Interview with Lynne Truss – lexis
To blank sth out is to repress or refuse to absorb information about something because it is too uncomfortable to accept.
Royalty payments / fees are sums of money paid by publishers and other companies to authors, musicians, photographers etc. Writers sometimes receive a certain percentage of every book sold and the money is called a royalty payment. At the end of financial years a summary is sent, and this is called a royalty statement. in the tens = under a hundred (in the hundreds = under a thousand)
A confessio erroris is a Latin phrase meaning an acknowledgement or confession of one’s mistakes.
to botch – informal – is to do sth badly or carelessly.
to play up = to emphasise
to take something at face value – to accept something as being completely true, exactly as it seems, when the reality may be very different
to downplay something – to underplay / understate sth
behind the scenes – out of sight, unseen
a manuscript – handwritten book, music or document.
a copy-editor – a person who checks the accuracy of a manuscript and also its consistency, that spellings or details remain the same throughout the text.
a proof-reader – a person who reads the printed copy and marks any punctuation or spelling mistakes etc.
A publisher – a company or a person who produces written materials such as books, magazines, newspapers, etc
A publishing house – a company which publishes the above