Sigh

A couple of nights ago I realized that I had never just read Enza.  I’d spent more hours than I’ll ever be able to count researching it.  I loved every minute of writing it.  And, even with a few beta readers, I’ve been through it many times for editing purposes.  But I’d never just read the story.

So I decided it was time for me to pick up the copy of the pretty, finished copy I’d ordered and pretend to be a reader.

What is it about picking up a copy of a ‘real’ book?  By real I mean the kind that’s heavy enough to make your hand ache after holding it for awhile.  The kind where you actually have to turn the pages.  How is it that you can read a book a dozen or more times on a computer, but it’s not until you pick up the actual book…that errors stand out like a neon sign?

Sixteen errors in the first ninety-seven pages.  (Quick update since I wrote this a couple of hours ago…at page 135, there are more than 32 things that need changed…oh no!)

So much for reading it for pleasure.  I’m not even a third of the way through (but hope to finish tonight).  Wow.  I thought I was a pretty decent typist, too.  But when you find you’ve used ‘he’d’ rather than ‘he’s,’ you know you have some work to do. (And you know that has nothing to do with your typing skills anyway)

So…

With less than two weeks until the release date arrives – April 23 – I have some fixing to do!  Can’t wait to see how long the list is by the time I’m finished.  But I am making a promise that I will put out the best quality book that I can.  And will be trying to expand my group of beta readers so that all errors in future books are dealt with a little sooner than this.

And now I’m off.  For the next several hours I’m going to be sucking down an energizing herbal tea (to help keep me alert and focused), reading and taking notes.

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14 Responses to Sigh

  1. Emma says:

    All books have errors in them, even those that get the traditionally published treatment. Drink lots of tea to see you through the rest of the reading.

    • Good advice, Emma. And you’re 100% right about the traditionally published books. But it’s only the indie authors who take heat about the errors. So we all have to take as much care as we can to put out the best quality books we possibly can. And amen to the tea! I love that stuff. 🙂

  2. ditto for me. I read it and two other readers went through it with a fine tooth comb but there they were, the little devils. darn and double. darn

  3. Debra Eve says:

    Been there, too! I’ve vowed the next time I’m going to hire not one, but two, people to proof. I can’t see my own typos anymore. But congrats on getting it done, Kristy. That’s a huge achievement!

  4. Debra Kristi says:

    I think we need to read it and reread it. We may see different things every time. We should also have others read it because they will see things our eyes will skip over, seeing what we think we should see. I found all kinds of things reading through the last few chapters of my MS last night. LOL Have faith girl. In a few weeks this will all be behind you and we can laugh at it.

    • That’s where the frustration comes in, Debra. I’ve read it about half a dozen times…and found things that needed fixed every time. But not as many errors as reading through the paperback version (which I will HOPEFULLY finish tonight).

      I think it’s just easy for anyone who reads much to see a sentence as it should be, rather than how it is. A lot of mine are punctuation-related, and one is a particular pet peeve (using the same word more than once…i.e. ‘quickly’ in two consecutive sentences).

      I can’t wait to laugh about all of this in a few weeks. You just remember that, too. And never, ever forget the most important part about writing…editing sucks. 🙂

      • Debra Kristi says:

        LOL. Yes it does. I have the same pet peeve regarding words. I find myself changing them all the time when I find that. One thing you can do is put the word into “search” and see how often it pops up. Too often – you’re in trouble. I had a word I did that with in the first draft that had to be scratched a lot. Oops.

      • That’s a great idea! I’ll have to see if I can figure out how to do that. Of course I have to finish reading it first. Two chapters and the epilogue left. I WILL have it finished tonight though. Finally. 🙂

  5. Katrina says:

    Sorry about that, I should have taken better notes

    • You read it once, Katrina, and…as I recall, I’d just asked to to do that to get your opinion of the story, not to do any editing. So don’t worry about that at all. The ‘more beta readers’ comment is because I don’t know how many times I’ve been through Enza now…and the number of notes I’ve made for things to fix is unbelievable. And growing. 🙂

  6. Jennette Marie Powell says:

    Oh man, I feel your pain! I did the same thing when my book went to print! Thankfully, I also proofread it in typeset, two-up format beforehand, so it was almost like reading the paperback, and I found a bunch of errors. Even then, a couple still got by me, but I won’t fix them at this point because my printer charges a $37 setup fee if I do. With the new book, I formatted for print before releasing the ebook, and sure enough, I found a couple mistakes that got by me, my beta readers, and my copyeditor. Good luck, and congrats on the release!

    • I didn’t even think to try reading it with that setup, Jennette. But I don’t think it would have mattered to me. My problem seems to be more along the lines of ‘zoning out’ when I read too long on the computer. So in the future my goal will be to get a paperback version BEFORE I go through any of my books too many times.

      I’m glad you got yours down to a couple of mistakes. Hopefully I will have accomplished that by the time I go to bed tonight. 🙂

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