Mystery Maven Canada: MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

Monday, June 11, 2012

MAYHEM ON MONDAYS

Let’s hear it for the editors!

I’m a few days into going over the copyedits for Read & Buried, the second in my Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries. And all I have to say is, thank God for copyeditors.

On the downside, they can sure make you feel dumb.

It seems no matter how many times I read over and rework drafts and then read it over again, I miss so much. Split infinitives, misplaced modifiers, typos (ahem, I’ll never admit I can’t spell) to name just a few of the miscreants.

Then there’s the fact that a character should have been introduced a chapter earlier, what’s the motivation for a certain comment, isn’t that the second time we’ve found out about an incident? Oh, and the best one, where was my brain when I was going through this manuscript upteem times?

I’m so pleased to be working with a topnotch team at Berkley Prime Crime, right from my editor and her assistant, to the copyeditor, the cover artists (a husband/wife team) and the publicity person. It really makes my job so much easier, having my backside covered, as it were.

So, back to the edits. I just thought it was time to highlight all those others who work behind the scenes and mean so much to the publishing process. They make it run smoothly and make it appear that I actually know what I’m doing!