Copy edits...

My copy edits are back. Both the US (who got them to me first, but gave me a longer deadline) and the UK versions. So I'm currently in the middle of going through them with a fine-tooth comb, making sure that I'm happy with the changes that have been made.

I've been doing it for a couple of days, and I'm in awe of copy editors. I must have read Before I Go to Sleep countless times now, either in chunks or as a whole, and all four of my English language editors have also read it so many times that really they deserve a medal. Yet still the copy editors have spotted so many mistakes I've made.

And I've made them all. Words repeating in in the same sentence? Check. Sentences in which order the word is messed up reason totally for some? Check. Missing question marks. Check. Forgetting to close quotation marks? "Check...

I've slipped into the past tense in the middle of a present tense section, forgotten to edit out the dreaded pluperfect (dreaded to me at least - I had no idea how addicted I was to the pluperfect until someone pointed it out to me). I already knew I had a tendency for characters to nod so vigorously and for such a long time that they ought to be seeking medical help for whiplash (and that's when they're not enduring pauses that are longer and more frequent than a particularly tense Pinter play), and I was aware that in the first draft one character puts his knife and fork down seventeen times during one meal without picking them up once, but I am particularly grateful to the copy editor who pointed out that one character describes something that had already happened as occurring 'soon' and to another who spotted that when my main character says, 'So you told me that ......' the person to whom she is speaking has said no such thing. Copy editors have to know when an author (i.e. me) has confused a scientific instrument (a Van de Graaff generator) with a prog rock band (Van der Graaf Generator) as well as when an author (still me I'm afraid) has a character remarking on the aroma of a flower that doesn't have a smell. They google guest houses to make sure that the dingy, run down establishment that the author has named doesn't actually exist (oops!) and check that the motorway the characters travel down is actually a sensible route from where they live to where they're going (yippee! I actually got that one right!). Like I said, I am in awe.

And I'm only two thirds of the way through...

Getting home, starting again

I'm typing this as we sit in the departure lounge of a Spanish airport, waiting for a delayed flight to somewhere we don't want to go but is at least in the UK, on our second attempt to get home from our summer holiday. The pug is waiting for us (being looked after, don't worry) and I missed last night's party for Transworld's 60th anniversary, but it isn't too bad. It's been a nice break.

All has been fairly quiet on the book front for a couple of days. Mercifully. I was warned (and it is fairly obvious) that the process of publishing is characterised by intense bursts of activity (demands for drafts, edits, decisions to be made about jackets or whether a section should be italicised) followed by fairly protracted longueurs in which nothing much seems to happen at all (or, rather, the work is falling on people other than me and I really ought to be working on the next book).

The bound proofs (Australia/Text)

One such burst ended a few days ago. I wasn't even going to bring my laptop on this holiday, but I am glad that, at the last moment, I slipped it in next to my flip-flops. Not only have I finished the book and sent it off for editing/translating, but I've been answering questions about dedications, acknowledgements (my next big challenge - sheer terror at the thought of missing someone off!) and epigraphs. Text, in Australia, are producing an extremely limited run of bound proofs so that they can get the book into the hands of their major booksellers as well as a couple of authors , so they've been busy preparing the text for that. It was weird, seeing the pdf of my text, formatted and ready to be bound, but exhilarating. Another step closer to it being a 'real' book.

The first print run (US/HarperCollins)

We also learned how many copies HarperCollins are going to print for the first run in the US. I'm not going to say (mostly because I'm not sure I'm allowed to), but I will say I'm not disappointed. I don't think the book is going to be difficult to find over there, let's put it like that. It's hugely gratifying, though - a real sign that the team at HC feel that Before I Go to Sleep deserves to be a success. I guess once a writer has been lucky enough to find a publishing deal, their next worry is that, on release, the book might just dribble out, unnoticed. So it's nice to know that Claire's team in America seem to have big plans...

Nine Lives

And, meanwhile, I'm finding that ideas are pouring out of me for the next book, Nine Lives. I've been concentrating on Before I Go to Sleep for so long, yet it seems that, for the last few weeks at least, ideas have been percolating through, waiting for the moment my conscious mind is ready to receive and process them. It feels great to be back in the position where I'm reaching for the notebook in the middle of the night, jotting down sentences, some of which make sense the following morning ('MC's job? Airline? Hairdresser? Actress?') and some of which don't ('make it more orange'). I feel like I'm back in the thick of it again, machete in hand, searching for the path. I bloody love it, which is why I'll never, ever complain about having to bring my laptop and notebook on holiday. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Now it's gone... what next?

