The editing process for this book was a familiar one to me. In high school and college, I was a writer for various school publications. As I’ve written before, I’ve had manuscripts and articles marked up by the editing process.

The clearest editing moment came in college. I was the editor-in-chief of a college magazine. This position gave me the opportunity to write a “From the Editor’s Desk” column every few months (we only printed four to six issues a school year).

For one issue, I wrote a scathing rant disparaging the school. I was simply venting. My editor at the time, Corrie Bates, gently called me out. To paraphrase, she asked “What are you trying to say?”

The question snapped me from my diatribe, and I’m sure we ran something more appropriate. However, I kept that marked up column for the longest time. Editors can save writers from looking foolish.

What are you trying to say is a question that editors need to keep in front of the writer. And for writers, it’s not just a question about the current sentence, but rather about the whole paragraph, chapter or book.

Thanks, everyone, for reading this!

I worked with three development editors for this project: Supriya Savkoor, Sean Dennis, and Helen Stergius (four if I count Susie Pizen, who covered for Supriya on vacation). Development editors are charged with the broad charter of developing the manuscript. This encompasses everything from finding grammar issues to rearranging the chapter orders.

DEs became my touch-point into Manning. I had the most interaction with them, both e-mail and voice (via Skype). DEs became keepers of the schedule and made sure I was staying on track. DEs helped me reach out to other parts of Manning as needed.

The revisions from the DE were tactical and strategic. As I progressed through the project, I learned that DEs ultimately represented the reader. Each DE that I worked with had questions that were invariably framed with the reader in mind.

Though none of the DEs were experienced with Git, their questions helped shape the book in significant ways. I wrote every word of the book, but every editor I worked with affected those words.

Helen got the book into production, and that merits an extra acknowledgement for sure. It’s a shared accomplishment to get to this stage. Thanks Helen!

And Thank You for reading!

Earlier in the year, I wrote about a simple script to rename the raw picture files into the correctly named files expected by the publisher. That script is now much more complex. Instead of a single BASH script single-handedly renaming files, it is now a Ruby script that reads a master list of figures.

The program evolved because as the book progressed, I began moving pictures into different places. This required manually renumbering the figures in the script itself. I realized that the script could handle the numbering of the pictures. The Ruby program that I wrote reads a master list of figures. Whenever there is a new chapter, I insert a line with a two-digit number signifying this.

The master file looks like this:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

# This is used by work_figures.rb
# This is the master list of figures in the gitbook
# Use work_figures to get the figure_map.csv file
01
single_point_of_contention
distributed
02
vc-personal
vc-personal-with-saves
vc-org

In the example, 01 and 02 represent the start of chapters 1 and 2. Whenever I move the figures around, I don’t have to calculate the number. I just move the picture to the right spot, and ask the program to renumber the list. In the above listing, single_point_of_contention is renamed to 01_01.png. The program not only renumbers the files, it generates a CSV file that maps the figure to the correct figure number, and it copies the correctly named figures into a directory that I can compress and send to the publisher.

For people who want to try this out, the program is on a GitHub gist:

https://gist.github.com/rickumali/bad0be8fad81e03ae207

Check it out! Thank You for reading!

The copy editing process has started. I haven’t looked at my manuscript in almost two weeks, but this afternoon I was reintroduced to it in the form of copy edits.

Here’s a picture showing the number of edits in the first three chapters.

Each insert or deletion is a red mark in Microsoft Word, and so each page looks like it has dozens of little paper cuts.

I have to look at each correction and if I have a problem or a concern, I have to raise it as a comment. The copyeditor also has comments that I have to respond to. This is not too bad, despite what looks like a large number of changes. Many of the edits are capitalization, adding contractions, and changes for voice. I do admit the changes put a higher polish on what I’m trying to say.

This kind of detailed work will keep me busy for another month or so!

There won’t be a post next week (Mother’s Day), so thank you all in advance for reading. We’re nearly there!

