Editing Gremlins. Yep, They’re a Thing
I’m going to readily admit that when I first started this journey my book snobbery was focused on thinking romance novels weren’t “real” literature, worthy of reading for anything more than a quick and dirty hiatus between reading “real” books. (see blog post https://www.brayzensblog.com/blog-3/i-have-a-confession for more on that.) That snobbery didn’t last very long, but once I started to read and enjoy romance novels, my snobbery turned its ugly gaze on another element of published writing: editing mishaps. I just couldn’t understand how published novels could have editing and proofreading errors. It was frustrating and started to disrupt the joy I was getting from reading books I had just discovered and really loved. I found myself spending more time highlighting errors than fun and memorable quotes. WTF was wrong with me?
In order to move past this, my brain needed to find out why these mistakes were showing up in published novels. So I started asking questions. And wow, did I get answers! I learned that pretty much every romance novel I read was published by an indie (independent) author- an author not attached to a traditional publishing house. In other words, an author who was solely responsible for everything related to their novel. Not just the words, but the covers, the formatting, the marketing, all of it. That’s a lot to take on, even with an amazing PA (personal/ professional assistant) by their side. And these authors took on all of those jobs so they could afford to write and publish their novels the way they wanted to. With the words they chose, the covers they wanted, on the schedule they set. And sometimes, that lead to mistakes being overlooked in self-editing. Or even by a professional editor. Because we all make mistakes. And editing gremlins exist.
Well, now I had a decision to make: was I really going to let this element of publishing distract me from the story I was reading? And enjoying! And with the knowledge I gained the decision was easy: I decided on “no.” No, those mistakes were not going to ruin all of the joy I was gaining from reading those books.
Because we all make mistakes. And even the best editors will miss them. I’ve found errors in things I’ve edited! I mean come on, we’ve all sent out that email we meticulously worded, scrutinized, and reread, only to find a glaring typo the minute we hit send. Nobody’s perfect. And sometimes the editing gremlins are just more powerful than our eyes. I’ve learned to overlook a lot. And it’s because for me the joy of the read, the emotion in the story, is more powerful than the grammar guru in my head.
There was some recent chatter in online groups about what to do when you find an error in a book. Readers are genuinely curious about it. How do you get the information to an author when you find an error? And should you? More often than not, an admin or the author’s PA would comment on the post and ask the poster to message them. It was pretty civil and helpful. And honestly really cool. Occasionally a post would turn nasty and instead of asking how to get info to an author, it would become a slamfest about how someone couldn’t finish a book because of the errors, or stopped reading an author because of errors. It was sad, and in the end made the poster look worse than the author in my eyes. There’s always a way to do something with kindness.
Part of me is firmly convinced there will never be an error free manuscript because I am now 100% certain there are gremlins in the process. Seriously. I’ve seen errors appear in published works that were not there in the ARCs I read. But between asking specific questions to authors and Pas I know, and reading replies to group posts, I’ve gotten the answers I was looking for, and as you know, I love to share. So, here’s the info:
If you see an error in a published work, message the author. Most authors have “contact me” information on their websites. If you’re in the author’s group, message an admin. If they aren’t the correct person, they definitely know who is. Understand that not all errors will or can be fixed. An author’s time is truly precious, so going back to make corrections may not actually be in their best interest. Accept that. It’s also important to know that, even when an author does update or correct errors brought to their attention, they have absolutely no control over when the retailer updates the manuscript on their site. So reported errors may have already been fixed, the documents resubmitted, and they’re sitting there waiting for the correct person to press the correct button.
It’s always your choice to not read an author because of errors. But now you have to decide: are the errors worth missing out on the story? Can you overlook someone else’s imperfections to see their creativity and talent? If not, move along. But do so in kindness. After all, I’m pretty sure you would want someone to do the same for you.
Oh, and my editor had her hands, brain, and entire life fully and completely immersed in a project over the last two weeks, so if you find an error in this blog post, and you message me about it by midnight EST on 3/6/22, it’ll get you entered into a drawing for a $5 gift card from Amazon (hello book$$). But be kind in your message, because remember- we all make mistakes.