On Wednesday I sent Before I Go to Sleep off. I created a 'clean' manuscript (which I learned was one with no 'notes to the editor' in square brackets, and certainly no 'notes to self' - just the words I wanted on the page) for the UK (nappy, pavement, bonnet) and one for the US (diaper, sidewalk, hood), and emailed them both off to their respective editors. Michael and Ali, at Text in Australia, got both (I'm not sure which one they'll work from) and Jake, at my agency, sent the UK version around the world to be translated.

So now it's done. The book is finished. In the hands of others, and their problem for a couple of weeks at least. Then there's a round of copy editing, and more besides I'm sure, but the hard work, the creative work, is over. Now, while I still might be able to change the word 'because' to the word 'however', I can no longer make the characters 10 years younger, or change the place they live, or how they live their lives. All that's fixed, now.

With the manuscript out of my hands I feel a curious absence. My thoughts turn more and more to how Before I Go to Sleep is going to be presented to the world. Soon I'm going to be presented with (more) jacket designs, already people are coming up with potential cover blurbs for me to give my opinion on. I'm being asked to provide author photographs (so far, only for use within my publishers, but it's only a matter of time before I'm being asked to provide one for a publicity shots and the dreaded author photograph for the book jacket ("Does it have to be of me?" I feel like saying. "Can't I have a picture of my pug on there?"). I've been asked about my acknowledgements, dedications, epigraphs (I've found the most perfect epigraph - three lines from a poem - and am keeping my fingers crossed that we can get the required permissions. Things are revving up.

Best of all, though, I can now finally devote serious attention to my next book. For a while, at least...

The film deal

So, on Friday we finalised the film deal. Negotiations have been going on for a while (and have been tremendously exciting, though of course I haven't been able to speak, let alone blog, about them, and I'm very VERY happy that Rowan Joffe will be writing and directing, with Liza Marshall producing), but we finally agreed everything in time for it to be announced at the film festival in Toronto. That must have happened over the weekend, because by Monday Variety were reporting the story, and shortly afterwards it had been picked up by lots of others (including Coming Soon, Collider, the Hollywood News and Ain't it Cool.

It feels weird. Suddenly my book is being talked about, and described by other people. 'Freaky Ageing Tale' is my favourite so far (and is not wholly inaccurate, I suppose). People are commenting. 'Isn't this just a Dana Carvey rom com/Memento retread/50 First Dates rehash?' And of course it's very tempting to answer back. To defend myself. To register on the board and point out that that is like saying Star Wars is a retread of 2001 because they both feature spaceships. 'No. No it isn't,' I might say. 'Actually it's....'

But of course that would be wrong. That would stifle discussion (at best, more likely drag me into a flame war). It would be reductive. Yes, it's weird that people are discussing my book, and it's tremendously exciting, but it's also a reminder that people are going to have opinions about it and some of them won't be ones I'm happy about. But hey, that's the way the world works. Some people, even when they've read Before I Go to Sleep, will still think it's a reworking of Memento. There isn't a lot I can do about that, and it shouldn't bother me, as long as there are also people who love the book.

The truth is, now I've finished the book (Claire W signed it off on Monday so now I just have to finalise the manuscripts ready for copy editing), Before I Go to Sleep has a life of its own. I have to cut the cord...

Limbo and a jacket design

I feel I'm in a weird kind of limbo. Before I Go to Sleep feels done, yet (while I know my subconscious is beavering away at it), I can't yet focus on the next book until this one has finally been signed off by my editor. Ironically, in my first week of being a full time writer, I've written nothing.

I have been out, though. On Tuesday I went to see DBC Pierre read from - and answer questions about - his new novel, and afterwards enjoyed a lovely supper with my agent, Clare, and a small group of her friends. A few of them had read my book, or at least heard about it, and at one point it was being debated enthusiastically. It was lovely to hear, yet at the same time I had the weirdest sensation, as if the book they were talking about had nothing at all to do with me. It almost felt as if it was something I'd read, a very long time ago, but had had no involvement in the creation of. Perhaps that's normal.

