Writing Process: Postscript

I know I said I’d written the last blog on my writing process, but today I went into black dog books to have a look at the dyelines of my book Sugar Sugar. This is really the last stage before printing. The printer sends a copy of  the book on sheets of paper as it will appear in the book. They haven’t been cut to size, but there are marks that show where it will be cut.

It is too late for the writer to make changes to the story at this stage. This is a last chance for the publisher to check that everything looks okay as it is laid out on the page. They are looking for line spaces that aren’t supposed to be there, missing chapter headers, or widows and orphans (a “widow” is the last line of a paragraph that appears alone at the top of the next page, and an “orphan” is the first line of a paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page). I went in to have a last look at the cover. The next time I see it, it will be an actual book.