Friday, October 1, 2010

All About Copyedits

I'm slowly but surely sounding less like a transgendered vampire 800 operator. Thanks for all the well wishes.

Of course, my recovery was aided by the arrival of a cover printout and my copyedits yesterday. I did some jumping. And some squealing. And then some choking, because my throat can't quite handle the squeals just yet. And then some turning blue and some Heimlich maneuvering against my kitchen chair.

Okay, that last bit is a slight exaggeration. But otherwise it's embarrassingly accurate.

I was admittedly a little worried about the copyedits. I had no idea what they'd look like. Maybe there would be no white space left after they'd gotten done tearing apart my writing and putting it back together again. Maybe I would want to cry. I'm happy to report that copyedits are not scary at all! And a lot of the things are what you'd expect: tense changes and bits on page 27 that contradict what was said on page 1. Repeated words. Changes for clarity.

And then there are the queries that I find absolutely hilarious. For example, should the word awesomesauce be hyphenated? (Obvs, I vote no.) Should the boy in the chicken suit have a thumb impediment or a hand impediment? Should "zombie preparedness posse" be capitalized, hyphenated, or written in giant sparkly letters?

THESE ARE QUESTIONS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE. Clearly, everyone needs to ask themselves questions like these. I also would like to take my copyeditor out for lunch so we could debate these issues. Would any of you like to join us? And what is your stance on the above issues? If I agree with you, I might nominate you for president.

8 comments:

Kim Harrington said...

I think you should trademark "zombie preparedness posse."

abby mumford said...

awesomesauce is one word. clearly. because awesome-sauce makes it look like the sauce is awesome. and don't get me wrong, it could be, but that's not what we're going for, now is it?

and as for Zombie Preparedness Posse? i think we should get down with ZPP. (you know, like the song OPP? by naughty by nature.) good times.

lora96 said...

Zombie Preparedness Posse is clearly a proper name and requires capitalization as indicated in the organizational bylaws publication entitled ZPP: Zip Those Zombies.

Awesomesauce is one word unless it is an actual food such as marinara sauce. I think. I'm mainly just hungry at this point.

Kayla Olson said...

I'm pretty much in agreement with the others on awesomesauce = one word. (Unless, like lora96 suggested, it's something you can eat.)

The obvious choice in regards to the ZPP conundrum is giant sparkly letters!! Right? (But…then again, giant sparkly letters might mess with the rest of the formatting. I *guess* we have to count that option out.)

(Sigh.)

Zombie preparedness posse could go either way. Are we talking about an official posse? If so, capitalize, yo. If it's just a random description of people who tend to be prepared for zombies, I vote no caps.

Okay. That's all. :)

Caroline Starr Rose said...

My copyedits come later this month. Thanks for the low-down (or is it lowdown or low down?).

ylime1981 said...

Awesomesauce! Totally one word. I tried writing it both ways and one word just looks better. For a dyslexic like me, you want to go with what looks better.

As for zombie preparedness posse, I'm liking these ideas that are appearing --- the capitalization, trademarking, and abbreviations. Giant, sparkly letters should be required, though. They should probably be in a font of dancing people.

A thumb impediment for a guy in a chicken suit sounds like it would be way better since, you know, chickens aren't supposed to have hands or thumbs. A thumb impediment would just confuse the chicken which would be awesomesauce!

Claire Dawn said...

The Zombie Preparedness Posse sounds like a pre-apocalyptic political party :)

Tiny T said...

Firstly, awesomesauce is definitely one word. You make it two or hyphenate and it just takes the awesome out. :( The awesome is needed.

Secondly, the boy in the chicken suit should probably go with the thumb impediment. Why? Have no clue.

Lastly, zombie preparedness posse needs to be capitalized like so "Zombie Preparedness Posse" and have the acronym ZPP. Cause its awesomesauce and all official sounding. Giant sparkly letters would be the icing for the cake. I'd totally join.