RANT WARNING.
I am taking a break from Chapter Seven of cross-editing between a marked-up obsolete version of the manuscript of "The Weaver & the Factory Maid" and my onscreen current version. I am also trying not to take a hostage in the form of the copy editor, who wants all the commas and pauses to be nice and consistent "so as to better give you a cohesive voice". Honeypie, that would be fine if I wanted all my characters to have my voice but I don't, dumbass, I want them to have their OWN damned voices which happen to be different and distinct from eath others', and by the way, who the hell are you to talk about voice, because in case you weren't aware of it, the publisher of this book actually cited me, that's right ME, as a perfect example of voice, in her essay ("From The Editor's POV") in the 1992 or thereabouts edition of "Writing Mysteries" so GET OFF MY CASE, or else write your OWN, damnit.....
There. Breathing now.
A good copyeditor is a joy.
A bad copyeditor reads his own mind and tells you it's The Truth. FEH.
Curses on your copyeditor.
(grumble bitch snarl)
Seriously, this is a freelancer picked from a pool of copy editors. Even Ruth says it looks as though I got a crappy one. She doesn't pick the copy editor in pre-production editing; the production department does that, so it's totally luck of the draw.
Who had final say, Deb? Is the copyeditor primarily to catch the typos and egrecious grammar faults that slip by or do they really have say over the final style of the product?
Hey. Connie asked about markets, and I know Deena was wondering as well. Ralan.com has the best market info for anything with a fantasy/horror/sf bent, from the high-paying to the non-paying, with up-to-date info on whether the market is flourishing or dead.
For straight literary fiction, I don't have much info ('cause I never write it), but there's probably a similar site out there somewhere.
Once again, I love you folk, and I have that post marked. Boy, I hope they get the Label Bookmarks feature up soon.
Connie, my editor/publisher (Ruth Cavin) has the final say, so I said "sucks-boo to YOU, evil copy-editor-freelance person" and went straight to Ruth, who snorted and said, "tell them to go to hell and stet everything you want kept."
But I still have to go through this and correct everything.
Headache now.
David! 'allo, bebe.
Deena, composing something to you in email as we speak.
