Re: Countchars

[Patricia M Godfrey pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

Reply to message from George Scithers , on
Wed, 9 Feb 2005 14:48:22 -0500

≪What we regularly do at Weird Tales...apply printer's rule to a
XyWrite-formatted copy unless we've already translated the file into
Ventura≫

I am delighted to know that Weird Tales is still around (not old enough
to remember its glory days, but it's still a name to conjure with in the
history of SF)--and that it's being set in XyWrite and Ventura. Quality
sticks with quality.

And yes, printer's rule recalls copy fitting on the old Underwood. At
Grolier we used to have special paper, with preprinted line numbers and
margin rules, onto which all MSS had to be retyped before being sent to
the typesetter. I got my start "holding copy" for the MS proofreader
reading the retype against the original MS, which had been worked over by
5 or 6 different editors--all in different-colored pencils. Lots of
amusing marginalia there. An article on James Bothwell read, in the
original, "His morals were scandalous, even for Scotland." The subject
editor (who had an Irish surname) wrote, "What does this imply about
Scotland?" And the managing editor (name of Allen) added a decisive,
"Avoid offending the Scots!" "Even for Scotland" was then deleted.

Patricia M. Godfrey
PMGodfrey@xxxxxxxx