Recently I reviewed a number of books by Indie writers. I noticed a number of editing problems that leapt from page to page proliferating like gremlins. While they were distracting, they didn’t keep me from being able to review the books. Still they were notable.
Then, I started getting reviews also that mentioned typos.
Even though I had many lovely reviews, a couple of them dinged me (and appropriately) for little grammar/typo problems.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t gone over this manuscript a thousand times or that I didn’t care enough—it was that I edited one last time—entering a zillion little changes. And with every hundred changes or so, I would accidently leave a little marker, a typo that I never noticed.
I checked the manuscript four times for spelling errors and read it through to look for problems.
After the third comment that there were problems, I realized that this had to change and that no one person is capable of finding all the typos.
Two friends of mine read it through and found some of the errors. But I was nervous. I incorporated those changes and then hired a professional line-editor. It didn’t cost a fortune, as the editor commented that it was pretty clean. Nevertheless, I wanted them, the evil typos, GONE! He worked through and made even more little changes. And I resubmitted it for the paperback version of The Stone Lions.
Hopefully, for my next manuscript submission, I will allocate more time and resources at this critical step. To all of you who read it before these last edits, I thank you for your patience and kindness. I’m very hopeful that perhaps I can be trained after all.
Then, I started getting reviews also that mentioned typos.
Even though I had many lovely reviews, a couple of them dinged me (and appropriately) for little grammar/typo problems.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t gone over this manuscript a thousand times or that I didn’t care enough—it was that I edited one last time—entering a zillion little changes. And with every hundred changes or so, I would accidently leave a little marker, a typo that I never noticed.
I checked the manuscript four times for spelling errors and read it through to look for problems.
After the third comment that there were problems, I realized that this had to change and that no one person is capable of finding all the typos.
Two friends of mine read it through and found some of the errors. But I was nervous. I incorporated those changes and then hired a professional line-editor. It didn’t cost a fortune, as the editor commented that it was pretty clean. Nevertheless, I wanted them, the evil typos, GONE! He worked through and made even more little changes. And I resubmitted it for the paperback version of The Stone Lions.
Hopefully, for my next manuscript submission, I will allocate more time and resources at this critical step. To all of you who read it before these last edits, I thank you for your patience and kindness. I’m very hopeful that perhaps I can be trained after all.
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