Edit, Edit, Edit …
For those of you that have been following along, I am at the editing stage in my book-writing journey (to then be followed by adding figures, more editing, a last round of fact-checking, formatting, index creation, and then (cross your fingers for me), finally publishing this (hopefully) masterpiece. Oh yes, and the book cover. I found a great designer (Derek Murphy) and am having him put the finishing touches on. Check out the latest and greatest and give your input: Book Cover Survey
Well, to be fair, it’s really one more of many, many, many editing stages actually. The difference this time is that I had the edits done professionally by BubbleCow; they did a great job! This first round was a structural edit, and I will be going back to them for the final proofreading.
Choosing an editor was quite a struggle for me. I think the key here is to be really honest with yourself about what you want from an editor, and if you’re even going to implement some (or most) of their suggestions.
Since I am writing a popular science/science history book, I struggled a lot with if it was necessary for my editor to be an actual science editor. In the end, I realized that this was not necessary for me. Rather, the science fact checking, and actual manuscript editing should be two separate things in my case, and that’s how I handled it.
Writing is tough business. So is the editing, and fact checking; they seem almost endless at times! But then again, how else do you ensure that you’re putting out top-notch work (assuming that’s what you want to do)? The book will be out in Fall 2016. Have a look at the topics that will be covered: The Cosmic Machine TOC
My Toughest Critic Yet
Enjoy the pics below of some fact checking, my “toughest critic”, and more book editing …
