![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a visit to the post office
Jun. 1st, 2007 09:33 amYesterday I went to the post office, carrying a big box with a large book typescript inside, and mailed it to a university press. I like the automated postal machines that have been appearing in lobbies in recent years, but the new postal regulations that consider physical size as well as weight are puzzling to me, and until I figure them out, I'm going to the counter with all my boxes and large envelopes, just to be safe.
The book typescript wasn't mine. The university press had sent it to me in the same box, and I was mailing it back now that I was done with it. Someone else had written it and submitted it to them, and their process of deciding whether to accept it involved gathering the opinions of outside readers. That's where I came in.
This is the fourth time an academic press (not always the same one) has consulted me as a Tolkien expert to review a manuscript. One of the previous three books was excellent, and was duly published. One was terrible, and was rejected. One had a good idea buried inside, but desperately needed to be seriously rethought. It was eventually published in somewhat improved form.
The book I just returned, and reported on separately by e-mail, is a highly technical study of Tolkien's posthumous work. What I thought of it, and which of the previous three it most resembled, will remain in my unsigned report. I will just say that I like doing this kind of work. And they pay me for it too.
The book typescript wasn't mine. The university press had sent it to me in the same box, and I was mailing it back now that I was done with it. Someone else had written it and submitted it to them, and their process of deciding whether to accept it involved gathering the opinions of outside readers. That's where I came in.
This is the fourth time an academic press (not always the same one) has consulted me as a Tolkien expert to review a manuscript. One of the previous three books was excellent, and was duly published. One was terrible, and was rejected. One had a good idea buried inside, but desperately needed to be seriously rethought. It was eventually published in somewhat improved form.
The book I just returned, and reported on separately by e-mail, is a highly technical study of Tolkien's posthumous work. What I thought of it, and which of the previous three it most resembled, will remain in my unsigned report. I will just say that I like doing this kind of work. And they pay me for it too.
