The book is here! .. and another word on editing
I’ve had a rant about editing before, and I’m about to have another one – but the good news first. Last Wednesday was a great day. My daughter Gayatri graduated from uni, and we had a family celebratory dinner in the evening – 14 of us, including the children. The food was great, the wine was flowing, and then my son Ganesh produced a gift for me. Inside was the first copy of “The Brindavan Chronicle: Genesis”, and it was really great to see my own words finally in print.
The next day, however, I was thumbing through the book and went idly to the extracts from the second volume we’ve had printed at the back, and noticed that the word “nemesis” was misspelt – as “nemisis”. How this could have happened I couldn’t think, for the word is part of the title – “The Brindavan Chronicle:Nemesis”. I knew that I couldn’t have missed such an obvious error, so rapidly checked the final proof copy sent from the publishers, absolutely certain that somehow the spelling mistake was down to them – it had become changed in some mysterious way between proof copy and printing.
Reader, I was wrong! There it was in the final proof – “NEMISIS”!!! All I can think is that I had been so preoccupied with the text that I didn’t even look at the title. My self-belief in my infallibility has been destroyed! All I can say is that when we get around to publishing the second volume, I’ll make sure I check the title on the cover page very, very carefully!
