Fallon Friday: The joys of proofreading …

Ah… the joys of proofreading…

I have just finished the proofread for the UK edition of Warlord. When it turned up in the email a couple of weeks ago, my first thought was:

Oh no. now I have to read it again!!

You might think this an odd statement from the author, but after a while, you really do get to a point where you wonder if you can bear to read your own work another time. Medalon in particular, I have read it so many times I can almost recite it by heart.

· First there were the countless readings during the three years it took me to write it.
· Then there was the rewrites.
· Then the structural edit.
· Then the line edit.
· Then the three typeset proofreads.
· Then it got published and I had to read in book form just to make sure it was real.

And then we sold it to the US. And they had to translate it into “American English” for the hardcover edition. So we had another line edit.

Then another three proofreads.

And then the US publishers sold it to the UK. And they had to translate it back into “English English” for the UK edition. Again with the line edits.

And the multiple proofreads.

And then the US paperback was due out and they wanted another two proofreads (one before and one after the corrections were made)

And then I had to write the prequel series. so I had to read the whole damn series again before I started and at least twice during the writing of Wolfblade, Warrior and Warlord, to make sure I kept the stories straight.

And then HarperCollins says “let’s re-release the Demon Child Trilogy with new covers to match the Hythrun Chronicles!”

“Oh goodie,” says I, like an idiot. “Can I fix a couple of little things?

“No problem,” says my patient and ever-supportive editor. “How many changes did you want to make?”

“Er.438.”

Mind you, they were tiny, niggly little things that have irked me (and only me) since Medalon was first published. They are now fixed and nobody but me will even notice.

Which kinda makes me wonder why I bothered.

Jennifer Fallon