Confessions of a self-published author

I'm talking about publishing my novel Candlelight Sinner with errors. Maybe fifty all together, typos, missing words, missing speech marks, extra speech marks. Okay, fifty errors in an 80k novel may not seem much, but I find it almost unbearably embarrassing. After a lovely friend helped me with my Germish and with that having the awkward phrasing out of the way, I decided to proof the book myself on the Kindle as I normally spot those errors easily. I know, it's said everywhere, but I wanted to show I can do it. Look where it got me. Stupid, really. Although one can overlook those errors if they don't distract from the story, the vast amount alone makes me cringe. Luckily, I have found a wonderful proof reader for the future whom I've tested and who knows what is expected.
Self-publishing has been a trial and error experience; overall, I'd say, a really positive one, apart from my being rather tired of promoting and hence not doing much of it anymore. I'm almost sure that I've lost sales due to the errors in the books, for which I could kick myself, really. Despite receiving great reviews for all three books, I'm sure I could have sold more if it wasn't for the errors.
As you know I'm writing on a Thriller, which will be published under a different pen name some time this year, a clean slate for that book, if you will. I don't do it because of that, but it would be nice to have a book judged on its merit, without anyone knowing about the author; it's an experiment and if it goes well, I may publish some more, completely different books -- thriller, horror, sci-fi, etc. -- under that name. All of which will be properly proofed.
But I'll also bring out another book as Stella Deleuze this year. And my aim is to have it error free. I'll not make the mistake again to proof my own book. From what I've learned, errors occur when you rewrite, swap scenes around, add, delete. That's when a manuscript is the most prone to get messy. Best advice is to let it rest for a few weeks and go through it again. Slowly, then, when you're done, either get a professional to work on it, or someone you trust. I've noticed that I've added errors when correcting what the proof reader sent. So that's a fault on my part. Not sure how I'll deal with that in future, but I'll find a solution. No book of mine shall contain more than a few errors in future. Best would be to have zero, but you can't even guarantee that with a professional proof reader.
Please do me only one favour: do not say that you find errors in traditionally published books; just because there is the odd book which contains errors, doesn't make it right. :-)

PS: I've corrected mine. (Thank you, Sandra.x)

Sometimes, it's just tough

There are days when even all the positivity and love for writing gets a real kick in the teeth. Today is one of those days for me. I sent Winn, a friend of mine, a short story I had written for my writers' group. The point was to test her proof-reading skills as she's thinking about doing it in her spare time to help others. Because it's such a difficult job to look out for all the errors that may occur and also correct grammar and dialogue attributes, I wanted to help her find out if she's cut out for it. Funnily enough, apart from grammar, I'm pretty good at picking up on typos, spaces, etc. myself. Just not my own, at least not without a certain amount of time between reading.

Well, I inserted eleven errors, all of which she found. What I didn't expect, though, was the amount of corrections she made on things I didn't put in on purpose. Which means I had a  pretty colourful document to look at. Now I thought that after over five years of living and breathing English and writing for the past three years, I should be able to produce an almost error-free piece, seems far from it.
Certainly, my English is better than most English people's German, but that's not the point. My goal was and is to be as good as, if not better than many natives, which means impeccable grammar, including punctuation and the local tongue.I I have to admit, my mood sunk quite a bit as I hate asking for help, but by the looks of it, I'll still rely on it a tad longer. To be clear: it's not Winn's fault and I'm absolutely grateful for her corrections; it's my own expectations I didn't meet. Yes, I'm proud of the level of my English and the ability to speak almost accent-free (unless I'm really tired or angry), and sure it's an achievement to write in a language other than my mother tongue, but for me it's simply not enough.

Which means, I really have to knuckle down and most important: read even more.

One day....

If you need help with proof-reading, check out Winn's site for UK writers.

Or Pauline Nolet's site for the US.

When gaining editing skills means losing the desire to read

How come, you might wonder. Well, I'm inclined to tell you, because I think you know exactly how it feels like. Since March 2009 I've written three books. Now you might think it's not many, but I'm quite happy with this. I'm also published as a contributor to the anthology Words to Music, which is available on Amazon now. All profit goes to several charities. Yes, that's a hint. :-)
I've just started the forth, a cook book with a theme, but I still need to do the proofing for my second book, which is the most 'ready' to be published.
The first book needs rewriting, for I'm turning it into a series and the third book, which I don't have on show anywhere, apart from some excerpts, will go through its first edit, too. So I have three books that need work to get them out there, one that needs to be written and I've started a venture that will take up most of my time, let alone another book-project that I'll co-author with a dear friend of mine.

What I find peculiar is that I do have trouble to read, I mean really to enjoy it. It's like my editing skills have killed my desire to let go and step out of my life into the story. As a teen, I used to read stacks of books, always brought home half the library. Even as a slow reader, I got through a vast amount of novels. I would forget eating, sleeping - everything around me. As an adult I continued, perhaps not as many books anymore, but still, I read every night before going to sleep. Since I began to take writing seriously, I stopped. Completely. First, because I was busy with editing my own work, then with editing other people's work, I read, but it was still work, second, because I started writing on my next novel.

But I actually began reading again about a month ago. At the moment I'm reading Eats, shoots and leaves and am enjoying it immensely while learning. I don't have the red pen in my head, I don't roll my eyes and I don't sigh over cliches. I only laugh and nod a lot. It's a wonderful book if you want to learn about punctuation, which was my intention. Every night, I will take time out from my day and read. Even if only a few pages, but I really want to get back to loving a good story, because I always have.