You’re reading the latest novel from a new author, who has either been published by a small indie press or gone down the self-publishing route. You’re enjoying the tale when, shock, horror! You find an error.
Before immediately rushing onto Goodreads or Amazon to leave a scathing review, let’s take a look at why you might find errors in indie authors’ works and what you should do about it.
Why are there occasional errors in books?
The author has a smaller team behind them
They haven’t been published by the Big Five* and they don’t have as many eyes on their books. Does this mean they haven’t spent hours combing through it? No, it does not. It means that, despite their best efforts and the best efforts of their team, a few mistakes slipped through the net.
*However, even books that did have a larger team and even books published by the Big Five have errors in them. Unfortunately, it happens.
What should you do about it?
Speak to the author
Notice I say ‘Speak to the author’, not ‘Immediately write a vitriolic email berating the author’. My recommendation would be to approach the author and ask if they would like to know about some errors you may have found. This is particularly useful if you’ve got your hands on an ARC as it may not be too late to fix those mistakes. However, even if the book is published, it might still be reaching out to the author. They may be able to release a second edition… or even explain away some inconsistencies in the book in the series.
Become an ARC or beta reader
If you have an eye for detail, why not put your skills to use? Indie authors will appreciate you signing up for advanced reading copies and letting them know your thoughts on their work. You could even take it a step further and become a developmental editor.
What errors don’t mean
They definitely don’t mean the author hasn’t spent months on this book, giving their very best to it. And they definitely don’t mean the book necessarily warrants a bad review. As an indie author, I can guarantee you every book I write was given huge amounts of care and attention. I created the very best book I could at the time. Are any of them perfect? No. There are definitely typos I wish I’d caught and little details I missed that should have been changed. But did I give it my level best? Absolutely.
If you really feel occasional errors distract from the storyline, perhaps sticking to books published by the Big Five is the way to go for you.
That being said, I would like to one day put together a list of all the errors my editor and my team caught, especially if they’re funny, and have them as a sort of bloopers roll at the end of a book one day. Or perhaps they could make a blog post in their own right!
What are your thoughts on errors in books? Does it put you off reading?
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