"Eric Flint - Grantville Gazette - Vol 4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

- Prologue

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 - Prologue




Editor's Preface
by Eric Flint


Once again, alas, I need to apologize for the delay in producing this volume of the magazine. In my
preface to Volume 3, I confidently predicted that we'd be able to publish the next volume in late January
or February. Instead. . .
Well, here it is, in mid-April.
Again, the main cause of the delay was illness. In this case, my copy-editor got sick with this very nasty
strand of the flu that's been plaguing us recently. Then, by the time she recovered, she had a backlog of
other work that was more pressing than the magazine, that she had to do first.
(Which, she did. Sorry, folks, but facts are stubborn thingsтАФand it's just a fact that the income for a
publisher that's generated by an electronic magazine, even a successful one like the Gazette, is always
going to put it at the bottom of the priority list. Such is life. No reason we can't have fun grousing about
it, of course, but do be aware that it's on a par with grousing about the weather.)
Someone might wonder why I didn't just find a different copy-editor. Picture me gasping with horror.
Modean has copy-edited every single piece produced in the 1632 series since the original novel 1632
that created it in the first place. By now, there are many ways in which she knows this universe better
than I do. Just to give one example, the official style sheet that I ask people to use when writing stories
or articles for the magazine was produced by her, not me. I asked her to do so, which she did by
systematizing what had been my semi-conscious practices in 1632 and 1633 and The Ring of Fire.
The point is this: copy-editors are important. They do far more than simply proof-read to check for
typos. They are also the people who systematically cross-check the text to make sure the authors are
maintaining factual, thematic and stylistic continuity within the story and (in the case of a series) from
one story to the next. Continuity lapses are a problem even within a single, stand-alone novel. With a
long and complex series like the 1632 series, they can become a major problem without a good copy-
editor who knows the material extremely well serving as the watchdog.
I would no more casually change copy-editors for a 1632 project than I would blithely schedule the
second half of major dental work with a different dentist because my regular one didn't have an opening
on exactly the day I wanted. (I've had the same dentist for twenty-three years and the same doctor for
nineteen. There is a reason for this.) Far better, as inconvenient as it might be, to wait a couple of
months.
However, all's well that ends well, and here is Volume 4. There's even a bright side to the delay, which
is that it enabled me and the editorial board to get the fifth volume put together in the meantime. Modean
already has it and she tells meтАФtold Paula, rather, my assistant editorтАФthat she foresees no delay in
getting that one ready.