I can stop holding my breath now.  I got my manuscript back from the editors with all the red marks and suggestions.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought.   It came with a cover letter from the editor first telling me everything I did right and then everything that could be improved.  It was good to get this type of feedback, especially for me, a first-time author, because improving is always the name of the game.

My manuscript came to me with Microsoft Word’s Track Changes >Final Showing Markup feature activated so I could see the editor’s changes.  The editor gave me proofreading instructions, i.e. how to make my corrections, comments and additions to the manuscript so that I returned a manuscript showing both the editor’s initial changes in red and my input in blue.  I was surprised to learn I didn’t have to accept the edits from the editor.  I could reject any changes (insert NO CHANGE) or question any edits [insert COMMENT].  This was such a relief for me since as a writer, I know what message I wanted to convey and didn’t want that message changed.  Although a publisher’s editor is a professional, that person could Continue reading “Book Publishing Process – What They Said (3rd in series)” →