The first draft printings are sent out to the family and family friends, so now we await their feedback to determine the next steps.
The feedback I’m getting the most of right now? The spelling.
These letters were written by a young man who throughout the collection apologizes for his spelling continuously. He even points out when he gets a dictionary in an attempt to spell better. (Although, as someone who also has problems spelling, if you don’t know how to spell it to begin with, then that’s really hard to do!) I had to turn off auto-correct on my writing programs as I was transcribing and editing these letters, because the computer wanted to fix everything.
The downside is that my own mistakes did sneak in. A missed word here or there glares at me now when I read through it, and as they’re pointed out to me they are being edited for the next printing.
There have been conversations around completely editing the transcriptions so they are easier to read. This is a discussion that is still ongoing, but right now, I’m opting to leave the spelling, at least Earl’s spelling, as it is in his letters. Because that’s how he wrote them, and it ties to the story arc of his picking up a dictionary and commenting on his spelling. It’s part of the annoyance of reading along and stumbling over his words, but it’s part of the charm of the collection overall as well.
Other edits and adjustments will be forthcoming. We’ll be deciding what photos and scans to leave n or take out, and determining if we can adjust the printing size in order to make a trade-paperback. There’s more to do to bring a copy of Dearest Martha, to you.