Another dip into the archives today. Found was the copy-edit on THE RIFT. I was reminded that the manuscript was seven inches thick and amounted to a historically significant 1066 pages. (My own grueling Battle of Hastings) It was an open question whether binding technology would actually get a book that long between covers.
After I handed in the ms., I had a meeting with my editor, John Douglas. He said, “We could work really hard on tightening and cut 15%, or we could just send it to the printer and see what they say.” I honestly thought the ms. would benefit from judicious cutting and had come up with a figure of 15% on my own, but by that point neither John nor I had the stamina to do it, so it was sent to the printer and to my surprise they put it in print.
Found in the same box were the corrected page proofs, which amounted to 750-something pages. The proofs and the copy-edit together filled about 80% of one banker’s box, and I filled up the rest with reviews, a story of mine from a Dutch prozine, three screenplays (one never finished, one sold but never filmed, and the third turned into a chaotic mess of episodic television).
All to be sent to TAMU’s climate-controlled bunker come Monday.
