Boring?

The process of publishing a book is mostly just boring.  It usually takes me months to write a book, then it takes more months for the production aspect to be completed before it’s published.  This involves cover design, numerous steps of editing and review, and finally the actual production (layout, back of the book material, file production).  So from beginning to end it can be six months.  During the majority of that time I’m just waiting. 

The writing part is enjoyable, with exceptions, and keeps me engaged.  The post writing is tedious.  The editing goes on and on.  The number of readings and changes can be hundreds.  I will re-read a book so many times that my brain starts to fog over; and yet, a mistake (or two) will still slip through.  I’ve had reviewers mention “typos” and wonder why a better job of editing did not occur.  The standard for errors in a book (from a readers point-of-view) is zero.  So a 75,000 word book cannot have one tiny mistake –that’s a pretty high standard.  I have three people besides myself that will review, over and over, a book before it is published; and yet we do not catch everything.  How does that happen?

I’ve asked myself that question.  Part of it is the repetition.  If you keep reading a book over and over it is hard to have fresh eyes seeing the mistakes.  Plus the book is in constant revision.  So on the first edit review errors are found and corrected.  This is the stupid part; sometimes those corrections will create an error or typo.  All I can say is that I make a concentrated effort to reach the zero standard, but if you occasionally see a “typo” take pity on my tired eyes.

I titled this post “boring”, because talking about the process of writing, and some of the associated frustrations, has to be boring to readers.  I apologize.  But now and then it seems to be the subject that is on my mind.  So I write a little about my world, boring or not.