I am happy to report that Art Resource, a company that handles the licenses for thousands of different kinds of images, has given me a great deal on most of the illustrations I need. There’s only one set of pictures I can’t seem to get hold of–I wanted to include the portraits of several mummies discovered in the Royal Cache because the facial resemblances show so clearly that the royal line went from the family of Ahmose I to the family of Tuthmosis I: here’s Ahmose, Tuthmosis I, and his son Tuthmosis II

Ahmose

Tuthmosis I

Tuthmosis II

However, despite faxes to Egypt I haven’t heard back from the Cairo Museum, where the mummies are on display (I assume that the museum has the rights to the images).

Other than that, I’m just about done with the images. I had to buy most of them, but I was able to use one of my own–Hadrian’s Wall, a photo I took on a research trip to the U.K. It’s possible that the file is not going to be high-resolution enough for Norton, but I hope it is; I love this picture.

hadrian\'s wall

Meanwhile I’m fielding queries from the copyeditor, who is reading through the manuscript with an eye to correcting any inconsistencies. Norton, like most publishers now, outsources its copyediting, and mine has gone to a wonderfully detail-oriented freelancer in Maine. Every few days she sends me queries which reveal just how many creative spellings I have indulged in (hey, YOU try spelling Apennines the same way every time). Here’s a typical email:

*

1. Re the use of uppercase vs lowercase on geographical features: the author has indicated that “river” should always be lowercase, to agree with the maps; thus Nile river, Yellow river, etc.

Are the following usages OK? These are what I’m seeing in the text, but I’d appreciate it if the author could confirm that these are what she wants:

desert — lowercase, as in Arabian desert
peninsula — lowercase, as in Arabian peninsula
plain — lowercase, as in Mesopotamian plain
valley — lowercase, as in Nile river valley

Delta — uppercase, as in Nile Delta; also referred to as “the Delta”
Gulf — uppercase, as in Persian Gulf; also referred to as “the Gulf”
Mountains — uppercase, as in Zagros Mountains
Sea — uppercase, as in Black Sea
Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt — uppercase

2. It would be great if I could clear up some of the discrepancies I am seeing:

Bosphurus Strait or Bosphurus Straits (w/ an “s” on the end)? I am seeing both in the text and on the maps.
Rig Veda or Rigveda?
Great King or great king? (when referring to “the” great kings)
Merodach-Baladan or Merodach-baladan (w/ lowercase “b”)?
Yangshao or Yang-shao? (I see both in the text, the latter on maps)
Washukkanni (2 “k”s) or Washukanni?
Hattusus or Hattusas? (I see both in the text, the former on maps)
Sumu-abum or Sumu-Abum (w/ uppercase “A”)?
the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, as in text? or The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid as in Works Cited?

3. Re references cited in footnotes (all of which are in Works Cited at the end of the book): there’s quite a bit of variation in this. Sometimes it is is simply the author’s last name and page number; sometimes the author’s full name, title, and page number; sometimes the author, title, publisher, date of publication, and page number. I wonder if this is something the author would like standardized? Since all of these references are in the Works Cited, it doesn’t seem necessary to include publishing information. Perhaps go with author’s full name, title, and page number?

4. I note that journal articles are cited differently in Works Cited and in the Notes. For example, here’s the same citation from a note and then from Works Cited:

46.12 Edward L. Shaughnessy, [title], in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 48:1 (1988), p. 223 .

Shaughnessy, Edward L. [title]. In Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Jun. 1988), pp. 189-237.

Is this OK? Or should they be formatted the same in both places? If so, I’d suggest the top example simply because it’s more concise and I believe more commonly used.

5. Re four-digit numbers: include a comma or not? Thus 5,482 men or 5482 men?

*

Meanwhile I’m trying to prepare all of the final documents that need to go to production as soon as possible: the revised time lines that end each chapter (all 85 of them), a full list of credits for all of the photos, copy for the captions of all illustrations and maps, and what publishers call the “forematter”: list of previous publications, dedication, table of contents, and acknowledgments.

And in the middle of all THAT I’ve had to negotiate a deadline for the next volume. Everyone at Norton thinks that it would be better to keep the gap between volumes to two years, if possible.

Sure. Let me just rent my hut in Tibet now. I’m sure my husband won’t mind if I leave him to raise the kids alone for a year or so.

