Publishing my first novel has been a very interesting experience. Now that it is being read by many and reviews are pouring in, I’m learning something new regarding editing – you need many eyes.

I did pay to have my text professionally proofread and edited, however, even then things have squeezed through the cracks. After release, I noticed an inconsistency myself among the 81,000 words, and just recently an Amazon reader commented on a few minor problems in her review.

One of my goals as a self-published author is to gain R-E-S-P-E-C-T. (Boy, I’d break out in song right now if I could!) There is so much criticism regarding poor quality with self-published authors, and I dearly wanted to stay away from that criticism. No one is complaining about the quality of my writing. A few have agonized over the ending, but it was necessary to lay the stage for the sequel.

On the flip side, I’ve also talked to a few of my readers who found nothing wrong in the text.  I guess my story mesmerized them or perhaps they needed reading glasses.

Nevertheless, at this very moment I am extremely grateful for print on demand!  I am going back to my publisher and fix the errors and inconsistencies to find R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

On a side note, I read an article in a popular writer’s magazine recently that contained a wonderful confession from a traditionally published author who corrected his book 13 times after publication before he got it right! I’m doing pretty good, I guess.

What have I learned through this process?

  1. Edit your professional edits.
  2. Find more eyes before submitting your manuscript to print.
  3. Read over your galley proofs with a magnifying glass! Even a perfect submitted manuscript can end up with inconsistencies when your publisher puts it into a galley. My mistake was trusting. I checked to make sure it was all there, but I didn’t expect character letters to be dropped here and there.

I’m straining for perfection and respect. Now wouldn’t it be a hoot if a traditional publishing house picked it up and published it with more errors! Why do I see typos in those?  Just recently I was reading a book published by a big name house and read the word “sate” and it should have been “sat.” I’m beginning to think perfection is a goal that might be hard to reach for everyone even though many readers expect perfect copy.

Well, just a reminder to use many eyes.  I sure hope there’s no typos in this post!

Vicki


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