IVP - Behind the Books - Almost There . . .*

Almost There . . .*

A lot of my college experience has involved me telling myself, “You’re almost there”; “Just this one last project”; “Just this one last semester”; “That late night will so be worth it when you’re all done.” Well, with just a few weeks remaining before my graduation, book publishing has given me the ultimate test of patience: the never-ending manuscript.

A few weeks ago I was given a three-hundred-page manuscript and told to, among other things, change the in-text citations to footnotes. I measured my rate (about ten pages an hour) and, now that I am nearing the end, I am clocking in around thirty hours. So what’s the catch? I hit page three hundred about an hour ago, and I’m not done yet.

Right now my footnote count is at 1662. And those little guys take up space, my friends. About thirteen pages of space. Plus, with all the footnotes still to be made in those thirteen pages, I probably won’t really be done until close to page 315.

I realize I am still editing the same amount of text, but this glitch in my measuring system has really tested my patience. And, theoretically, this really could be an infinite task (if I were to start footnoting footnotes). But in the end all I can hope is that my fastidious footnoting will create some sort of containment for this ever-expanding document and help get it into a readable format.

Other than patience, this conglomeration has also taught me the meaning of prioritizing and the (somewhat) negotiable nature of deadlines in publishing. From all my years of school, I’m used to strict deadlines (e.g., one day late and you lose a letter grade). In this sense it looks like school has prepared me for the responsibility of deadlines in the working world, but I also never had self-propagating assignments in class. From working on projects and talking to editors I’m starting to see a little bit more the continuous nature of editing. Mike Gibson, for example, showed me his ten-year plan for the Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Ten years. Forget ten years, I’m glad just to have the next ten minutes planned!

I think if I continue in publishing I’m going to have leave the “You’re almost there!” mentality behind. I like the satisfaction of completing a task, but an editor’s work is definitely all about the journey, especially if your project’s completion date is set ten years in the future.

*Sort of.

Posted by Michelle Read at March 17, 2009 1:02 PM