I received a call yesterday morning at around 9 am as I was settling down at work. As my business partner and my senior associate were out, I have to babysit the office. The call was from my book editor. Asking me to look at my email in which she had just sent an edited draft of my manuscript. I was excited about that as it shows how dedicated the publishing house in trying to get my book as early as possible. I was also a bit apprehensive as this is my first book and I have never been edited before.
Being a blogger, you have the luxury to publish without being edited and with English being my second language, I have the tendency to think in my native tongue but write in English. As I love reading and has scored better in English than Malay (my native tongue) in exams, I have this perception I am good in English. Or so, I thought.
As my book is in English, it was edited extensively and I now know how editing is done. As it was edited by a lawyer, there were also some comments on my choice of law and my take on it. As for me, all the grammatical error is acceptable as the publisher do have their own way in publishing the book later. I just accept the amendments. Like using words for number and not using .00 at the back of denominations to make it more tidy. All those are just editorial tricks which I bet all writer had to learn as they write more and more.
Only the part where she (as I can see her name using the Microsoft Words comment tool) has a question of law which I have to put my foot down stamping my authority does the editing may have taken too much of a twist from my earlier intention. But I bet, all writers have to pass through this.
As the publisher did asked me to get back to her that day as the long weekend will allow the lawyer to edit my work for a second time, I did my acceptance of the editing in record time. By 2pm, the editing was done on my part.
I am now hoping the book editor will be as fast and now I am hoping to have my take on property law in Malaysia will be out in the next month or so...
4 comments:
Congrats on finishing your manuscript! Looking forward to being invited to the book launch ;p
How exciting it must be. I am an author on a much smaller scale and it is always satisfying to see your own words available to others. Congratulations.
congrat bro..
Being as far as the editing process is a huge accomplishment. You should be very proud of that. Every author I know of has a very difficult time with editing. One author says he is lucky because his wife is his editor, but she corrects his books more than anyone else would.
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