17
17. Proofreading and Editing
“I’m contacting you because the meeting has finished.”
“The meeting..... just now?”
Time passed one hour faster in Saskatchewan than at Rodin House in Los Angeles.
It was around 8 p.m. now, so I couldn’t help tilting my head when he said they had continued the meeting even after
working hours.
I had thought meetings in America didn’t usually last very long.
“Haha. The meeting ended a while ago, but it took some time to organize everything, so I’m only contacting you now.”
“Ah..... I see.”
“First of all, the first edition of [The Woman in New York] has been finalized at 10,000 copies.”
“Is that a lot?”
“I think it’s an appropriate amount.”
“An appropriate amount.....”
In Korea, the physical book market was gradually shrinking, so I had heard that the usual first edition was around 1,500
copies.
Ten thousand copies seemed like an enormous amount to me, but Aaron simply called it appropriate.
“For now, we’re only planning for the first edition. If sales increase afterward, we’ll gradually increase the number of
printed copies.”
“Yes. Understood.”
It wasn’t something I was particularly interested in anyway, so I simply accepted it without much thought.
“The publication date will probably be around the middle of September. However, it may be moved forward for various
reasons.”
“It could also be published later, right?”
“That’s correct. The publication date may be delayed, so please keep that in mind. Ah, once the first edition comes out,
where should we send the copies?”
“Ah. I’ll give you my home address. I’ll have you send them to my Korean address. Is that okay?”
“Of course.”
There was a high chance that I would be back in Korea by then.
“As for the other advertisements and promotional events, I’ll send you the details by email.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Lastly, the proofreading and editing have also been completed, so I’ll send them to you by email.”
“That was faster than I expected.”
“Our editorial department is quite good at their job.”
“Ah..... I see.”
“Then please take a look.”
“I’ll check it and get back to you.”
“Yes, yes.”
With that, the call with Aaron ended.
“.....Time to work.”
Suddenly, a wave of annoyance washed over me.
---
Even after filming ended, Emma didn’t go home.
“Why aren’t you going home?”
“I want to sleep here tonight too.”
“......It’s because of the edited manuscript, isn’t it?”
“Of course!”
Emma dreamed of becoming a writer.
Perhaps because of that, she wanted to follow the work writers did, even if only a little.
‘It doesn’t really matter to me..... but I wonder if it’ll be okay.’
If Emma wanted to sleep at this house, she needed Jeongmin’s permission rather than mine.
Since Emma was still young, I wasn’t sure whether it was okay for her to spend the night here.
“I guess we should call him first.”
“Please.”
Jeongmin took his phone and went back outside.
“He’ll let me. Dad’s been coming home late at night these days.”
“Yeah..... I guess he will.”
Emma’s father had been rather busy recently, so he would probably allow it. More importantly, Jeongmin and Emma’s father
were quite close.
They were close enough to even talk about their family matters with each other.
‘More importantly, it’s not bad to have Emma look over the edited manuscript.’
Emma had a good eye for stories, so I was curious about how she would judge the edited manuscript that had just arrived.
A little while later, Jeongmin returned after going outside to make the call.
“He said it’s fine.”
“As expected.....”
“Ah. And he said Emma has been eating nothing but sweets lately, so he wants us to give her some protein and salad in
the morning.”
As expected, he hadn’t said anything else.
“Emma can sleep in Mina’s room. Is that okay?”
Mina replied as if it didn’t matter to her.
“But I like to be alone and quiet when I’m working.....”
“Ah. That’s fine. I’ll have to be in my room anyway because of the proofreading.”
“Then it’s okay.”
Emma looked as though she didn’t care either way.
No, to be precise, she looked like she wanted to end this pointless conversation quickly and get to the edited
manuscript.
“Then I’m going to my room.”
“Okay.”
“All right.”
The two seemed to be watching television to help with digestion before going to their rooms.
I took Emma to my room.
“......”
“What?”
“I expected your room to be really messy because of your personality, but I’m surprised it isn’t.”
“.....What’s wrong with my personality?”
I hadn’t brought many clothes with me when I came to Canada.
Since I had thought I would only stay for a few days before returning, I had packed lightly.
Because of that, I was always walking around in shabby clothes, which seemed to have caused some misunderstandings.
“I normally like writing in a clean environment.”
It was only after coming to Canada that I had developed a sense of laziness.
Back in Korea, I had lived more regularly than one might expect.
I didn’t necessarily act according to a strict plan, but I still lived within my own rules and routines.
“It’s not a laptop?”
“No. I bought a desktop.”
After coming to Canada, I rarely opened my laptop.
I only used it occasionally when showing Emma something I had written. Normally, I used a desktop computer.
‘Laptops hurt my back.’
Even with a stand, my back and neck started hurting, so if I wanted to sit for a long time, using a desktop was much
more comfortable.
“Hurry, hurry!”
“Don’t rush me. It’ll be done soon.”
“I like Jeongmin Oppa’s house because the internet is fast.”
One thing that surprised me after coming to Saskatchewan was the internet.
Since Jeongmin’s family had lived in Korea, they naturally wanted fast internet.
The problem was that the only places with fast internet were Jeongmin’s house and the restaurant his mother ran, so
people would sometimes even come to the restaurant just to use the internet.
