Owning Up

Above: A close-up of a brown-eyed Susan flower. A few flowers of the same variety are in the background.

July 22, 2024

Updates

In case you missed it, I recently announced that I finished the first draft of Convergence of Connection, book three of The Way of the Wielder series!

With that book complete, I’m now editing Mysteries of the Material (book two). I’ve edited seven chapters so far, and plan to finish my round of digital edits over the next couple of weeks.

But before I began editing book two, I reread The Way of the Wielder. And gods above, am I glad I did.

Proofreading Woes

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read The Way of the Wielder. If I had to wager a guess, I’d say 25 times, at least. Between that and the two editors I had read it, that’s a lot of eyes on the manuscript. So when I went to reread the book (so that I could refresh myself on intricacies as I edit its sequels), I didn’t expect to find too many errors.

Except, I did. 39 of them, to be precise.

The Breakdown

To get a better idea of what kind of errors we’re talking about, I broke them down into three levels of severity: low, medium, and high.

• Low: 21 errors. These are things like punctuation, proper capitalization, minor rephrasing, etc. In other words, errors that readers probably didn’t notice.
• Medium: 9 errors. These were mostly missing words; the most common culprits being “he” and “a”. Words that, as one reads, their eyes tend to gloss over and may not even realize it (obviously). Not huge issues, but enough for me to do my best Homer Simpson impersonation. “Doh!”
• High: 9 errors. These were a combination of completely misspelled words and missing words that break up sentence flow. The kind of errors that potentially knock readers out of the story. The kind of errors that I’m embarrassed about, and make me feel unprofessional.

Owning Up

So, why am I making a blog post about errors in my published manuscript?

Well, for starters, we’re all human. Everyone makes mistakes, even authors. I’ve found errors in nearly every published book I’ve ever read. And if I didn’t find an error, it was likely still there, but I just glossed over it (like those low errors I mentioned above).

Also, by owning up to these mistakes, I’m holding myself accountable to my readers. I want you to have as flawless of an experience as possible, and by being a reader myself (I read it on my Kindle), I’m doing a better job of achieving that goal.

In the future, I’ll be doing this read through after I finish accepting edits from my editor and before I publish. Hopefully that will allow me to catch the more egregious errors, and readers can forgive the minor ones I miss.

Unintended “Special First Edition”

When I completed my read through, I updated the manuscript and re-uploaded it to Amazon. Those who have Kindles automatically got an updated version of the book once it was approved, so no harm, no foul. However, if you were one of the 40 or so people who previously ordered (or were gifted) a paperback version, congratulations—you now have a “special first edition” of The Way of the Wielder.

This is doubly true because I also changed the cover’s finish. Originally, I selected a matte finish. This gives the artwork a more mystical feel, which (admittedly) I do love. However, the colors don’t pop as much as I’d like. So, since I was already making changes, I changed it to a glossy finish.

Glossy finishes are often better for darker covers, because it makes the color contrasts crisper. Considering my cover is on the darker side, with brighter colors for the sphere, wysps, and other magical aspects, I suspect it will be a better product. I look forward to getting my copy next week and comparing the two. If I had to guess, I won’t revert back to matte for this cover, and will use glossy for the rest of the series.

But keep those special first editions on your shelf. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be worth something someday.

Reminders

The eBook version of The Way of the Wielder is now just $4.99 on Amazon (you can also read it through Kindle Unlimited, if you’re subscribed to that service).

If you have read The Way of the Wielder, don’t forget to leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or both. Remember, reviews aren’t for authors, they’re for readers. Be honest, but try not to be rude or disrespectful—the world is hard enough. If you have feedback for me specifically, you can email me at inquire@sarahjhoodlet.com.

I published a newsletter a couple of weeks ago, which included a bonus chapter. If you’re interested in reading that, you can sign up for my newsletter for free and do so. (I only send out newsletters once a quarter, and you can unsubscribe if you ever get tired of hearing from me.)

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Thanks for reading! Until next time, be well, and stay creative.

~Sarah