Don’t re-read

They say authors rarely pick up and read their book after they publish it, or have it published. Why? Because we are so used to editing our work that we never ever stop!

I just went through the Illinois Copper Artifact Resource Manual — noooo, not because I needed to torture myself. I am getting ready to give a presentation in Chicago on copper artifacts next month and I wanted to figure out what parts of it would interest them the most, to add to the SAA one I gave a month ago. And I found plenty.

I also found a ton of errors that now I have to fix, pronto, before I order copies to bring in case anyone is gutsy enough to buy a copy.

Okay, not a ton. Maybe four or five mistypes, a few bad paragraph indents. Honestly, this is my sample copy I’ve just re-marked up. Shouldn’t I have found these right off? But all I did when I got it was to make sure the photos were in place and the headings were fine and … no, I didn’t read the whole thing. I know. I should have.

So if you’re reading this and saying, whew, I’m glad I didn’t buy it, let me say that you would be plenty fine with it if you bought it now. Especially the summary. I’m really proud of the summary. I did make a big mistake with one paragraph being on the wrong page — I don’t know how that happened! But many of my changes are just me being picky and particular. But I know it will read better in the end.

So yeah, I will post here when the corrected copy is ready. I’ll be working on it and hopefully have it done before the theater on Sunday.

I’m going to see Shawshank Redemption as a play. Can you imagine?