Children numbers two and four:
Children, numbers two and four

Children numbers one and three:
children numbers one and three

Will report on the end results of the negotiations shortly.

Showing 9 comments
  • JFS in IL

    Glad you found a source for the images (most of them, anyway).
    Tell Norton you already have another work to complete (dissertation!) before tackling the next volume and TELL them it is three years, not two. Yeah, I know we WTMommies want our books outta you lickety-split, but we (and Norton) just have to wait our turn, don’t we 🙂

    JFS
    PS my kids are jealous. I don’t spring for Goldfish crackers!

  • Russ R

    “Rig Veda,” because it is one of seveal Vedic texts. This also seems to be the standard in scholarly texts. “the Iliad” looks right to me, but can’t give convincing reasons why. What citation style is that for the notes?

  • PariSarah

    Hmm. I wonder if dead people are like babies–they all look alike. Those pharaohs’ mummified faces look just like the death mask of John Wesley. . .

  • Dan in FL

    I have a 1994 book by Peter A. Clayton entitled “Chronicle of the Pharaohs.” It was published by Thames and Hudson Ltd. of London and New York. ISBN is 0500050740.

    On page 103 Clayton includes nice, clear photos of the mummies of those three pharaohs, along that of Tuthmosis IV. In the credits at the back of the book, for all four images the source cited is G.E. Smith, “The Royal Mummies,” 1912.

    Might that book help you, too, as a source for the photos you need, if the Cairo Museum can’t, or if it wants too much payment?

    . . . Just Googled the book, and found that the University of Chicago has digitized it and put it online here:

    http://enlil.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eos/eos_title.pl?callnum=DT57.C2_vol59

    The pictures are at the end, on the “plates” link.

    I think the low-resolution image of Ahmose I you want is here:
    http://enlil.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eos/eos_page.pl?DPI=100&callnum=DT57.C2_vol59&object=138
    Click on “Go to High Resolution Image” for a far bigger .jpeg.

    Low-resolution image of Tuthmosis I:
    http://enlil.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eos/eos_page.pl?DPI=100&callnum=DT57.C2_vol59&object=147

    Low-resolution image of Tuthmosis II:
    http://enlil.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eos/eos_page.pl?DPI=100&callnum=DT57.C2_vol59&object=150

    (9 year-old dd/mercenary in the background: “Will she pay you?”)

    Thanks for the ways your books have helped our family with homeschooling.

  • Susan

    Dan,

    You are the MAN (that’s my fourteen-year-old in the background, offering his biggest compliment). I’m tracking down the Chicago text now. Will your nine-year-old settle for an autographed book? (“Why would I want that woman to autograph a book for me?”)

    SWB

  • Dan in FL

    I asked the nine year-old about your offer, right after she woke up this morning. Bleary-eyed, she, um, declined. You had her well pegged, even from a distance.

    I’m glad you and your son liked those links so well. We’d be honored to receive an autographed book, if you’d be so kind, but I’m just happy to help . . . that’s all.

  • Michele T. in WA

    I thought it was Bosphorus strait. Thank heaven for copy editors! It is fun to check in and see how the book is coming along. As much as I would love to have a new book every two years, I understand that you have a family that needs you, too. Keep up the great work, Susan.

  • Sherrill in VA

    Can’t help with any of this stuff, but here’s offering a prayer that subsequent volumes get a little easier because they have less obscure sources. And, here’s another prayer that you won’t have to go to Tibet to do them.

    But hopefully you can do them in the new chicken house instead of the attic! What color did you finally choose for the walls?

  • Lisa R

    I laughed when I read this post. When dh was writing a book on WWI, I got a strange call from the editor. Late in the editing stage they were trying to figure out why some of the dates in the book were written November 20/29. Stumped me too. Turned out there were two sets of dates for a whole slew of events because after the Russian revolution, the new government changed the calendar. Ack.
    And don’t even get me started on the publisher that declined his book (after asking for a soft copy of the complete manuscript) but was listing it for sale on their website. Turned out to (probably) have been a mistake, but it sure is good to have college roommates become no good sleezy lawyers.
    Good luck on the rest of the editing. I can’t say much more encouraging than that we’ve been living in Europe for a couple years. We’ve been homeschooling without a support network. The kids have studied Greece and Rome and the Middle Ages. Then they have been to Athens and Rome and to countless castles and cathedrals. It would have been barely conceivable without WTM and SOTW.
    THANKS.

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