Twenty Chapters !

[justcarol67]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "dudemom_2000"
<dudemom_2000 at y...> wrote:
> 
> JKR mentions under the FAQs Colin Creevy post that she read through 
> 20 chapters at a sitting before doing the FAQs. Does this mean she 
> has written 20 chapters??? If I remember the books run from about 17 
> chapters to about 37. Sounds like she may be nearing completion 
> unless this book is going to be huge in which case I figure she 
> still has a way to go.
> 
> Dudemom_2000

Carol responds:
As I said in detail on the main list, there's a lot more to publishing
a book than just producing a manuscript, especially if it's a first
draft that needs to be revised. (She may just be checking for flints
and inconsistencies at this point, an initial read-through before she
revises.) And after she submits the manuscript, there's still the
substantive editing, the copyediting, additional corrections made by
the author based on the editing, setting the edited manuscript in
type, proofreading by both the author and a professional proofreader,
checking and correlating the corrections, setting the corrections in
type, etc. before the final print run, after which the book has to be
bound and distributed. And as I forgot to say on the other list, the
American edition will take even longer (not to mention foreign
editions that have to be translated). Anyway, it's a very
time-consuming process that's virtually impossible for someone who's
never written a book or been involved with publishing to imagine. At
least she doesn't have to worry about permissions like a nonfiction
author! Anyway, if it's a shortish book like PoA and she's at the
revising stage, it might be ready in six months if all goes well. If
it's longer and the twenty chapters are just drafts, it could take
twice that.

Carol