When I was finishing my previous two books, I had to read through the printed proof copies five times before I felt certain that I had found and fixed every error. Part of the reason I wanted to hire an editor this time was to reduce the length of that task. But this is four books, not one, and it's harder than it was the last time I did this.
After I got through the editor's comments, I was so optimistic for my first print-proof reading that I decided to use sticky notes to mark the errors I found (rather than writing directly in the books). I figured I would go through one or two pads of sticky notes per book.
No such luck. I went through ten sticky-note pads in the first book, and I'm getting the same ratio in the other three books (about one error per page). I've been amazed to see how many little errors have crept in. I can see that I created some of the errors while I was fixing the errors the editor found. I suspect that this all has something to do with my eyes being older than they were the last time I did this.
As of this moment, I'm about 3/4 of the way through reading all four books (and marking and fixing every error). This has always been a difficult task for me because my eyes have a hard time switching between reading and computer-screen distances. (I first got bifocals when I was 20, and things have gotten worse ever since then.) My eyes start getting tired (and everything starts to get blurry) after about a half-hour of focus-switching. That makes for slow progress.
I have set up a reading station with a lighted magnifying glass, and I've increased the size of the fonts on my computer screen. All of this is helping (at least with the discomfort). Still, I am moving through these last readings more slowly than I thought I would. At this rate I will be glad if I can publish all four books before Christmas.
Will I have to read these print proofs five times? I don't think so. I think I may be able to get by with two readings this time, which is still a big win (thank you editor). But the first print reading is taking so long that the net result will not be much faster.
So if you're wondering what's happening with me, that's what's happening: a lot of peering intently at words that keep getting blurry. But I will get there! When I order my second round of proof copies (sometime in the next two weeks), I plan to update all four PDF versions of the books on the website. They are a few months out of date at this point, and I have made some nice improvements to some of my explanations and diagrams.