Many of the diagrams that I drew (using Google Draw) are slowly being replaced by professional line art, created by an illustrator from Manning. Below is a preview (in the book, it’s figure 7.23).

I like the new art. It’s another sign that the book is nearing the finish line.

I have looked at copy edits for ten chapters so far. Ten more to go, and things will really start to feel done.

Thanks everyone for reading and checking in. There won’t be a post next week, due to the US holiday Memorial Day. The next time I write, I hope to report that I’m finished with the copy edits!

I’m near the finish of the copy editing phase of the manuscript. The copy editor, Sharon Wilkey, has been carefully changing the voice (we to you) and touching up many typos and small mistakes.

She has found through careful reading some unclear areas, as well as some figures that need to be renumbered. Fresh eyes help here! It’s hard for my own eyes to spot issues. The screen shot below shows a typical set of changes.

The above is from Chapter 15. Sometime this weekend, I’ll submit the 19th chapter back to her. There’s one more chapter after that! The finish line is very close.

Thank You for reading!

Last week, I reviewed the copy editor’s pass of Chapter 20 and I posted my revisions to it. I’m done, right? No. There’s actually a good deal of work left.

I’m waiting for the last few chapters to have their figures redrawn. Each changed figure requires me to eye-ball it, to see if it still fits the original intention.

As I did this for the last batch of figures, I realized that some of my text had to change, but I won’t be able to change my text until the proofreading stage. After that comes a layout stage (something I had been wondering about).

I plan to write this BLOG until all of this production stuff is finished. I’m no longer doing heavy lifting, but I’m still in the weight room, nonetheless.

Thanks everyone, for reading!

P.S. Below is a peek at the 20 chapters, sitting inside the production folders.

People who program in PHP may be quite familiar with Larry Ullman. He’s a many-times published author who specialized in PHP back when it was still fresh. His early books catered towards beginners, and as a result he has a wide audience.

I heard him give a talk for the Boston PHP users group in 2012. He spoke about being an independent web developer, and how this work helped him with his writing. A year later he announced on his mailing list that he joined Stripe’s support department, helping their users.

I sent an e-mail to Larry through his website. I told him I was writing a book and he asked me how that was going, and warmly wished me well. I replied and told him how arduous the editing process was, and he wrote back, saying he appreciated the note, and that he agreed with how I felt.

His brief reply was something I savored for months as my book progressed towards production. A note of understanding, from someone who’s been through it multiple times. It meant a lot, and I appreciated his generosity. Thanks, Larry!

Thanks, everyone, for reading!

The days between book work have grown longer and longer. As I type this, it’s been 11 days since my last commit, and 18 days since the last time I uploaded a chapter to the production team.

(To get a feeling for the pace, check out the dates in the screen shot below. Each update is when the chapter was submitted to the copy editor.)

The book has begun to feel done, but I caution myself to not get too giddy: there’s still one or two last mad rushes with the proofreader and the layout people. Once this kicks up, I’ll have to be active and alert again, but until then it is “hurry up and wait.”

One of things I wonder about is whether this long break is normal. I suppose that is why I’m writing all this down: so I can remember for the next book project! Until then, thanks everyone, for reading.

The indexer submitted the last chapter a few days ago. I anticipate the next phase of the production process to start next week. The anticipated July release will likely be missed, but progress has been steady, so I’m not too worried.

The indexer used the standard Microsoft Word indexing capabilities, but when I opened the files that they’ve submitted, it wasn’t readily apparent how to see the indexed items.

Fumbling around, I observed that the “Show Paragraph Marks” toggle will reveal the “index entries” (marked with an XE) in the text.

Once I reread the MS Word help, I saw the contents of each chapter’s index by inserting the index at the end. (In the picture below, the index is highlighted in gray.)

If I wrote the manuscript using something other than MS Word, I’d have to handle the indexing by myself, so I’m glad for their help!

Thanks everyone for reading. There won’t be a BLOG next week, due to Independence Day (US Holiday). See everyone next time.