If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm
positive that a doer makes mistakes.
John Wooden
John Wooden
So yesterday
I saw a review on Amazon for my first book – Goa Traffic – pointing out a mistake, an unforgiveable mistake – I had
written Sheikh instead of Sikh. I saw the comment and I thought that can’t be
right. I definitely know the difference there. There are in fact no Sheikhs in
the book. I quickly did a search in my original document and to my horror it
was there. How had my editor not picked this up, worse still, how had I not
picked this up? The book has been on sale for five years. Countless friends
have read it – no one mentioned it. Usually I would say people are too polite
to mention mistakes…but believe me typos have been pointed out to me before. So
either people have read it and thought, that author is an idiot or they haven’t
picked it up (I’m hoping for the latter). Either way I feel bad… It’s strange
though when someone spotted a typo in my traditionally published book, I
shrugged and said, ah well. I guess with having a publisher you don’t feel your
work has to be as perfect as when you self pub- because you have the comfort
that they have had confidence in you. Self pubbing gets such a bad name when it comes
to editing that you have to be perfect and for a non-perfectionist (is that a
word?) like me that is hard.
Having
self pubbed this book, I feel completely responsible for my faux pas. In fact I
feel awful. Now that I know it is there (at least with self pubbing) I can make
the change – although it won’t be quick. GT was published in a time before
Scrivner when I had to manually sort my formatting. It took an age and I must
have wiped from my mind how I saved it as a Mobi file as I have no idea of how
to do that now. So I need to put it into Scrivner and organise it that way.
This will also give me a chance to add some spiel at the back for Under the
Coconut Tree.
I am
hoping to get it done this week, but I have also been wondering if I should
withdraw GT from the market. Whilst it still has an average rating of 4*s and
has 19 5* reviews I can’t deny that there have a few 1* reviews and although critique
is good… Do I want a book out there with my name on that I am having serious
doubts about?
Don’t
get me wrong. I was more than happy with it when I published it, but I was also
impatient and my writing skills were limited. I know the POV changes mid scene
9I still like doing that but try to restrain myself) and its more tell than
show probably. With every new book I learn some more but once a book is
published I cannot open it again. I can’t bear to look inside it. I don’t know
why – it’s a thing. Anyway, back to whether I should take GT off the market.
The reasons for leaving it on are as follows: GT sells more than any of my other books,
without me doing an awful lot. It has been reviewed by editors and companies
too which gives me some comfort. I’ve had emails from people saying they loved
it and I’ve had some great reviews… and their reviews are just as valid. Although
authors love to dwell on the negative. Plus GT was the book that got me out
there. Without it I wouldn’t have secured a traditional publishing contract. In
fact, without the commercial success of GT I don’t think I would have had the
idea of the Chupplejeep mysteries. And finally, as sales for the title were beginning
to decline suddenly sales tripled last month. I’ve sold more copies of GT than
any other book so which would I rather fewer sales and 0 1* reviews like my other
books or loads of sales and some negative comments – you’ll never please
everyone I guess. For me the benefits, I
guess, outweigh the negatives, for now.
So
authors, when we get all those rejection letters after we send our books to
agents that is just the start of it. There are so many other upsets along the
way that we need to deal … but hey, I’ve taken comfort from the above quote and
I still believe it is better to do than to keep your manuscript in a drawer
gathering dust. And as H says… It’s just
a book –no one is going to die. He doesn’t understand and although that can be
annoying at times it takes me out of my writing bubble and makes me realise
that it’s not all about me, me,me. I recently read an article where the author
said the only people that really read the 1* reviews are the authors
themselves. It makes me laugh because it
is probably true. Most people I know avoid the extremes of reviews. Anyway, I’ll
put the bruised ego away and take a deep breath as Kingsley Amis says ‘A bad
review may ruin your breakfast, but you shouldn’t let it spoil your lunch.’
No comments:
Post a Comment