Friday, September 21, 2007

I got my galleys!




Derk Koldewyn, editorial assistant to my editor, called me this morning with exciting news (for me, anyway). The galleys were complete and ready for my review. For those of you who may not know what that means: galleys are the typeset version of the manuscript. In other words, it now looks like a book. In fact, this is exactly what the inside of the ARC will look like. (Above are 3 examples from the galleys)

It will now go through the final proofreading process (including my own review). However, they are going to move forward and make the ARC, which is not unusual. It will have some kind of statement on it informing the reader that it has not been officially proofread.

Proofreading does not quite mean what some of you may think it means. The book has been heavily edited (trust me, I know, and will tell you more about that process) by Shadow Mountain. Proofreading is just one final look to make sure no mistakes or errors were overlooked.

In short, I love it. I really love it. The font, the look, the style, the chapter headings, the dingbats (those little thingies that break up sections within a chapter), everything. The artist is working on 12-15 inside illustrations that will be added later.

Now I'm REALLY excited. :-) Oh, one final thing. Now we know the page count (pending illustrations): 385 pages.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

NEAT!! I can't WAIT! 385 pages, pretty impressive!

Marsha Ward said...

Awesome, James! Just plain awesome.

Luisa Perkins said...

Cool! Congratulations.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Uncle!! =) I'm so excited, I can't wait to read it! Your blog is awesome, I've learned way more about you, funny as that sounds, lol. Love ya!

James Dashner said...

Thanks, guys.

Say hello to my genius niece, Rachel. She graduated from Georgia Tech in forensic science or whatever it's called. A regular CSI gal.

Rachelle Christensen said...

James,
The galleys look awesome! I'm excited to read it.
Oh, and you've been tagged!

Tristi Pinkston said...

That is so cool! And can I just say, brilliant marketing to release it on the 13th.

Tristi Pinkston said...

Um, Dashner Dude, why am I not on your links list?

Author said...

Congratulations - it must be a great! feeling. You certainly deserve it after all your hard work. Now the rest of us just can't wait to read it!

James Dashner said...

Tristi, not to worry. Webmaster Kiesche will get right on it.

Rachelle, if I were a lesser man, I would say I'm new to blogging and have no idea what it means to be tagged. Wait, I am a lesser man. Well, there you have it.

No, I'll obey. I liked your answers!

Rachelle Christensen said...

James,
No worries, I'm new to blogging too and I didn't know what it meant at first. You're just supposed to answer the same questions that I did on your blog and link me when you do and then tag 5 other people.
Oh and when your webmaster is linking Tristi, link me up too.
Thanks!

Heather Moore said...

Congratulations!! I can't wait to read it for real.

Rebecca said...

he James - found you on cre8buzz - congratulations on your release. Looks marvellous!!

Annette Lyon said...

Galleys are when it becomes "real." Congrats!

Dapoppins said...

How can you contain yourself. This is so cool. I don't even know you or anything, and I am jumping in my seat. So cool.

James Dashner said...

Thanks, guys. Getting galleys is a pretty cool thing. Interestingly enough, they decided to go with a larger font, so the page count is going to increase by as much as 40 pages. So my galleys are already outdated and they'll be sending me new ones.

Anonymous said...

James I shared this with the girls on my board and one gal said "That first page definitely makes me want to read the book! When can I buy it in England?!"

James Dashner said...

Hey, it'll happen, hopefully. My agent is pretty confident on selling foreign rights.

I'm pretty sure I'll drop dead of joy if my book gets published in England. That's my number one destination of places I want to visit.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I love your book! Keep on writing!