First Pass Pages

Things move on. The first pass pages of SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB have arrived!

For those of you who don’t know what they are, the first pass pages are the pages of your manuscript laid out exactly the way they will appear in the final book. Now is the chance to go through and pick out any errors that might have been missed in the so many times you’ve gone through the manuscript before or which have been introduced at recent stages.

When you hold a book in your hand, it has been through SO MANY rounds of editing and checking. For example, once I’d finished editing and revising SECRETS OF THE DRAGON TOMB (which involved at least seven major drafts), it went through:

• One round of revisions based on my agent’s feedback
• Two major rounds of revisions based on my editor’s feedback
• One round of copyedits
• And now this set of first pass pages.

It’s possible (probable) that there will be more rounds to come (I assume that that is why it’s called FIRST pass pages).

Apparently, at some point in between all of this, writers are supposed to write other books too. :)

First pass pages are where you go through and check every word, every comma, every spelling and have the last chance to pick up anything important that has slipped through the net. You can’t blink or you can miss something. It’s kind of brain-intense.

Now, time to get back to work.