The Unwritten Books

I received my edits for Fathom Five last Friday. I have until the middle of January to make the necessary revisions, at which point copyediting will begin. Proof pages will probably be sent near the end of January, with printing to follow soon thereafter.

This experience isn’t typical, though I’m beginning to think that perhaps book publishing in Canada isn’t a typical enterprise. Compare: my mentor, Marsha Skrypuch has been working on a Dear Canada diary series submission for the past few years. She was commissioned about two years ago to write a book that wouldn’t appear until 2007. I’ve seen the drafts as they were critiqued; it’s going to be good.

And whereas Dundurn’s Barry Jowett has a light hand in editing (there’s about a dozen editorial comments, with only a few of those requiring significant revision), Marsha tells tales of receiving other manuscripts from other publishers awash in red ink. In one case, she was asked to add a lot of details to her story and then take something like 10,000 words away.

But Marsha has been very happy to work with this editor, and she’s been very happy to work with Barry Jowett as well. So I guess writers have got to be flexible. The editor is just as individual an individual as you are.

I can’t say too much about the edits themselves as I don’t want to give the game away, but I think they were very good. They point to areas where Barry was confused about the sirens’ glamour and, if Barry’s confused, it’s a good chance the reader will be too, and we don’t want that. There’s also a significant change to the climax that will require some restructuring, but now that he’s suggested it, I can see it, and I think the story will come out much stronger as a result.