Copyeditor

There were no yellow post its.  I’d forgotten that they don’t do that anymore.  The marks were on the manuscript.  And what a nightmare those marks were.

This copyeditor took it upon herself (and it was a she) to make everyone talk the same.  And she changed the spelling of words like: whaddaya to what d’ya.  This was in dialogue.  My main character often says yer for you’re and ya for you.  But many times, for reasons of awkward pronounciations, I don’t do that. She changed them.

I’ve had three days of putting everything back the way it was.

She did pick up on repetition from one chapter to another.  That’s what she’s supposed to do.  She is not supposed to change my dialogue in any way.

I complained to my editor and he said he’d certainly speak to the person in charge of hiring these freelance editors.  There was nothing we could do about it now.  I knew that, of course.

I got so confused by her changes that I’m not sure things are consistent now.  I wrote a note to my editor about this and sent it with the manuscript.  I hope he’ll take a look or have someone with a brain do that to make sure things are consistent.

Now I’ll have to gird myself for the inevitable argument about the jacket.

No new contract yet.  My agent said she has to check on the sales ( the publishers have these figures every week because of computers) before she goes into negotiations.

Why do I feel they’re not going to give me a new contract?  Paranoia? Pessimism?  Reality? If the book didn’t sell well it’s perfectly possible that they won’t give me a new contract.  My thinking is how could people know the book was out there when they didn’t take an ad anywhere?  But then maybe it just didn’t sell well, despite good reviews.

What will become of me?