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.

ouch

(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.

Knut! Mwah!

Hey Deena!

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.

Deb, I'd offer hugs but it sounds like you need brass-knuckle backup instead. I've heard horror stories like this before, often enough that I fear for my manuscripts if and when they get sold.