As a writer, I write. As an author I auth, but I don't like correcting my mistakes. I mean, yeah, I do it, but I don't like it. I don't (a) like to admit that I make mistakes, (b) like to find them, and (c) like to correct them. When I write I type. I also write it out in longhand in some ways, but not the entire book; what I do is write out the plots, the twists, my storyline, or my thoughts in longhand, then I type them up on my keyboard into the computer using Word. I paid for Word. I think it should correct my boo-boos.
I wrote five novels last year starting with January's release (or early Feb.) of "Of Kilted Pleasure" and then I decided to get the ball rolling on the Nick Posh thrillers, so I wrote "Murder Book" for an April release I think. Next came "Edinburgh", another romance book that takes place in Scotland, but it is a modern romance, whereas "Of Kilted Pleasure" is a Highland Romance that takes place in the 18th Century. "Edinburgh" wasn't finished until July, which makes you wonder what I wase doing in May and June! I was studying to become a Claims Adjuster.
In August or early September I released the sequel to "Murder Book", it is titled "Pinball". That's a roller-coaster book for sure. Then, just before the year ended, I released another book, this time a drama/romance titled "Bay Sorrel Ranch". BSR takes place in Oklahoma and it is set in modern times. It's a drama novel, but it has twists and peaks in it. There's a romance, there's a murder, there's an investigation, there is some travel, and yeah, there is sex. Not gonna lie about it.
When I write I write. I make tons of mistakes, but I don't immediately find them. If they have red or blue lines under the words I see them, but if they don't, I don't. It's a fact. I paid for editing with "Of Kilted Pleasure" and that didn't happen. I've made that mistake before, and again, before, it didn't happen. I don't know why I thought paying for editing the next time would make a difference. It did not. I didn't realize I had made over 30 mistakes in the book until it was released and I bought a copy and read it!! (and then subsequently corrected it)
So, what I did with the next 4 books, having published "Of Kilted Pleasure" through a house, and having self-published the others, was to write the books, go through them before I have them published, and I did try really hard to make the corrections before sending them up to be published - - until it didn't work. I literally thought I sent up the right file for "Bay Sorrel Ranch" the one with the corrections, but NOPE, I did not. I sent up the one with the 84 mistakes. When I sent it out, it was published, and when I bought it and read it I found the 84 mistakes. I have since (yesterday) corrected them and resubmitted the book.
It really isn't hard to make the mistake I made in sending up the wrong file to be published. I named it too close to the one that didn't have the corrections, and when I should have deleted the other file, I didn't. I sent it up to be published. Wow!! So, that's a good lesson for me to learn -- when I write a book, I correct it. When I make changes, and save the file, I should always delete the last one. I keep thinking maybe I will need it, but I should just delete it. I also save it 5 times on my computer on my desktop, documents, downloads, and on two different flash drives. JUST INCASE!!
So, what I'm going to do now, is to go through all the files I have on my computer for all the books I've written. I'll save ONLY the corrected versions, and delete the others. I'll save the corrected versions on all the platforms, but only the corrected versions. Maybe my new book, "1211" will not suffer the same fate - - maybe my readers won't suffer the same fate. The good news (and it's not really that great of news) is that I haven't sold many books so it won't make that big of a difference. If anyone wants to exchange their book with mistakes for one without mistakes, I can do that probably, or they can keep it as a collector's item!!
I did have to change the cover for "Bay Sorrel Ranch" too since it had a nasty back cover that was off-center, and the photo needed attention. I corrected it. It should be up on Amazon in a week. We'll hope the others don't get sold or if they do someone will reach out to me complaining and I can change books for them - - that's the hope. If it doesn't happen and they want to give me a poor review, well, I can't stop that. I know I make mistakes; at least I admit it when I do.
Right now, I'm watching old movies to get ideas to describe things in my book "1211" since it takes place in 1930. I'm watching old movies and looking at the dresses, the men's clothes, the cars, the street signs, the house decor, and so forth. I want it to be detailed and authentic. I'll end up screwing up and adding something from the '40s probably, but hey, we make boo-boos from time to time - - if we didn't we'd be robots and there's no fun in that.
Photo Credit: Me (but I'll change this cover since I need to reword the blurb on the back a bit)
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