Paper Publishing Stuff

So, after a couple of years of writing and revising and then sitting and waiting, then more writing and revising, followed by more sitting and waiting followed by several months of break-neck pace edits, changes, and reading the new books that (freakishly) appeared on the subject just months before my submittal date, followed by a period of several months in which I had been told that my paper was cut from the journal, followed by being asked to re-submit it, followed by more break-neck edits to get it in on time, followed by responses to a late-submitted peer-review response, followed by a panic when I was asked for further revisions but thought that my copy of the data that the revisions would need to be based on had gone missing, followed by a final submittal...I have received galley proofs of my paper for the journal California Archaeology today.

The damned paper is finally going to be published. It will appear in the journal's August issue.

This paper began as a portion of my Master's thesis. At the request of a friend who was putting together an edited volume - basically, a book of papers around a central theme - I revised several chapters and condensed them into one paper, and then handed it over. The first publisher fell through, and the editing team then found a second publisher, lined up the papers, got them all submitted, and then the second publisher fell through. This happened at least one more time, and then the project went on the back burner for a couple of years.

About a year ago, I was told that an agreement had been reached with California Archaeology to publish the papers, but after I had revised it one more time and responded to editorial comments, the publisher cut mine due to space limitations. And then it was put back in, and I had to rush to make the necessary changes. And then there was silence for a couple of months, and then requests for further changes. And then silence, and today I received the galley copy so that I can make a few minor changes and it will be off.

It's really quite satisfying.