How to use this Page

by

Amie Kaufman

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One of the things we like to do here at Pub Crawl is give you a peek behind the curtain at parts of publishing you might not otherwise see. If you follow any authors on social media, the odds are very high you’ve seen them mention their copy edits more than once. So what exactly are they?

Copy edits come later in the editorial process—almost the last thing authors will do before it’s too late to change the text! (And believe us, most authors aren’t nearly ready to stop tweaking words, even when it’s time!)

The copy editor is many things. Grammar guru, continuity expert, repetition police, dictionary, the works. Here’s how some of it works:

Grammar guru: The copy editor will mark up all the spots the story’s grammar isn’t quite right, indicating what the correct usage would be. It’s then up to the author to either accept the chance, or write ‘stet’ (which is Latin for ‘let it stand’, we’re a quaint bunch in publishing) if they want to leave it the way it is. The author might want to leave something the way it is (technically incorrect) for any number of reasons. The character’s voice—a teenager mightn’t say ‘whom’, even if it’s correct. Their own personal style—they might really like using far too many em-dashes, like I do. Impact—they might want a sentence fragment or something all mixed up to create a sense of confusion, or chaos, or to shine a light on particular words. (Fun fact: ask any group of authors what they stet the most, and they’ll almost always tell you it’s the places the copy editor points out you should, technically speaking, have a semicolon.)

Continuity expert: The copy editor is the one who points out that when your character says ‘I can’t believe it’s only been three days’, they really shouldn’t believe it. Because it’s been five. (Whoops. Yes, that is a personal example.) They check all kinds of things, from eye color to that one mention of a character who got erased in an earlier draft, and technically shouldn’t exist at all. The copy editor is the one who points all this out after you’ve read the manuscript dozens of times, and would cheerfully swear it’s completely clean.

Repetition Police: After checking the manuscript completely, the author is usually completely sure there are no word repeated too close together. They usually find they’re wrong. (See what I did there?) The copy editor catches repeats and confusing language, anywhere it’s not quite clear what a sentence means.

Dictionary: During copy edits on These Broken Stars, Meg and I learned that you can rifle through a box hunting for something, but you riffle through papers. Two Fs. When you’ve got an Aussie on the team, the copy editor sometimes also points out things that might be correct in Australia or the UK, but are completely confusing if you’re an American.

Suffice it to say we love our copy editors, who make us look smart! For more entertaining tales of saves copy editors have made for other authors, check out this hilarious post by author, literary agent and Pub Crawl/LTWF alumnus Mandy Hubbard.

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This post is adapted from an article that originally appeared in my monthly newsletter — if you liked it, you can sign up here.

Amie Kaufman is the co-author of THESE BROKEN STARS, a YA sci-fi novel out now from Disney-Hyperion (US) and Allen & Unwin (Australia). Book two, THIS SHATTERED WORLD, is coming in November 2014, and her new trilogy will start with ILLUMINAE, coming from Random House/Knopf in 2015. She is represented by Tracey Adams of Adams Literary. You can find her on Twitter or on Facebook, or visit the These Broken Stars website for exclusive sneak-peeks and contests. Amie lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and rescue dog.

Is it just me, or is there something very final about handing over a package to the person behind the counter at the Post Office?  I'd forgotten how nerve-wracking it can be...how I have to fight the urge to snatch back any package that's full of my words.  The last time I was mailing manuscripts was more than a year ago, during my agent search.  Since then, everything from submissions to revisions to line edits have been emailed as attachments.  And somehow, pressing "send" is easier for me than  handing over a big pile of papers and leaving a building empty-handed.  But copy edits happen on paper.  Mine looked like this...



There were, if I recall, four or five pages without any marks. Yay, me!



You learn a lot about yourself during the copy edit stage.  I have an uncanny ability to mess up words like shoe box and crab apple, both of which I've written correctly in this blog. The manuscript was another story.  Sometimes, in my brilliance, I'd write the word two different ways on the same page, to be sure of getting it right once.



This one puzzled me.  Somewhere, I missed the memo that there's no longer a comma before the word "too" when it's used at the end of a short sentence.  For example:  I'm befuddled too.  No comma.

