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Phase 6 Copy Editing
This is the awful one and I always forget just how awful. Foolishly I look forward to having the “baby” back. I also suffer from the illusion that I have submitted a manuscript that is in perfect shape. My illusions are shattered with amazing speed. Take a look at a sample of a copy edited page and you’ll begin to understand what the author is up against—especially the author of a cookbook and most especially the author of a detailed baking book.
The production editors notes are in grey pencil, the copy editor’s in red, and mine in purple.
It is at this point of the book production that I start to imagine opening the window and jumping out. Elliott told me several books ago that jumping from the seventh floor is a poor idea and the truth is I love life far too much for this to become a reality but the image does present itself to me as I struggle through addressing the queries—flipping back and forth between the close to 700 page weighty manuscript, trying to remember why I did what I did and being careful not to change something that may not be consistent but may actually be an exception and needs to be inconsistent. Escape is what I looking for. Of course all of this will vastly improve the book. But the reason it is such a desperate process is that for the sake of consistency and accuracy, it needs to be done without interruption in order to retain all the necessary information. Friends and relatives knew not to call. And Elliott understood.
It took 11 days and nights of steady scrunity to go through the whole manuscript and I pause now between reformatting three recipes into chart form (I thought I could get away with a simpler approach for a 2 ingredient recipe but it’s not consistent with the rest of the style) and the start of a total read-through. I pause to write this before I forget once again….
Tedious as a full read-through is, reading out loud one hears words in a different way and it will also give me the chance to see if the changes the copy editor and I made are legible and comprehensible for the person who will input all these changes electronically. Ah ha—you guessed—that is part of the “opening the window” temptation—the thought that after all this work things can go very wrong unless proofed all over again and even then…This is why I promise myself each time to write shorter books.
Despite all this anxiety and immobility (sitting for so many hours is just not healthy) I feel blessed to have the opportunity to do a book of this magnitude and quality. And I feel doubly blessed to have the support and encouragement of Ava Wilder, head of production at Wiley who cares so much about all these details. And triply blessed to have Deborah Weiss Geline as the most amazing copy editor of all time. Not only is she ruthlessly thorough (she even Googled many of the entries!) she has years of publishing experience behind her including being a senior editor at Artisan books. I kept marveling at how she could endure spending the two months she was given to go through so much detailed material. But as Ava so wisely pointed out in a loving and encouraging e-mail to me:
Let's see if this helps you as you work so hard on the manuscript. Writing, which we often forget, is a very lonely pursuit, and it is only natural that you feel lonely poring over the manuscript for the hundredth time. Editing and revising are especially grueling and we all feel their discomforts. But in the end, when the reader picks up the book, it is such a wonderful thing to be able to offer an experience that is pure pleasure, free of frustration, confusion, or irritation. It is going to feel like your generosity and caring radiate from the pages. So, all this work will be very much worth it in the end. Remind yourself that your books are very ambitious endeavors, so big, filled with charts and accurate measures, and the recipes tested so many times… Here is a quote I heard once and always remember: Patience is bitter, but its fruit extremely sweet.
Back to Debbie, I can’t resist mentioning that she is very beautiful—tall, slim, blond, with blue eyes and a calm, gentle disposition. I made her wedding cake years ago as a present (which will tell you how I felt about her even then) when I was an author at William Morrow and she was a copy editor. Sadly I have no photos of it or of her or I’d be posting them but I do remember that the white frosting—actually it was probably rolled fondant—was covered with little silver stars I cut from thinly rolled fondant brushed with edible silver. I chose silver because my image of her was of moonbeams and light.
So what happens next? I will hand Ava the manuscript at our book design meeting in two weeks as I don’t trust any other delivery system. There probably will be discussions about some of the changes I made or rejected and then the inputter goes to work integrating them. I don’t get the manuscript back again until December when it goes into “pages.” I expect I’ll be spending the holidays proofing them against the copy-edited manuscript as mentioned before. Meantime, we have the rest of the photos to take and the DVD to make.
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Comments
Rose, I knew the "theory" of proofreading a book, but the reality looks quite overwhelming! Thank you, thank you to you and your helpers for all the work you do. And Happy Mother's Day!
Posted by: Barbara A. | May 10, 2008 4:35 PM #
Patience is bitter, but its fruit extremely sweet - so true... true for you as you go through this proofing process, and true for us as we wait for your newest cake book to be published. Hope it goes by quickly for you!
Posted by: Patrincia | May 10, 2008 6:38 PM #
Oh my goodness Rose, I am so grateful and appreciative after seeing this one page! I will never again take your books for granted - as I think I have until now. You are the BEST!
Posted by: Annie | May 11, 2008 2:41 PM #
There has been only ONE baking bible, and that has been written by Rose.
Your work is truly a labor of love and your INFINITE desire to share ALL your baking knowledge is our luck to enjoy.
The professional cook environment is filled with so much secrecy and individualism, yours is none.
If you jump off the 7th floor, I will jump off my 2nd floor. We with both survive.
Posted by: Hector | May 11, 2008 9:33 PM #
ok hector--the windows are jammed shut with wobble wedges (by me) because it is so windy the windows rattle like the arctic--so not to worry.
thanks for the beautiful sentiments. by the way, i recommend the movie vitus about a child prodigy--i don't want to give anything away but something about these images brought it to mind. rarely these days do i see a movie i enjoy so completely. actually i saw this several months ago pre copy editing. it's on dvd.
Posted by: rose levy beranbaum | May 11, 2008 10:16 PM #
May I post your tip for removing air pockets from fluted pans on my blog(with proper attribution, of course)?