“I’ll copy it onto a USB for you, so you can look at it on the laptop.”
“Okay. Got it.”
It would be complicated for both of us to check it on the same computer.
Since we also read at different speeds, I had Emma check it on the laptop.
“Let’s start.”
---
When I first started writing web novels, I wasn’t treated very well.
An author whose works didn’t sell. An ordinary writer.
That was the conclusion I had reached about myself, and I was a mediocre writer who seemed incapable of climbing any
higher.
Since I had written web novels while working part-time, it had been extremely difficult to concentrate on writing.
Eventually, I decided that I couldn’t continue like that, so I focused entirely on web novels and chose my current
publisher instead of the one I had been with before.
‘.....I remember when I first received an edited manuscript.’
After signing with another publisher, I began receiving something called feedback.
The day I received feedback for the first time, I realized that I wasn’t actually writing as quickly as I had thought.
‘Putting everything else aside..... stories don’t seem to go according to plan.’
I had thought that because I could write quickly, the story would move according to my plans.
But writing didn’t move according to plans as easily as I had expected.
That was what made it fun, and that was what made it difficult.
‘I knew Rodin House had excellent editors, so I trusted them..... but I didn’t expect them to be this good.’
It felt as though I had gone back to the first time I received feedback.
Countless red letters blocked my view, making me sigh involuntarily.
‘Still..... it seems most of the problems are word choices.’
There was inevitably a difference between people who had lived locally for years and someone who had only recently
learned English.
Even though Emma had helped me a lot, I couldn’t avoid typos and incorrect word choices.
‘I’ll have to study again.’
There was nothing I could do about it.
With only four months of experience, there was no way my studies would be sufficient to convey an entire story and all
of its emotions through writing.
‘Let’s not..... do things half-heartedly.’
Originally, I had planned to do it half-heartedly.
I didn’t care whether it made money or not.
But then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘The reason I burned out wasn’t just because I worked too much..... Couldn’t it also be because I grew tired of the work
itself?’
Familiarity was frightening.
When the web novels that had originally been fun for me began making money, I had been extremely happy.
But once that happiness became familiar and boring, and eventually turned into pressure, it became a burden I could no
longer put down.
‘Let’s not treat this new beginning carelessly.’
I felt as though a small candle had begun burning within my frozen passion.
Just as burnout wasn’t something that could be resolved easily, I felt as though I was standing at a crossroads.
“Emma. What do you think?”
“......”
“Emma?”
“Huh? Yeah? Did you call me?”
“Yeah. I asked what you thought of the edited manuscript.”
“......It’s perfect.”
After checking the edited manuscript, Emma somehow looked dejected.
“You seem upset.”
“......Yeah.”
I had written this work alone, but Emma had been the one supporting it from behind the scenes.
She had worked hard to proofread and edit what I wrote before posting it on her blog.
‘I believe she said it was practice for becoming a writer.’
Emma wanted to write her own story as soon as possible.
I didn’t know what kind of story it would be, but she wanted to learn even one thing by staying beside a writer.
‘She probably thinks all the editing she did was completely useless.’
As a writer, I could understand how Emma felt better than anyone.
‘Maybe it’s only natural.’
It was the difference between a professional and a beginner.
Even though I had worked as a web novel writer in Korea, writing a novel in English was completely new to me.
Emma had read many books, but she had little experience editing her own writing.
“There’s a lot, so this is going to take quite a while..... What are you going to do, Emma?”
“......I’ll stay up until I finish reading it.”
“You mean you’re going to look at the edited manuscript all night?”
“Yeah.”
Once the edited manuscript was completely revised, it would become the final manuscript.
Since it was enough material for an entire book, revising it would take a very long time.
“You might not sleep tonight.”
“That’s okay. I don’t have school tomorrow either.”
“.....You’re on vacation.”
I was also leaving for Korea soon.
I had already booked my plane ticket, so I planned to finish this before then.
“Shinyong.”
“What?”
“Do you think I’ll be able to write something like this someday?”
At those words, I casually picked at my ear.
“What’s so impressive about this?”
“......It is impressive. Rodin House itself took the initiative to sign you.”
“If you hadn’t posted it, they wouldn’t have contacted you at all. And don’t use my writing as your standard. I’m only a
half-fledged writer who failed over and over before briefly shining.”
I was simply a mediocre writer who had run away from the writing world using burnout as an excuse.
I was still so afraid that the fear controlled me to the point where I couldn’t write web novels.
I wanted to use the passion that was currently like a small candle and start again, but I was such a foolish person that
I was even hesitant to take on the challenge.
‘To start again from the beginning..... I need passion.’
And right now, I didn’t even have that passion.
It would be foolish to use something I had written as the standard for Emma.
“And I’m going back to Korea soon. Rather than studying by looking at my writing, just read other works and study.”
At those words, Emma’s face stiffened.
“.....You’re going back to Korea? Why?”
“My tourist visa only has a few months left, and I also need to go see my family back home.”
“.....When are you coming back?”
“I think I’ll come back sometime this year..... but I don’t know the schedule yet.”
At those words, Emma fiddled with her fingers for a long while, looking disappointed.