So, the good folks at Del Rey sent my copyedit here to upstate NY because I am spending the holiday here. Of course, the first thing I did was tear it open and flip through it. And also of course, I saw notations that made no sense to me.
One of the biggies was "AU." The thing was full of margin notes that said things like "AU: Okay?" or "AU: Up instead of back?" or whatever. I know several of you reading this know exactly was "AU" means, but I was scratching my head for a while.
I figured the A was for "Author" but what was that U for? "Unknown?" "Unskilled?" "Uncompetent?" "Unbelievable that you got this far?"
I'm not kidding. It took me four days to recognize the second letter in "Author."
Reading a copyedit is a humbling experience.
