Catching Excellence

I spent my post-Christmas break rereading my book (which passed the holiday gifting test!). I had received the "first pages" typeset version from my production editor on December 18th with a two-week deadline to make corrections. 

Since this was my last chance to make changes, I asked my personal editor, Ken, to review my book one last time and he worked night and day to give me his suggestions on Christmas Eve. Now it was my turn to review and transfer his changes and mine to the master document.  

Boxing Day morning kicked-off a twenty-nine hour editing marathon. There are so many content and format elements to check and cross-reference. I can understand why errors sneak past publishing teams and authors. Here are the ones I found in the 57,000 word draft:

- Spelling

- Extra and missing words

- Punctuation

- Capitalization

- Singular and plural forms

- Continuity of formats 

There is a lot to get right and I have made these mistakes on earlier drafts. I realize that the probability of having errors in the printed version of my book is high, regardless of all precautions taken. I will not be someone who focuses on the 1 percent that we didn't get right; doing our best and taking pride in the 99 percent will be my orientation.

There are many quotations about excellence. My favourite is from Vince Lombardi, the U.S. football coach: "Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."  My next step is to complete the Change with Confidence website with my designer, Kro, and communications specialist, Mel. We are going for excellence!

Phil