Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Endnote Edits

One of the comments in the Reader’s Report took issue with the length of the endnotes, and recommended that they be edited with focus on material specifically related to the profiled soldiers. To address this concern, I proposed to eliminate the endnotes that include biographical information about general officers, and edit the remaining notes accordingly.

I’ve spent the last ten mornings working on this. I deleted and/or consolidated 98 endnotes (about sixteen percent of the total) and reduced the page count from thirty-one to seventeen (about a forty-five percent reduction). The dramatic reduction in page count resulted from the deletion of the endnotes of the generals and colonels, which were the longest entries.

The deletion of the general officer endnotes creates an inconsistency with the Union volume, and I’ll add a sentence to the “About this volume” section to address this.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

On to the Board

This afternoon I received word that the manuscript has been cleared to go the publisher’s faculty board for final approval on July 18 — about a month from today! It is a great feeling to have a date on the calendar!

Friday, June 08, 2007

Report Plan Approved

Submitted my plan to deal with suggestions made by the Reader on Wednesday, and within 24 hours Acquisitions Editor Bob Brugger responded with an approval. I immediately set to work revising the manuscript.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Reader’s Report Received

A Johns Hopkins University Press acquisitions assistant emailed yesterday with the Reader’s Report, an independent review of the Confederate soldier manuscript organized in six questions. The two-page report is generally positive. Immediate action is required on question five, which addresses suggested improvements. The reader made four recommendations. I have until next Wednesday to respond with a plan to address these.

Anne read it last night, and she thinks the four recommendations will not require major revisions to the manuscript. I tend to agree.

I’ve anticipated the receipt of this report for three months, and am relieved to have it in hand. Circulating the manuscript to individuals familiar with the subject matter is critical to success of the book, and it is with this in mind that I welcome the reader’s feedback. He or she is the last in a group of more than twenty authors, historians, researchers, and other interested parties who have examined the manuscript at various stages of its development since last fall. I have carefully reviewed the comments of each, and revised the manuscript accordingly.

Now, on to my next deadline!