Let's talk about proofreading for a moment. We've all had that happen, right? Where you're reading something, and suddenly a typo jumps out at you, and you are left wondering if the writer was even aware of such a glaring mistake. Believe me, I understand, and as much as I worried about how things would go when editing my own work, apparently all the eyes in the world don't necessarily make a difference, and I'm here to tell you that mistakes still do happen!
I humbly admit that there have been some typos that went completely past me in A Place to Call Home, as well as with my publisher and editor, and the few other people who all had to review my book before it went to print. Someone, we ALL missed the few errors that have been called to my attention NOW, and all I can say is the errors were by no means something we thought were correct, we just overlooked them. I knew as soon as they were pointed out to me what they should have been, and it shocked me to think that all of us missed them. Even in doing the final editing and reading of the manuscript from start to finish MYSELF I didn't even read those words as they appeared, but saw them as what I THOUGHT they were. Talk about embarrassing!
It's an ever-humbling experience, and even though it's a matter of a handful of words, I'm working on getting them all cleaned up from the story so that a new revision can go to print. It just goes to show that no matter how much preparation you do, mistakes can still happen! So on that note, I hope that you all can overlook the glaring errors (for now) and still enjoy a good read!
One other thought. You wouldn't believe the crazy things I read after Googling this subject. I saw someone's rant directed to self-published authors being sub-par writers, and although my work isn't self-published, I feel I ought to stick up for all those indie writers because many of them are far from amateurs. In fact, many of them have also been published by traditional means, and are considered "hybrids" because of how they chose to dabble with self-publishing. The thing is, book typos happen, no matter how big or how small the publisher is. Poor writing, on the other hand, is an entirely different subject. And unfortunately, there are some duds out there who still get published who ought not to be, while others who are brilliant get denied. It's not easy being creative, and it's tough when you are having to compete with a sea of other talents. We don't need people adding to it by making incorrect assumptions that then ruin it for those who work hard just to be heard. All it takes is one opinion to make or break you or me. So I ask, dear readers, consider that while reading and reviewing my work or any other author's.