Yesterday, though, it felt very real. I woke to an email from the team at Text, who are publishing my book in Australia and New Zealand. 'We are delighted to show you our cover...' it said. I was still half asleep, but felt almost too anxious to open the email. What if I hated it? What if it looked like the kind of book I wouldn't look twice at? The cover design is so important - probably the main reason someone picks up a book in a store (or, presumably, clicks on it in an online store?) - and the wrong jacket might put off a whole host of potential readers.

So, anyway. I did open the email. And I love the cover. I think it's perfect. It's designed by the art director at Text, Chong Weng Ho.
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The Australian Jacket design.

The text at the bottom says 'The best debut novel I have ever read. Tess Gerritsen'. That bit I am particularly happy about!

Next steps

So, with the draft in the hands of my US editor, Claire (yes, there are a lot of people called Claire or Clare in my life at the moment - including a character in Before I Go to Sleep), all is quiet on the book front. Or rather, it is for me, but other people are very busy.

The team at Transworld have had a meeting and come up with a plan. Claire (yes, another one) is working on cover ideas. A copy editor has been secured and hopes to start on it in a couple of weeks with the goal of finishing in early October, then I'll have a week or so to take a look before it's typeset in mid October.

So the plan is to have proofs (two sets!) bound and ready to go pretty soon. And then I'll start to find out what people (i.e. reviewers and other authors) think about the book.

It's all starting to happen...

Meanwhile, with the macaroni cheese/boil-in-the-bag fish debate resolved (for now at least) I've been to the theatre. We went to see "Earthquakes in London". A very good, ambitious play, sort of a 'climate change meets Angels in America'. Thought provoking, but a little too long. It was on at the National Theatre, and we were sat at a sort of curving bar, as if in some kind of futuristic nightclub, as the action took place around us. It was quite something to be that close to the actors, and reminded me a little of the work of Punchdrunk. Theatre that takes place around the audience, not in front of it, and in which the line between audience and production blurs. I think it's interesting, and something that we'll see more of in literature.

Finishing the book

Well, I finished Before I Go to Sleep today. Again. I've read it through, and I'm pretty pleased with it. Of course, I can't be objective any more, but I think it's good. It doesn't rattle. There are moments of genuine surprise. I'm happy.

But it's not the first time I've finished it, of course. That was in...

August 2009

August 9th, to be precise. I remember the date, not only because I have slightly obsessive tendencies, but because it's my friend Simon's birthday. That was when I first finished the book, and typed 'The End'. I was happy with it, but I knew it wasn't really finished. I knew I had a redraft to do. I used Lulu.com and had it bound into a book, then I put it away, unread, until October. Back then it was called The Seahorse Diaries and it looked like this.

In October, I read it, and began the redraft. That took me until...

January 2010

That was when I decided it was as good as I could get it. That it was definitely finished now. I read it through and delivered it to my agent, Clare, who told me what I still needed to do to turn it into a book that she could sell. I set to work on another draft, that took me up to....

April 2010

That was when Clare asked to see it again. I worked solidly for a week and emailed it over. Finished. Finally. Following her read through of this draft Clare and Jake (Clare's colleague who handles foreign rights) began to plot submission. We'd have to get it out soon, I was told, as the publishing industry goes very quiet during the summer. There were more edits to make. Could I get it finished in a couple of weeks? It was that or leave it until September. Knowing I'd never be able to stand the suspense, I said I could, and went back to work....

May 2010

In May I finished it again. About four times.With each draft the edits I was making were smaller, more refined. Changing nuances here and there, adding elements to bring certain aspects of the plot into starker relief. But, still, they were not inconsiderable. Finally, on May 31st, Clare, Jake and I finally declared it done and ready to go. Fast forward to...

August 2010

A year (almost to the day) since I first finished the book, and with sales in upwards of 20 countries, I completed the edits suggested by my english language editors. Finally it's done, I thought. But now it's...

September 2010

And (I think) it is. There were a couple more things still to do, and now they're done.

So today is the sixth time I've 'finished' Before I Go to Sleep. I wonder if that's usual? I think it must be, for a first novel at least. At each stage it's become a tighter, better book. It feels more solid, now. It can stand up for itself, if that makes sense, and doesn't need me any more. That feels good.

I still have the version I finished in August 2009, though. Bound, as if it's a real book. One day it might be fun to read it again, to see just how far it's come.

But not today.