Cripes. A typo. Happens to everyone, right? But I just found one in the final edited version of “Connect the Dots” that I already signed off on weeks ago, and is due to release in eight days.
You know how I found it? It’s really dumb. I was calling up a random six sentences for Six Sentence Sunday. I used an internet based randomizer, and dernit if that thing didn’t land right on the typo!
I stared at it three times. No! That’s not possible! Am I looking at the wrong file? No? Oh, Crud!
I placed a panicked call to my publisher, who got back to me today with some valium a smile on her face and said they were able to catch it in time.
Whew!
Darlene is my new favorite person in the whole wide world!
Have you ever had a close call like that?
Related articles
- Typos and Grammar Woes: The Perils of Writing Things Down (mgirouxstories.wordpress.com)
- Why Are Ebooks Riddled With Typos? (forbes.com)
- Typo’s are my middle name (lauriemcdaniel.wordpress.com)
- Why is an ebook ever riddled with typos? (theverge.com)
- Don’t spoil a good story with bad editing (editorspen.wordpress.com)
Jennifer M Eaton 
you must have let out the biggest PHEW in the world.
Double PHEW
That would make me totally nuts! Have you tried using Text-to-Speech? The computer reads back to and would mispronounce the typo. I just spent 20 hours on a friend’s book and I found countless little errors. Word 2010 comes preloaded with TTS.
That’s a really good idea. The problem is, we don’t really get twenty hours to edit these things. Schedules are made at the time of signing, and deadlines must be made. It’s really easy to miss something, and like Carrie’s below, mine was in a moment where the pacing and stress level picks up, so you read faster… both the editor and I just missed it.
Yeah, the 20 hours were squeezed into 3 days. My friend was really nervous–her first “big house” publishing effort–so I pushed it through. For my own stuff, I usually do the TTS thing a couple of time before the MS goes out the door.
I feel your pain. Only my typo was not caught in time, and now it’s staring at me in my paperback for all eternity. It makes me feel a little better knowing it slipped past editors, too (amazing how the eyes can trick you), but it still bugs me and probably always will. Guess it’s good for my Type A personality to have to accept things like this happen. Good therapy. 🙂
I’m glad for you that you can overlook it
I know it would drive me insane!
Sadly, I don’t have much of a choice. And it did nearly drive me insane, but now I’m stuck with it, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my many years on this earth, it’s that there’s no point sweating what we can no longer control. 🙂
Totally true! It’s not the typo that would aggravate me. But the fact that I missed it. You know?
Oh, believe me, I do. Whenever I look at that page (because like a sore tooth, I just can’t seem to quit tonguing it), I think, “How could I have missed that with the million times I went through the stinkin’ manuscript?” I never did the editing trick of reading the book backwards line by line, so that you’re not in the story when you’re editing. Next time I will!
That’s a good idea but they do give us deadlines to adhere to. How the heck much time would that take?
It would take a long time. Which is probably why I avoided it. 😉 But next time, I’ll do that before I even submit it–as painful though the process may be.
Also the fact that an editor got paid to check for typos.
Yep. I can only assume he was so caught up in my glorious tale, that his eyes glazed right over it, too. 😉
Ha! That’s what I was thinking. It was at a tense point where you would start reading faster 🙂
It actually was. Right smack dab in the height of the climax. That’s my excuse, and I sticking to it!
Ha! Then you are probably right. It was just THAT good!
🙂
OMG, I would have freaked – I’m such a perfectionist, lol. So glad you caught it in time. I’m one of those people who can generally see the mistakes in everything I read – they just jump off the page at me, so annoying! I was reading a book the other day that a friend gave me, just happened to glance at the back cover, and a typo glared me right in the face – on the back cover! ACK!
Oh… The back cover? Not good
I find them regularly. And in any document of any length, we never get rid of them all. 😉 Glad you were able to catch this one, though!
I know there are typos out there. But my compulsive strive for perfection can’t stand even the thought of a mistake
So my comment has nothing to do with today’s blog. I just downloaded Make Believe onto my kindle and wanted to let you know. It’s out there, It’s real, and you must feel great. Enjoy your launch.
Yahooooooo! Thanks so much! I hope you love it!
Eek, thank goodness for internet based randomizers I always say! (Well, that’s the first time I’ve said it, but I shall certainly say it more from now on!)
Ha! I may run a few here and there just to make sure there are no mistakes from now on!
The first of many throughout your career! … remember to breathe … good catch.
You’re not kidding! Lucky catch is more like it.
Hourly…
Good thing you found it!
Totally!