Welcome! 😊

@Jeremy Shapiro I love your percentage breakdown! Just in case it helps—next time, it's totally fair to ask your editor to make some of those changes "silently" (without tracking)! Especially if you work with the same editor again and trust them, you could give them a list of the changes you're comfortable with them making sans tracking (ex. "It's fine not to track fixes to smart quotes, spaces, or dashes this time around!"). The Chicago Manual of Style actually explicitly says (in CMOS 2.85/2.90) that the specific items you listed can be corrected without tracking, so most editors will be totally comfortable with that request. 😊 (Though importing changes from Docs to Word can always come with some issues, which is why it's usually recommended to stick to Word after the content editing stage if at all possible! But that's a nerdy editing soapbox for another day.)

@Darla Mondragon To clarify, this definitely isn't something most people need to think much about or stress over! A lot of editors make those changes "silently" automatically and don't even need to be asked. But it's just something that's nice to know if too much markup feels like it could be overwhelming (or has been overwhelming in the past)! If you're working with an editor for the first time, I definitely wouldn't worry about this at all! 😊

@Nancy Old This is a great question! Do you have any specific questions/concerns? My biggest tips are the following: 1. If possible, keep all of your book materials in one place. What I personally like to do is create one main folder for the book materials I'm CURRENTLY working on and a subfolder for materials I have already finished reviewing. So, for example, the current draft would be in the main folder, while all of my past files would go in my "Old Book Files" subfolder, just in case I need to reference them in the future. Keeping them separate prevents me from mixing them up! I mocked up an example of what this looks like for me and took a screenshot in case that helps. 2. Choose a clear, specific file-naming convention and stick to it! I like to make sure that my files always include the current editing stage and the date I most recently began editing the file (so, for example, while reviewing the content edit of your book, you might call it "Grace in the Cracks_Content Edit Review_11.19.25"), but any system that feels clear to you and that you feel you can implement consistently works! The other important consideration is to back up your files as often as possible! You may already do this automatically—if you use something like Dropbox, you may have set up certain folders to auto backup—but if not, we have a resource with a few tips on backing up here: https://booklaunchers.com/best-backup-strategies-authors/. 🙂

@Mike Hird I love that!

I'm sure you've already made up your mind, but in case you need more info, we talked about this a while back here (https://www.skool.com/selfpublishingbooks/kdp-apply-digital-rights-management-drm-to-your-files?p=26b9a390) as well! To sum it up—DRM doesn't super effectively protect your book, but it can end up unintentionally hurting your non-nefarious readers. Most people choose no for that reason, but if you're more comfortable choosing yes, that's OK! 😊

Welcome! Fellow spotlight-shunner here. I love that you've raised your hand anyway, and I love your philosophy! 😊