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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Reader Update on ECONNED

Dear patient readers,

Loyalists may have noticed that I am still not back up to my old level of posts. That is because I still have heavy duty book responsibilities. I now know why Spaulding Grey called one of his books “the monster in the box” (in the box in those days because manuscripts were typewritten).

The manuscript was in to my editor August 4. I still don’t have her edits back, but I have tons to do anyhow (this is typical, BTW) particularly because one chapter still does not work and needs to be rewritten yet again (9th time, 7 of 8 previous rewrites were major. It does not want to submit). And aside from cleanup and nailing down some very important open details (to say anything about CDOs, you need to do primary research, the media did not get deeply enough into that one, no doubt because it is a difficult product and data does not converge neatly), I need to worry about continuity and redundancy (for instance,when I talk about CDS and return to it 4 chapters later, how much do I have to reintroduce the concept for a lay reader?).

The book was supposed to go to copy edit August 18, which was clearly nuts. I had to make myself obnoxious to get that pushed back a mere six days. I get half the book back out of copy edit Sept 2, the rest the following week. The overall deadline is still the same, which is the manuscript is pretty locked down on Sept 23.

I review copy edits and can still make changes till then, and will keep editing while in copy edit. I also need to get some permissions for a few charts I use before Sept 23..

The manuscript then goes for a proofreading (an extra step most publishers don’t take) and goes into page proofs, which I review again, but you really cannot change page proofs much at all (you can maybe artfully change a line if if does not change the rest of the page).

The book goes into galleys as of mid October and galleys are ready Nov. 1.

And you may remember the book is not out until late Feb-March. Why such a long lead time? They want to send galleys to long lead time publications. It takes time to assign books to reviewers. To get reviews in some magazines for Feb-March, they need galleys 4 months plus prior.

Now this book is a big historical sweep, but I wonder what happens if this ides of September is even a pale shadow of the last one.

And I have a client project starting the day the book goes into copy edit (Aug 24), so even if I wanted to take a few days off then that is not in the cards.

Topics: Notices

Email This Post Email This Post Posted by Yves Smith at 12:44 am

15 Comments » Links to this post

15 Comments:

  • Anonymous says:
    August 16, 2009 at 1:13 am

    If the book is based on fact with an historical time line then it never gets old just don't let them put it on the fiction shelf.

  • Carrick says:
    August 16, 2009 at 2:39 am

    What's happening with the subtitle?

  • Yves Smith says:
    August 16, 2009 at 3:21 am

    Carrick,

    Thanks for asking, No further discussion or decision. I think we will focus on that and marketing issues after Sept. 23.

  • skippy says:
    August 16, 2009 at 4:37 am

    Sydney, drive by promo tail-end to other commitments?

    Skippy…I'll be on my best behaver.

  • bob goodwin says:
    August 16, 2009 at 6:34 am

    consider preposting your book on Kindle self publishing, if that doesn't alienate your publisher. That way loyalist can start viral marketing and you can avoid the problem of publishing after events have swept away its relevance.

    If you use the title ECONNED, make sure your subtitle reinforces the misrepresentation you claim, otherwise it will look like a conspiricy nut job book, which I am sure it is not.

  • But What do I Know? says:
    August 16, 2009 at 6:58 am

    How in God's name do you find time to post anything at all? No apology is necessary. Anything you can post is appreciated.

    I'm really looking forward to the book.

  • Anonymous says:
    August 16, 2009 at 7:21 am

    Make sure your copy editor's first language is English. Publishing houses outsource copy editing to save money.

    Makes for some very interesting edits for non-native English speakers.

  • Siggy says:
    August 16, 2009 at 10:28 am

    I look forward to the publication of your book.

    I like your blog and I tend to agree with most of the positions that you take with the exception of your apparent view that contracts can and should be broken as is deemed necessary. That is a topic on which, I expect, that we would agree to disagree.

    As far as the relative brevity of your posts, sometimes, in fact often, less is more.

    Keep up the good work, you provide a voice and a forum that is much needed.

  • "DoctoRx" says:
    August 16, 2009 at 10:42 am

    Thanks for the update, Yves.

    I have now learned something about the publishing world.

    Re the subtitle: ECRI, with a good track record, believes that in about half a year the economy will be generally believed to be in a strong recovery.

  • FairEconomist says:
    August 16, 2009 at 10:45 am

    Looking forward to the book!

  • Eleanor says:
    August 16, 2009 at 11:23 am

    Publishing is horrible. I once had to turn a book around — do the final editing of proofs — in three days after I discovered the wrong version of the manuscript had been typeset. The editor said they could not give me more time.

    The publisher's copy editor had quit — or actually been picked up by the police — and the publisher could not retrieve the final manuscript. But they found another, earlier version of the manuscript in the office and figured it would do just as well…

    The editor and I sat on the phone, and I dictated changes to him. The result was a hash.

    I stopped writing book length fiction, because I could not longer stand to deal with New York publishing houses.

    I'm looking forward to your book, Yves.

  • Jon Claerbout says:
    August 16, 2009 at 3:04 pm

    Keep the book off the market for 4 months waiting for reviews? Why? Meanwhile, trails go cold.

  • andthecowgoesmoo says:
    August 16, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    All the best to you and the baby, I'm looking forward to picking it up in the spring.

    And how new to the topic of CDS do you expect a reader to be to need it re-introduced? Assuming its treatment in the book does not far exceed its treatment in your posts, and considering the amount of play CDS have gotten in the news (and the econblogs), I'm surprised you're not expecting a high level of familiarity with the subject for most of your readers.

    I guess I'm mostly curious as to what kind of reader you and your publishers expect to attracted with ECONNED.

    Again, all the best!

  • Anonymous says:
    August 16, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    <(for instance,when I talk about CDS and return to it 4 chapters later, how much do I have to reintroduce the concept for a lay reader?). >

    I agree with andthecowgoesmoo. However, if you're worried, ad a little summary table/caption/whatever of key points at the end of the original chapter that covers CDS (or in an appendix, and have them refer to that if they need to four chapters later on.

    As for this next september overshadowing the last one–I suspect that will be the case. If it's re-published at a later date, the subtitle will ilkely be something along the lines of "the events leading up to the traumatic September/Ocotber2009"

    Just a guess, and I hope you sell oodles (googles?) of books

  • Moopheus says:
    August 16, 2009 at 11:12 pm

    "Keep the book off the market for 4 months waiting for reviews? Why? Meanwhile, trails go cold."

    Publishing trade journals–Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus–need that long to have a review ready to print before the pub date. Good reviews there move a lot of library copies. The review sources–newspapers and magazines, the few that still have reviews–need to decide what to review, get someone to do it, get the book out to them with time for them to read the book and write the review, in time for the review to be published when the book is still in the stores. And no, with dozens of books arriving on their desks every day, you can't make them go faster unless your book is Very, Very Important.

    Also, advance copies need to go to the buyers at the chains and Amazon and other major outlets, so they can be persuaded to order a sufficient number of copies. Copies need to go out to the people the editor hopes will provide nice blurbs to help sell the book ("I wish I'd known this years ago!"–Tim Geithner).

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