Laura Stokes-Gray
swedishbaker.blogspot.com
Posted by: Laura Stokes-Gray | May 12, 2008 2:31 PM #
Rose, thanks from this veteran copy editor and passionate baker for every line of care that you and your team put into your miraculous books. I once worked as the sole food editor at a small health magazine; I could never explain to anyone else on staff how incredibly important it was to test and proofread a recipe to PERFECTION, because real trusting humans are going to go and buy expensive ingredients, spend precious time, and serve up the results to waiting families and friends; anything less than excellence is a potential betrayal of that trust! Your body of work is one of the most rewarding and intimate bonds of trust possible between writer and reader, teacher and student, and to see a sample of the mind-numbing detail required to build that trust makes us very GRATEFUL! Cannot wait for the new book to come out!
(Just one suggestion to the publisher: Could they bind in the signatures with extra-strong production techniques so that our best-loved recipes don't fall out when the bindings break?!)
Posted by: Brenda Becker | May 12, 2008 3:18 PM #
Rose, I am an editor and I have several of your books. I loved seeing the marked-up page--it made me wish so badly that *I* could be your editor! What a joy to edit one of your cookbooks instead of a system administrator's programming manual! Ava is right--all the work is worth it when you can give your readers your very best. I am happily looking forward to your cake book. Thank you!
Christina
Posted by: Christina | May 12, 2008 3:55 PM #
yes--thank you for asking.
Posted by: rose levy beranbaum | May 12, 2008 5:16 PM #
thank you all for your beautiful support and appreciation. you'll be happy to know that this book will have a stitched binding and will not fall apart!!!
Posted by: rose levy beranbaum | May 12, 2008 5:22 PM #
Rose, the amount of work that goes into your books is amazing. Thank you for the insight.
As a small book related suggestion, could you consider having your DVD released in a multi region format? I am certain your readers scattered around the world would appreciate it.
Posted by: Andrea | May 12, 2008 7:22 PM #
It has been, and continues to be, such a joy to be able to follow along with your adventure as you realize this book. I always knew that you put your whole heart and soul into your works, (they leap from the pages!) but I never realized until now how much you go through to do so. There are very few cookbook authors who give so much of themselves for the sake of their readers. Bravo for that! And being able to share some of this experience with you now will make reading the book even more special, as if we were part of the journey. Thank you, Rose. I eagerly await your masterpiece.
Posted by: Renee Gleason | May 13, 2008 9:02 AM #
just found out we'll have reinforced binding as well!
andrea, the dvd will be available on the web so is there still a concern with multi region?
renee--thank you for your wonderful note!
now back to the read through. just found out it will be coming back to me in "prepages" in august. there goes summer vacation!
Posted by: rose levy beranbaum | May 13, 2008 9:39 AM #
i am going to make the lilac nostalgia cake, but my supermarket did not have white chocolate bars. they had white chocolate chips instead... are those an acceptable substitute?
thanks!
Posted by: jeff | May 13, 2008 11:21 AM #
i've never used them but i think they have cocoa butter which means they should work!
Posted by: rose levy beranbaum | May 13, 2008 11:39 AM #
Rose:
I've been out of touch...getting the new office up and running and then a long long long needed rest (10 Days in Floriday...including 3 in Disney World). Anyway, thing are pretty much back to normal. I'm so thrilled and happy that things are progressing with the new book. I can't even imagine the amount of "stick-to-it-ness" it must take. Thank you so much for all you put into your books. It is what makes them so special and it is what allows the home baker (like me) to get such spectacular results. We are sitting with bated breath, waiting for this new one!.
Posted by: Bill | May 13, 2008 1:54 PM #
It's nice to see that I'm not the only one whose manuscripts come back 'fully loaded'. Hopefully it will make people realise what effort it takes to be accurate, and that, even with all that work, errors creep in.
Can't wait for my copy. Congrats.
Posted by: Helen | May 14, 2008 5:30 AM #
wonderful blog!I am interested in the food culture of your country. And I support your site. If there is time, please come in my site. From Japan
http://food-soybean.blogspot.com/
Posted by: edamame | May 14, 2008 8:38 AM #
It is my friends birthday in a week and a half, and I really want to find out how to order the heavenly chocolate cake mix????? I can't find it anywhere
PLEASE HELP:)
Posted by: Orlene | May 14, 2008 11:14 PM #
Rose,
Thank you so much for everything you go through! I treasure your books, knowing each and every recipe is a work of perfection.
After working my way through a number of recipes in the P&PB, I received the Cake Bible for my birthday in February. I had never considered myself a "cake person", but thought I might find at least a few recipies worth making. What ensued was a complete transformation of all my former ideas about cake!
I started small, with carrot and zuchini muffins, then branched out into genoise, making your Strawberry Maria (heavenly!) for my own birthday cake. On to Golden Genoise (my favorite layer cake!) and Neoclassic, Mousseline, and Silk Meringue buttercreams. You have elevated my skills to far beyond what I ever imagined they would be, and more importantly, you have educated me about what a fine thing a cake can really be.
Thanks so much for all you hard work, I can't wait to get my hands on the new book!
Julie
Posted by: Julie | May 15, 2008 11:37 AM #
julie, i can't imagine a nicer more heartfelt compliment. you deserve also to discover how amazing home made bread can be!
Posted by: rose levy beranbaum | May 15, 2008 5:30 PM #
orlene, i'm so sorry to tell you that the cake mix is no longer available.
Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | May 16, 2008 4:08 PM #