The Publishing Journey – Step 12: The Agony of the ARC
My Advance Reader Copies (ARCs)have been ordered. I have one more chance to review the galley proof that was sent to the printer for ARCs before the book is sent for its final incarnation as a trade paperback. The instructions from my project manager are strict and stern:
Please be aware that this list of your corrections is your final round of egregious corrections. Now that you have your ARCs (or very soon will have them), this is a great time to make sure all elements are present, like permissions, author photo credit, additions to your acknowledgments, or to have any friends with a sharp eye review your book to catch typos only—we are past the point of discretionary edits or rewrites.
OK, I’ve read this text over a hundred times, and so have friends. How could there be any but the most trifling typos? (but what do they mean by “egregious corrections”? Does that mean I can only correct the bone-chillingly obvious mistakes?
Oops! One of my early readers notes a “continuity error” on page 207. Fortunately it’s easy to fix – just delete a couple of words.
Now for my final read-through
Rats! It seems like just a simple error – a plural subject instead of a single one. But on closer reading – did I confuse two different scenes? In one it’s just the heroine who makes this trip, in another she is with her family. Should some of what appears later be in this earlier scene?
In any case, it’s clear that I’m inconsistent with how the trip is made – does she go by streetcar, or by elevated train? Are there horse-cars at the end? I can fix the inconsistency, but there’s nothing to be done about where the details go – that would be a forbidden discretionary error.
Oh double rats! Here’s a redundancy that I didn’t see before. Can’t just delete one – and no rewrites allowed. Maybe a little bitty deletion – just one sentence- makes it less obvious.
(You note, dear reader, that I am being very cagey about these slipups – no pictures of red ink! I’m hoping that when you get The Three Lives of Mary Sutton in your hands these problems will be as invisible to you as they have been to me – up until now.)
Nicknames! So troublesome! Sometimes Mary Sutton’s younger brother is Jack, sometimes he is Jackie. Mary is sometimes addressed as [Spoiler Alert!]”Mrs. Nicky”, other times “Mrs. Nick.” Does it matter? Mostly I call my younger son “Daniel” but often he is “Dan”. If I am not consistent in my own life, do my characters have to be?
Happy me! My project manager has allowed all my corrections to go through. Only one small change to the dedications page and I’ll settle for near-perfection
And my ARCs are on order. They are shipping from Georgia. I have a contact at the New York Historical Society who would like to see one – she might be able to add Three Lives to a recommended reading list of New York – based historical novels. I am planning an ad campaign featuring prominent local citizens – at least one of those who has agreed to help me wants a hard copy. There are two local bookstores which I hope will order some copies when pub date arrives – they will each get an ARC. And I will need to talk to at least two local libraries. I guess I won’t have any trouble disposing of ten ARCs
The box has arrived! And the ARCs look very professional – Nothing to apologize for as an introductory example Hooray! But now the real work begins.