It's Galley Time!

So, I got my galleys for Her Good Name today!

Some of you might not know what galleys are so let me put on my know-it-all-cap and tell you. After a book has been accepted for publication, edited, typeset (this is where they organize the type, fonts, format, spacing, chapter headings, page numbers, yada, yada), and proofed, the author gets a final look at the manuscript. It arrives on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, but the print is as it will look on a book page, centered in the middle of the sheet of paper. It includes title page, author notes, about the author, copyright etc. So it's basically the whole book, on big paper. The author then does a final proofread of the manuscript, looking for any little things that might have been missed by the editors and typesetters.

The first time I did this I didn't expect to find anything wrong, however, I was surprised just how many little things I found. I continue to be surprised each time as I find a repeated word, a misspelling (which must be REALLY bad for me to find it) and little formating things. In truth, I don't find many, but each one surprises me, but in a good way--reminding me that editors are mere mortals like myself. The author has a couple of weeks to go through the pages--but I'm rather obsessive (don't pretend you didn't already think that about me!) and I'm planning to have them done as soon as possible. We leave on vacation in 9 days, so I'll definitely have them done by then.

Usually the galleys are printed by the publisher and mailed, but with the time crunch we decided to do an e-mail and then I printed them up--which is no biggie cause I have a laser printer and it's pretty cheap for me to print them out. I've gotten my housework caught up, forwent the shower and getting dressed part of the day (who am I kidding, I forgo those things on a regular basis) and I'm getting ready to settle in to a delightful evening of galley proofing. It's been a few months since I've read this story so I'm excited to go through it again and enjoy my own brilliance now that I'm not so sick of it that it sounds like the verbal equivalent of cornmeal mush.

It helps that my husband and child #2 are in Las Vegas where hubby is looking into a business to buy and child #4 is at a cousins house in southern Utah. They will all be back tomorrow but I've managed to get their rooms changed around (remember the tanning bed plea? It's been put into action) and followed Don's lead I defrosted my freezer yesturday (unfortunately I missed the guavalicious contest--bummer). I had a 'sensible' lunch this afternoon so dinner will be a Isagenix shake--the chocolate one is actually quite good with a banana in it--and since I don't get snacky I won't even have to think about food! I got some Bagelful's at the store yesterday and my kids think they are the bomb cause I don't often buy stuff like that (they were on sale for $2.5o instead of $4 and I had a $1 coupon) so they can have that for dinner.

Life is good, my galleys await me, and I don't cleanse again until Thursday! Oh, and per Rachelle's comments on the Her Good Name blog in regard to opting out of junk mail, I did a little research and posted the information on that blog. If you're interested in that info please head on over there.

Have a lovely day!