How to manage revisions from a publisher?

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

Soon I should be getting edits back from my publisher - who doesn’t use Scriv. How do you recommend handling this?

Currently I’m Compiling as a Word doc, which of course will come back with revision marks. Do I Import or Copy/Paste changes? I can see this will be a major pain because then I’ll have 2 versions. Or do I abandon Scriv, and revert to Word only?

Kinda unwinds the point of using Scriv.

2

As a publisher who edits manuscripts in Word, while also being an author who writes in Scrivener (with six books recently picked up by two publishers) I have given this some serious thought and have decided to adopt the following work flow.

1 - write the book in Scrivener
2 - edit in Scrivener through multiple versions
3 - compile to Word and adjust style sheet to meet the publishers requirements
4 - if accepted continue to edit in Word
5 - once a final draft has been agreed import into Scrivener as a new manuscript, splitting at Chapter Headings. This will then make it available for easy access if it is part of a series.

There are also other files you will need to store including the electronic proof (in pdf) of perhaps the ARC and actual book, copies of the ebook (DRM free) and copies of the cover, all of which you could import into Scrivener, or simply hold in an associated folder. Hopes this helps. Just remember in some ways this is no different from holding several handwritten drafts, the typewritten version submitted to the publisher, and the final book. (And yes my first manuscript was a handwritten draft, my second book was written on a typewritter, my third book on a 128k computer - those were the days, thankfully now well in the past).

Andrew

3

Thanks Andrew, that is the sort of thing I was thinking, will probably follow your advice.
Rod

4

I agree with Andrew’s advice.

What seems to trip people up is an assumption that the original Scrivener project must be made to match the current “working” draft at all times. That assumption leads to all sorts of wrestling back and forth between Word’s Track Changes features and Scrivener, which is time-consuming and, IMO, not all that useful.

If the editor asks for extensive revisions, you may very well decide that those are easier to do in Scrivener, but Scrivener doesn’t care how many projects it makes, or how many documents there are in a single project. Make a new project, or a new folder in your existing project, and go from there.

Katherine

5

As long as you know which is the definitive version. When you start a new one, archive the old. Or if you must split work across projects (prolly not a good idea) use Labels/Status to know which bit is current.

6

Hi Rod

I forgot to say congratulations on getting the book accepted! :smiley: Unfortunately I tend to be outcomes focus and, as my wife has pointed out, not so good on human relationships.

And you are quite right that managing the ‘definitive’ version is vital. With my publishing hat on, there often comes a stage when I have two final versions. One in Jutoh (for the eBook), and one in Word (for the print). When the author comes back with additional changes :imp:

Andrew