Living proofs

They say that you never forget your first time, and on Tuesday, it finally happened: I received the official page proofs for The Icon Thief. I’d already had a hint of how they might look, after seeing proofs of the eight-page teaser for City of Exiles, but even so, when I opened the package from my publisher, I was stunned. It’s no exaggeration to say that these proofs are the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen: the layouts, the typefaces, and the obvious attention to detail absolutely blew me away. I’ve heard horror stories from novelists who hated the way their books were presented, and I’ve dealt with similar disappointments myself, but between this and the cover, NAL has unfailingly exceeded my expectations.

The next step, of course, is to review the proofs, which I’m supposed to do before September 26. I’ve already received the standard caution, given to all authors at this point, that proofs are not the time to rewrite the text—although writers from James Joyce to David Foster Wallace have cheerfully disregarded such warnings. In any case, I don’t expect to make many changes: this novel has already gone through extensive proofreading and copy editing, not to mention countless rounds of rewrites, so any changes I make at this point will probably be superfluous. Still, I’m looking forward to the chance to spend time with my story and characters in their sleek new format. I can’t speak for the quality of the writing itself, but at the moment, I can truthfully say that my words have never looked better.