Anyway...in case the lady at the Post Office happens to read this, I'm sorry I kept trying to tug that package back out of your hands. I let it go eventually.  Sometimes, though, it's hard to say goodbye. 

A couple of weeks ago, I got copy edits in the mail. My first set of copy edits, mind you. I got instructions via e-mail to address the notes and change them in the colored pencil of my choice. So, I picked a pretty purple pencil and stalked the mailman until they arrived.

And then...IT happened.

I tore open the package with glee and noted sticky notes on the side and then I saw them. Lots of weird marks on every page. Marks I hadn't seen when I'd worked at a newspaper. What did these mean? OMG. I had failed at publishing because I didn't know what these meant! Eeek! I hopped online and researched copy editing marks. But these were weird ones. Did I miss the class at school that taught these?

Did I really have to, gulp, address the zillion strange marks in 24 hours before sending back the manuscript?

I emailed Agent A and it went something like this: "Um, hi. Got the copy edits. Errr...what do I do, exactly?" What I really should have said was "OMG! What's all of this stuff?! Help!!" But I didn't want to convey the extent of my freak out.

To sum this up (because it could go on for a while) I talked to Editor K first and while trying not to sound like a total newbie idiot I asked her if I was supposed to address every mark on every page and type that up in a new draft and send it back to her.

Here's why she's the best editor ever--she did not snort in disgust or hang up on me and tear up my contract. No. Through laughter from both of us, she explained I was to address the sticky notes only. Ooooohhhh. The rest of the marks were for the keyboarder.

Then I remembered Lauren Barnholdt's copy edit vid that I'd watched weeks before. Yeah. Sticky notes only. Ugh.

That e-mail to Agent A? She never got it and we both had a good laugh. So, here's the lesson. Next time you get super-panicky about something--use the phone. E-mail--no.

Now, I'll be one of those author stories at conferences. You know, those nightmare author stories? "Yeah, I've got this client and she got copy edits and..." LOL

And that sums up Copy Editing for Complete Dummies, Idiots and Other Derogatory Names. :) If this saves one new author from thinking he/she has to play the role of keyboarder than this post was a success.

In other news...

We've got big changes over at Teen Fiction Cafe! We've added super-cool authors Stephanie Kuehnert and Sara Zarr! Welcome, ladies, and we're glad to have you! :)

Also, a little while ago (on my blog vacay) I posted an extended version of my "How to Become a Freelancer" video. I had to post it on MySpace because it was too long for YouTube. In the first 2 minutes, it has new footage of my acceptance letters, magazine credits, rejections and more. Check it out here!


Diary of a Debut Author: How to Become a Freelance Writer


Reading today: Chasing Harry Winston and Lock and Key

Red; a colour which features in many children's storybooks. Rose Red, Dorothy's ruby red shoes and of course, Little Red Riding Hood. Only she's not so little anymore.

Made it through JOSEPH for the second time today, and have an additional whole page of edits... simple things like a missing word and and extra words, etc. Now I will wait until I get it home, print it out and go through it one more time. Sometimes I think it is easier to read the hard copy than to read things on the computer.

Working on a little marketing, too. I sent a couple of brochures to Matthew's teacher, and she seemed really excited about the books, saying they were really needed to make people more aware of autism. She thinks they need to be in classrooms and libraries...figured she knows the people around here, so sent her a whole bunch of the brochures to share with all those people she thinks need the books. Not all that many, in the overall scheme of things, but if I find enough enthusiastic people to share their thoughts about the books, it can only help get them out to where they will do some good.

Quiet day today, for the most part...took the kids to WalMart after we went out to dinner, to spend some of their own money, and miracle of miracles...WalMart HAD the computer game that Matthew has been obsessing about for the last three days. Jay was happy to find the one he wanted too, so things were REALLY quiet when we returned.

Golf was good today, in that it was good weather (not too hot) and the course was nice. A little different than most courses in Florida...it looked more like a ski field filled with hills and lots of moguls...not very many flat places at all. Scored poorly on the front, but at my handicap on the back