Scary Amounts of Editing

I've mentioned from time to time how much I adore my beta reader and editor, Elizabeth L. Brooks, right?

I've been told by a few editors (NOT Liz) that I have very clean copy, they only needed to make minor changes, nothing to worry about.

The above screen capture is part of the reason why.

I have a new word for Liz's edits; she's not bleeding all over my manuscript, she's blue-bricking up my margins.

Look at this, my god! Every. Freaking. Page... it's a wonder I had any sanity left after I finished working with this manuscript...


As a note, you should have seen me a few weeks back, sobbing over edits for A Marked Man. It's not that my editor was harsh or anything, she's not... Elizabeth Lance is a godsend! but simply that there were so many changes that needed to be made.

Joke: How many dialogue tag mistakes can one writer make?
Answer: Apparently, all of them!

I was talking to a fan of the Rainbow Connection series who read Blues early for review... (it's already got one 4.5 star, so check it out!) and she says, coyly, "Well, you've already written Classic, right?"

I knew where this was going. "Yeah."

"Can I read it?"

"No! Jesus, no."

"Why not?"

The primary reason is that Classic is still in 2nd drafts. I have to fix / review / look at all the various stuff my beta readers pointed out, and THEN it will go off to Liz for content edits... after that, it goes through 2 rounds of proofing... at least one of those rounds of proof-reading has to happen before I'm not utterly ashamed to have anyone reading my work.

I love my editors. I really, really do. And you should, too...