As I re-read my novel for the umpteenth time, I have (glup) found mistakes. Yes, I must admit, I have found errors in the First Edition. I could just ignore them and throw my hands up in the air, but that wouldn’t be me. Instead, I’m going to ‘fess up.
I found two paragraphs that jump from 11 pitch to 12, about 3 missing quotation marks, two you’re when they should have been yours, and a mix up between filing and filling.
I swear folks, I looked at these prints so many times my eyes went crossed. I even had several other people review and edit and, as a collective, we still let some oversights slip through.
As an author, you have to wear many hats. First and foremost, you have to be a decent storyteller. You have to be willing to embellish your stories to get an emotional reaction or else people will ignore you and walk away. Secondly, you have to be a pretty good typist (and after being at a keyboard for far too many years that I care to admit) I have no excuses there. Thirdly, you should have gotten at least a “B” or higher in English class or better yet, paid attention to grammar lessons (fortunately I did pretty well here. Just don’t ask me to add without a calculator or have a clue about any epic battles.) Last, but not least, you have to be an editor too.
I found tiny mistakes in the first release. There, I’ve admitted it twice now. “Hello everyone, my name is Tina Reber. It’s been at least fifteen minutes since the last time I looked at my novel. I have copies of my book hidden in every room so my family doesn’t know how bad my addiction is. I’ve gotten so bad that I just gave my son permission to have a chocolate poptart for lunch, since tearing myself away causes me mental and physical pain.”
I’ve made the first step – acknowledgement. The second step is to correct the original manuscript and resubmit a new copy to the publisher before I go completely mad.
TMR/