At 4pm on Thursday 28th March, I picked up an email from Jessica, Production Controller at Troubador, with the complete typeset proofs of Belfast Song attached for proofreading.
I was expecting this. Shortly after I had signed on the dotted line on 19th February, she had sent me an outline of Approximate Production Timescales that would result in publication at the end of August.
However, back then, as I imagined the proofs arriving either side of Easter Sunday, you could say I was in blue-sky thinking. That is, thinking that is not grounded in immediate reality. In my mind’s eye the proofs arrive on a spacious day where there is nothing to distract me from the task in hand. I settle to co-ordinate how my two buddies and I can send off a corrected manuscript to Troubador within the two-week deadline.
Switch now to the reality of 4pm on the day before the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. I have just about recovered from arriving back a few days earlier from a five day trip to Ireland via Shannon airport. Believe me, there is no easy or quick way to get from Sheffield to the West of Ireland. The immediate choice is to take the train to Edinburgh or Gatwick airport to then fly to Shannon. My husband Denis and I are in the throes of ascertaining which days family members are visiting during Easter week. We are sorting who is doing what: shopping, cooking, bed-making … you get the idea. Denis has agreed to be a proof-reader and meantime the other proof-reader, my writing buddy Jan, has her own plans to manage. I’ve an unexpected deadline to do with last minute arrangements for a mid-April conference that I’m helping to organise. That’s before I even think of day to day domestics such as walking the dog.
This is the state of mind in which I open the email. I am in touch with the necessity of real-time actions. Let’s call it overwhelmed to the point of panic by what I need to do asap.
On reading the email, I am aghast to discover that the task involves using a set of conventional proofreading marks that I have never seen before. I realise I have to choose: I either print out the proofs (all 344 pages) returning only those pages that need amending by post, or I mark the amendments on the PDF proof and send the complete PDF file to Troubador online.
Somehow, I find the presence of mind to actually open the PDF … oh my goodness … it is so exciting to see Belfast Song laid out in book format. I can imagine it on a shelf in a book shop or being launched to real audiences in Belfast and Sheffield. Another instance of blue-sky thinking?
By this time my ‘manager head’ is screwed on firmly: this manuscript has been redrafted five times with feedback from various writing buddies throughout. This included a proof read of the 5th draft. And then, over three years later, I did a 6th proofread before sending the manuscript to Troubador. So, although there will still be corrections, I trust they will be few by now. Troubador allows a total of nine weeks to include up to three proof reads before the author signs off the manuscript. So I reckon that any slippage on this first round timescale will be offset by speed of dealing with subsequent rounds.
I trust that this estimate is grounded in experience of real-time action.
Mary
Congratulations. I’m looking forward to reading this Mary- it’s been a long gestation but the birthing pangs are well uno. 🙏❤️
Mary I’m really excited to see Belfast Song in print too. Well done to you . I’m sure you will get the last proof read finished. Good luck Siobhàn
You really capture the contradictory ebbs and flows, pulls and pushes of all this, Mary…
We’re looking forward to reading it!
M & B x
You really doing good job” looking forward to reading it!