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jennifer_brozekYou would be surprised at the number of submissions I receive that still have all of their tracked changes in them. We're talking edits, comments and all those other wonderful things that the "Track Changes" function in WORD does.
The way my WORD is set up, all documents are opened to the "Final Showing Markup" setting. That means I get to see every comment of the reader asking questions, every edit... and in the case of writing contracts (yes, this has happened) who had this contract before me and how much they were paid.
Yes, this is even happening on my invite-only anthology for the Apex Book Company. Shocked the heck out of me. But, as I have learned, we professionals still make mistakes. Some are worse than others. As this one goes, it's not that bad in the overall scheme of things.
But really, people, this should never happen. It not only looks unprofessional, it could be detrimental to your publishing house if it is a contract. Also, I don't want to know what you are paying someone else. I don't want to know you had a discussion of lip gloss color with your first round reader. I don't want to know it took you a couple of tries to get a particular sentence right. All I really want to see is your finished product or the contract that is specific to me.
Please do yourself and your submission editor a favor and always go back to your document and accept all changes before you send your story out. That way, I don't have to wonder if you sent me the wrong version or see your literary equivalent to a visible panty line.
NOTE: "Track Changes" is a function you must deliberately turn on for it to be on for each individual document. Or you must receive a document with it already turned on.
The way my WORD is set up, all documents are opened to the "Final Showing Markup" setting. That means I get to see every comment of the reader asking questions, every edit... and in the case of writing contracts (yes, this has happened) who had this contract before me and how much they were paid.
Yes, this is even happening on my invite-only anthology for the Apex Book Company. Shocked the heck out of me. But, as I have learned, we professionals still make mistakes. Some are worse than others. As this one goes, it's not that bad in the overall scheme of things.
But really, people, this should never happen. It not only looks unprofessional, it could be detrimental to your publishing house if it is a contract. Also, I don't want to know what you are paying someone else. I don't want to know you had a discussion of lip gloss color with your first round reader. I don't want to know it took you a couple of tries to get a particular sentence right. All I really want to see is your finished product or the contract that is specific to me.
Please do yourself and your submission editor a favor and always go back to your document and accept all changes before you send your story out. That way, I don't have to wonder if you sent me the wrong version or see your literary equivalent to a visible panty line.
NOTE: "Track Changes" is a function you must deliberately turn on for it to be on for each individual document. Or you must receive a document with it already turned on.