Nearly there

I have placed my order for copies of my book. The process of checking has been a thorough one, with the manuscript shunted electronically backward and forward between me and the printing company. Each time I have received it, I have scoured it again for previously unseen errors. Finally, after receiving an unbound hard-copy and scouring that too, I can say I don’t wish to make any further changes and have placed my order. There could possibly be one final check before printing, but regardless, if I receive that copy, it will just be a skim rather than a scour. It is actually quite difficult reading one’s work so many times as we tend to gloss over the now familiar words rather than reading them constructively.

I am sure the printing companies have been caught out many times, hence the need for so much checking. With each step of the way, we have had to confirm the changes and confirm the completion. By doing so, we are putting the responsibility for anything that is not right with the finished product, entirely into our own hands.

I have found the whole editing journey an interesting process. Things like choosing between the American and English spelling of words can sometimes create a dilemma. For example, I have chosen to use all variations of the backward, forward, toward, without the s even though that is more American than English. Some say we should be all one or all the other. Most of my text is the English spelling but somehow, these words sit better for me without the s. Another example is the use of wintery. I personally would use the word wintry, but the woman editing changed that to wintery. Each time I read it, I wanted to change it to my preference but I didn’t. It still means the same thing but is a less common spelling of the word, than my version.

I guess nowadays we are far more Americanised than we were in the past, especially with the internet, where we are reading American articles regularly. Who Is Me? was edited in America and thus has all the American spellings; the use of the z rather than an s, is a prime example, in words such as realize. However, I have chosen to leave these ones in the English spelling. It is interesting that I just had to Google the correct use of nowadays. I wondered whether I should put in hyphens, but the information on the internet suggested that the hyphenated version has fallen out of favour and this is the correct spelling nowadays.

Hopefully readers won’t we put off by this mix and agree with my choice of words. I feel I am merely reflecting the changing in our writing habits.