After processing the suggestions over the weekend, I implemented the editorial feedback to the first three chapters. This is proving a very good learning experience.

For starters, until Friday night, I was unstudied in the art of proofreading shorthand, the notations editors make to indicate changes. Usually when vetting my stuff, I insert the fix immediately above the affected word, sentence or passage. Proofreaders, though, flag an issue very discretely in place with a symbol, then link that symbol to details in the margins. In this way, it’s possible to keep the actual text–and the fix–in perspective, without overweighting either. My crude, brute force method swallows the whole page in green circles, arrows and scrawl.

Now the suggestion of leaving 1 inch of white space all the way around the page suddenly makes sense for reasons beside aesthetics. They use that margin. Imagine that. And there’s another lesson, too.

For all the markups, for all the suggestions, in the end, the manuscript is there. It can be tweaked in subtle ways, and would benefit from a completely virgin set of eyes, with no emotional investment, which I have requested. More on that when I hear back.

In the meantime, I’ll miss my chicken scratches.

Completely unrelated but so far this year site traffic is up substantially over last at this time, even after trouncing comment spambots by disabling pingbacks. Of the four years of this site’s operation, I’ve never spent less time trying to promote the place. Curious.