Oh yeah...

I kinda forgot this stage of editing: the copy edits. Here I was, all thinkin' I was done and wouldn't have to read this thing ever again, and then a package shows up on my doorstep and there is my manuscript. Again. Needing to be read. Again.

Now, technically, I could blow it off. The copy editors will email me with their questions, and there are proofreaders going through it at the same time checking for spelling and grammar, so really I don't have to go through it if I don't want to. They're professionals, right? They'll catch everything that needs catching.

But can I really just pitch the thing into the recycling bin and leave it to them to find it all? No. I can't. Much as I'd like to, I'm way too much of a control freak. So I will, again, read this blasted manuscript and scour it for typos and inconsistencies. And then, when they send it back a second time to make sure I'm cool with all the changes and we haven't missed anything, I will, again, read it and scour it and groan about the story and how I should have done this differenly or phrased that this way instead of that way, and I'll generally berate myself for thinking that I could write, and I'll grudgingly give it my stamp of approval, and THEN I won't have to read it again.

Of course, then I'll have reviews to read instead.

*shudder*