serious can they be about not making any changes in wording? Here’s a word used twice in the same paragraph – I’m sneaking in a synonym. As long as it doesn’t change the spacing or pagination it should be ok.
Oops! In an early chapter Eleanor says her son is “nearly ten” and in this later chapter he is “ten.” No birthday has been mentioned – change to “nine”.
My friend who has studied the history of the theater in New York has pointed out an error: Change “Rockefellers” to “Roosevelts”.
Some commas where they shouldn’t be; some commas missing where they should be.
Some additional word changes.
Under four pages of changes all told! But I can’t send these out as galley proofs with those two formatting errors. Hope the second round arrives quickly!
Next: the Blurb hunt continues
By the time you are finished, you will be able to recite the text by heart. ( Why do we say “by heart”?)