I received publishers' proofs of my book way back in August. After having sifted through the pages and made corrections/amendments as appropriate, I set about constructing the author index... and then began to wonder just why the hell I had agreed to do this mind-numbingly tedious task. Well, the short answer is money, of course. Professional proof-readers must be paid for, aren't cheap, and so I decided to do it myself. But after several weeks of being continually chased by the nice, long-suffering people at Blackwell (who must surely hate people like me), I've come to the conclusion that it would have been worth paying the money to avoid the stress!
This blog was actually constructed in between long periods of indexing, when I just couldn't take it any more, as a bit of a challenge to myself (having never blogged before).
Anyway, I finally returned the proofs and indices today, much to Blackwell's relief, I'm sure. So for the handful of people who know I've been writing this book, if they read this then they'll know that the book really really is on its way. Can I retire now?
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Lecturer Position in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience – University of
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COGNITION AND COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE LECTURER POSITION – UNIVERSITY OF
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2 days ago
2 comments:
Chuckle. Why not run the analysis on the decisions about proofreading and indexing, in your copious spare time, if you can do that retroactively? It'd likely become a lively thread for your blog.
Having made a living for decades as a proofreader and editor, and created a few indexes, I can say with some assurance that indexing is quite a different task than proofreading, and a profession in its own right.
Good summary here:
http://www.indexers.org.uk/index.php?id=463
> I can say with some assurance that indexing is quite a different task than proofreading, and a profession in its own right.
I was about to say the same thing, Hank. According to Olav Kvern and David Blatner, authors of the Real World InDesign CS3 bible:
"A Note to the Author Contemplating Self-Indexing.
Hire a professional indexer. The author of a text is the worst person for the job. You simply know the material too well (or, if you don't, why in the world did you write the book?) to create a useful index. A professional indexer will read and understand your text, and will create an index that opens it up to a wider range of possible readers than you ever could. It's what they do."
Don't despair Dave...I'm sure it will be fine! As I'm writing fiction the problem of indexing doesn't occur, but proofreading is making me want to weep even more than teaching myself CSS did, and the first thing I will budget for once my publishing company can afford it is a professional proofreader. I sigh over the idea of a proofreader like normal women sigh over shoes.
I do love writing all the squiggly marks though.
Especially the curly wurly delete mark.
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