Another production task is checked off my list! Slowly, like a turtle grazing, so slowly, I am

getting closer to the publication date of Diamonds in Auschwitz and a completed book! Most

recently, I finished copyediting the entire manuscript.

Here are a few things I learned:

1. When you read something 1700 times, you’ll second guess yourself. Of maybe it’s 1700 th

guess yourself? Have you ever repeated a word over and over and after saying it too

many times, it doesn’t make sense anymore? I feel a little like that with my own words.

I’m, by nature, not a terribly confident writer, so every time I read my book, I like it a

little less. Imagine after 1700 times. Obviously, that’s an exaggerated number. But let

me try to actually count it out… 1 – I read the whole thing as I was writing it. That

counts, right? 2 – I read parts of it over and over while still in the composing stage. This

is impossible to count, so I’m just chocking it up to one full read. 3 – I read it for the first

proofread before sending queries to literary agents. 4 – I read it for a proofread before

sending to publishers. Enter Greenleaf Book Group. (Thank you, guys!) 5 – I read it with

my lovely developmental editor when we made big changes. 6 – I read it out loud, line

by line, while going over the copyedits recently. Ok. So 6 times cover to cover. I may

know these characters better than I know some of my family members!

2. There are developmental edits. And copy edits. AND… proofreading edits. And they are

all different. Along with that, there are different editors for each edit AND a head (lead?

queen?) editor. I’m a little exhausted just thinking about it. I thought my book would be

edited. One and done. On to the next step. Ohhh, sweet, naïve Meg. Developmental

edits were big, plot changes – I added characters, scenes, dialogue, took out all of the

above, changed the ending. Then, the whole manuscript went to the copy editor. She

looked specifically for grammar, continuity, and some accuracy. She wasn’t worried

about point of view or character development – just the words. One of the last edits

Diamonds in Auschwitz will undertake is proofreading. That will be even less changes

than copy edits. I hope (all fingers and toes crossed) that not much will be found or

changed at that point.

3. Oxford comma for the win. All you non-journalism people can celebrate. The very first

thing I noticed when I looked at the copy editor’s changes was the death of my AP

comma. For those of you who are not grammar nerds (no judgement) – the Oxford

comma is used to separate all items in a list. With the AP comma, we are fast and loose

with our commas and think the last one is unnecessary. An example: I think the Oxford

comma is too much work, too many keystrokes and redundant. See what I did there? No

comma after “keystrokes”? That’s AP style. Surprisingly, though I am wordy (see lesson

#4), I’m all about brevity when it comes to punctuation. My copy editor disagreed. And

the Oxford comma lives on.

4. I’m entirely too wordy. I blame this on my early Tolstoy and Dostoevsky influences

(extremely wordy Russian writers). You’ve heard people joke about the length of

Tolstoy’s War and Peace? Yeah… Not to brag, but I’ve read it twice and love it. So, I like

using lots of words. Lots and lots of words. During the copyediting phase, my editor

removed words, but just one or two here and there. The biggest change I saw her make

was deleting one sentence. I wouldn’t think one or two words at a time would add up,

but my “finished” (air quotes because it’s not finished yet) manuscript is shy 7,000

words. That’s a lot. That’s probably more words than some of my husband’s college

essays. (I just threw him under the bus because I for sure wrote essays longer than

7,000 words. Wordy, remember?)

Like everything else in this publishing journey, copy editing was a wonderful learning

experience. I’m trying to take what was learned (even, begrudgingly, the comma thingy) and

apply it to my next manuscript. Maybe then publishing round number two (again, all fingers and

toes are crossed for wishful thinking) will be a faster process.