Proofing the Proofs

The most understated chore in the writing process is proofing. I'm not talking about the kind of proofing one does when he or she writes a 1,500 word essay or short story, although that can be mind-bending. Reading 75,000 to 100,000 words for final publication is what I mean.

Picture that a book is completed and the author feels so-o-o good sending it off to be published. This is akin to having a concrete block lifted off the shoulders. Then, it comes back. Actually, it used to come in snail mail in a box or a large envelope--all of the pages of a book. Now it sometimes arrives via an e-mail attachment with a headline of instructions on how to make corrections online, or in some cases, enter corrections in margins for the editor to enter.

Regardless of the form, it comes first in a copy-edited version. And then a few weeks to two months later, it comes in a fully detailed and designed form. That final read is all about finding the tiniest mistakes. And, somehow no matter how carefully the proofs are read, and no matter how many people read the proof, mistakes mysteriously appear in the book.  I get angst ridden just thinking of the readers who will ultimately e-mail me to let me know there is a typo on page 48.  Or, from time to time, at a book  signing, will open a book and say, "Did you know that you misspelled "the."

I sent the Appalachian Jack Tales back to the publisher for the last time on Monday. Now I'm at the most stressful point of the process. This is the time when I hope that I read the proof as closely and carefully as I possibly could whole searching for a typo here and a misplaced comma there.

James Young's painting of Jack sitting in the Bean Tree graces the front cover and his illustrations are sprinkled throughout  giving the book a special youthful appeal. The pen and ink drawings show Jack making his mythic and heroic journeys  into the lands of giants, witches, and kings.

The drawings are all in fun, just like I wrote the stories.