Cover Proof

So, there I was, closing in on the last of my proofreading, when I found something amiss with the index for my upcoming book, Jailhouse Stories from Early Pacific County. My instructions from the editor at History Press were to ‘spot check’ the index entries to make sure that the page references were correct.

I was happily doing just that when I realized that there were many missing entries. They were just not there at all. Yikes! So I quick-like emailed my editor (even though it was Sunday which, I’ve noticed, is some kind of Rule-When-It-Comes-to-Emergencies) and stopped working until further notice.

The Writing Process

The response was sent at 5:37 this morning, our time (what kind of time difference is that and where does she work, anyway?): …it seems that those “left-out” entries weren’t tagged properly in the manuscript and didn’t translate into our paging software. Unfortunately, this will need to be corrected by hand. I will need a list from you of everything that is missing…

That means checking every single index entry against the first go-round of copy-edits and determining exactly what was left out. There are (make that should be) 524 index entries so it will be a meticulous, time-consuming, nuts-making job and not overly-rewarding at that. Plus, reading copy for what is not there is tricky in itself…

What I said yesterday about the adage for the month “The Best Way Out Is Always Through” was spot on.  And here it is, only Day One of February!