Editing a Book Today
Posted on December 27, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments
Because it’s due in January, and I’m basically encased in a wall of snow anyway. The book, incidentally, is The Mallet of Loving Correction, the second Whatever compilation, which will be out on September 15. I’m arranging the entries, removing some (the book needs to get down to 120,000 words, from an initial selection set of 145,000 word) and otherwise doing light formatting. Yes, this is the glamorous part of writing. The good news is that the writing was already done, although I need to write an author’s note and some occasional piece prefaces.
The point being, hey, busy at the moment. I’ll be back later in the afternoon. Maybe.
Will the book contain content that isn’t available on this blog? Like lovingly malleted comments?
I hope the Mallet itself will be featured prominently in the author photo, and/or on the cover itself.
*squeak* I enjoyed the Hate Mail one. I expect to see you malleting trolls like whack-a-moles :D
Krissy works very hard and needs a vacation in the sun. There is a cruise in Feb. she should consider. There are some perfectly fine cabins still left. http://jococruisecrazy.com/
I had the same thought as Robert Enders. I’d like to see examples of comments that were malleted, since we don’t have a way to see them here.
Robert Enders, Phil Royce:
It’s not like I save them after I mallet them.
I’ve seen the occasional malleted comment before the mallet came down on it. They’re really mostly not worth the space they would take up in the book.
Got a 1/2 deadline, to revise an instructor’s manual, and slides for each chapter of a text. Grind, grind.
What, working today? Yeah, me too. Quality time with few interruptions. I envy you the snow.
Are you cutting whole entries or pruning from each? I for one would be interested in your thoughts on editing your own work, years after the fact. Tightening is one thing, but what about the desire to, “What I really should’ve said was X.” At the same time, given a sufficient amount of time, it’s easier to edit heavily without attachment to a particular phrase or style. (I’ve often heard editing freshly written works compared to a doctor operating on her own child).
Is this just going to be stuff between the first Whatever collection and now, or is there some older stuff that didn’t make the cut in round 1?
amazingly people will buy a book on blog comments. Barnum certainly was right.
What? You’re not calling it “The Sparkly Glass Ball”?