Buddha’s Bad Boys Goes To Print

For the last five days, I’ve been proofreading the final galley for my anthology of short stories, Buddha’s Bad Boys. I submitted these stories to Bold Strokes Books back in March, and they plan to release the book in February. I’m excited, because this is my first anthology.

Normally, the process for Bold Strokes Books is that an editor goes through the book making edits, and then the edited manuscript is sent to me with all the edits highlighted. I get the opportunity to approve or reject each edit. Once I send the approved manuscript back to BSB, the process is repeated with a different editor. When we’ve been through two rounds of edits, they send me the final galley for one last proofread before it goes to print.

This time, however, they didn’t send me the edited manuscript. I only received the final galley. I emailed my editor to ask why I was left out of the editing process, and was told that they didn’t make any wording changes, just a few spelling corrections and some commas here and there. The original manuscript was so clean they didn’t feel the need to bother me with minor punctuation changes.

Wow, that is a first for me. In the past, there was normally more red ink on the pages than black when I received their comments. Looks like I’m finally beginning to get the hang of this writing stuff.

I actually wish they had included me in the editing process, because while proofreading the final galley, I found areas where I dipped heavily into melodrama, and also repeated myself. The editors chose to let that pass. If I’d had a hand earlier in the editing process, I could have corrected that. It’s funny how clearly those problems stand out to me now, but I didn’t see them a year ago when I was writing these six stories.

Still, I believe these stories are well plotted and have likable character who have genuine depth. I hope readers will overlook the flaws and appreciate the stories.