Galleys Humor

Galleys before the internet

by Catherine Giordano

I reviewed galleys for the first time this week because my story “Figuring it Out” will appear in the anthology Not Your Mother’s Book—On Parenting.  The release date for the book is September 10^th 2013.

It was also my first time working with an editor from a publisher.  It was an interesting experience.  At first I may have been too much “I defer to your judgment”—I didn’t want to rock the apple cart—but later I realized I had to stand up for my work. 

In one case, an edit was made for space reasons—a couple of lines had to be cut to prevent the story from rolling over onto a new page. I thought the editor had cut lines crucial to the story. I explained my reasons and offered to cut different lines. The editor gladly accepted my suggestions, and I saved my story.

It took a lot of back and forth to get the story just right. It was so simple because I looked at a pdf of the pages instead of getting them on paper, and all the discussion was done by email. What a chore this must have been back in the days of paper and mimeographs. 

The editor had 60 stories to review for this anthology and she was simultaneously working on another anthology of 60 stories. Dealing with 120 authors all at once can’t be easy. I hope I made her job a little easier.

P.S. No humor in this post—I just couldn’t resist the pun in the title.

CLICK HERE