Did I mention his other cutesiepoo trick? He has post-its folded over the edge of the page, with the note part on the back of the page, and he hasn't marked anything on the front.

So if he writes "para 4, line 6", I have to go and count. No pencil markings.

Die, die, DIE.

Dumbass. No, wait... Is that dumb-ass, or dumb ass? Ask him.

What I want to know is on what planet he thinks this is his job, and if he does this all the time, why he still has a job.

Susan, the vibe I get off the notes? Is a fresh out of college English major, trying to impress the professor he no longer has.

Let's see, here's a sampling of what has me walking away from this until I cool down, and the deadline can bite me:

All of this on post-its folded backward, mind you. Nothing to tell me where on the page I'm supposed to be looking.

(post it folded back) "(p.133) para 6, l.3: "the word "Festival" is used here, with u.c. first letter. However, elsewhere in the book, it is referred to as the "Callowen House" festival. Should we not edit all these for purposes of consistency?"

After I turn the page over, talking to myself and issuing death threats, I count down six paragraphs - because he hasn't marked the page itself, mind you - and read what he's talking about. I then type - on a separate sheet, mind you - the following:

Page 133, paragraph 6, line 3: The word "Festival" here is being used in conversation, not in narrative. As an example, no one who went to Woodstock has ever, to my certain knowledge, casually remarked, "I caught Jimi Hendrix's set at Woodstock: Three Days of Peace, Love and Music in Bethel, New York!" We just call it Woodstock. I was there. Trust me."

There are over a hundred of these fucking entries.

Dumbass. No, wait... Is that dumb-ass, or dumb ass?

BWAH!

Thanks...I have a friend who's an editor and I did ask him whether "fucked up" was hyphenated once.

For "dumbass", substitute "anal-retentive pedantic twerp."

Page 133, paragraph 6, line 3: The word "Festival" here is being used in conversation, not in narrative. As an example, no one who went to Woodstock has ever, to my certain knowledge, casually remarked, "I caught Jimi Hendrix's set at Woodstock: Three Days of Peace, Love and Music in Bethel, New York!" We just call it Woodstock. I was there. Trust me."

Susan, the vibe I get off the notes? Is a fresh out of college English major, trying to impress the professor he no longer has.

Um, no. Probably he is a middle-aged line-editor, doing work to which he is unsuited. Line editors are used to querying grammar; I've never met an English major who queries grammar except for fun. (It's not covered at all in most English majors, except as remedial stuff in a handbook.) The real question is, why is a line-editor doing layout, and what ego-problem is he suffering that he needs to replicate the already-completed work of the copyeditor*?

The other question is, why bother replying to the queries that are totally wrong-headed and useless? Unless this is somebody who can influence the primary editor, you can just write "Query on p. 12. Leave as is."

* I presume the ms. has, in fact, already been copyedited, by someone who consulted with the author before reading the manuscript to ascertain what kind of specialized language/grammar/style guide notes to expect. Copyeditors are, 99.99% of the time, the best people in the world, because they are the people who make sure you do not say "assfisting" when you mean "assisting."

I presume the ms. has, in fact, already been copyedited, by someone who consulted with the author before reading the manuscript to ascertain what kind of specialized language/grammar/style guide notes to expect.

Probably not -- I copyedit for St. Martin's and most of the time, even for a book in a series, I rarely get the previous style guides, much less copies of previous books for consistency. I'm assuming this is the copyeditor, but I could be wrong. As far I've seen there and elsewhere (for fiction, not scholarly texts) the editor makes any last notes on the final manuscript, and then it goes to the copyeditor, then back to the author, and then off to typesetting.

Unless Deb has the galleys, in which case the proofreader has gone stone-cold beserk, because changes like that shouldn't be made at the stage.

For "dumbass", substitute "anal-retentive pedantic twerp."

My sympathies, Deb. I know you liked your last copyeditor. What a shame. I wish I could have done it!