Seriously, why didn’t any of us catch some of these before the book was typeset?
Meer, meer, meer.
No, they’re not tragic or drastic or hold-the-presses kind of things, just phrases I would have arranged differently or words I would have substituted if I’d read the book laid out like this. Maybe when the next book comes back for copy-edits and so forth I’ll reformat the text so it looks Real and The Right Size, and maybe then I’ll catch more of these things.
Spent a couple of hours this morning setting up my freelance account and profile with the new company, and getting to know all the ins and outs of the web interface for assignments and such. I also downloaded a few instructions that were updated since or missing from my original info packet. Good to have on hand. I added them to my file of hard copy references.
Okay, back to the proofs.
But this is why you have this phase, yes? So you can kick yourself all the errors everyone missed? (And then tell yourself it was the typesetter who made all the errors. Secretly…)
Not really, as much as I wish it were so. This is the phase where we make sure the typeset matches the last version of the original manuscript, that’s all. Other changes aren’t supposed to be introduced at this point. Once upon a time authors were fined for every change they made beyond a straightforward “the typesetter missed this comma” sort of thing.
Aaah. That’s too bad. But I understand in theory — since every change the typesetter has to make is charged at a flat fee, which is something like $2 a line, or so I hear (probably ridiculous in this day and age where it requires a simple edit to a computer file, but there you go.)
None of my contracts stipulate a fee, and I believe it’s something that has to be mentioned — either in contract or in the general guidelines the publisher provides — but I’m running on the basic assumption that the fewer non-essential changes the better.
I was under the impression that the typesetter charged the publisher for the changes – not necessarily that there was tricklethrough to the author (though I wouldn’t be surprised if there is in some instances).