A Thousand-Million-Billion Revisions Is Never Enough For the Last Typo

The draft has been edited, proofed, run through a myriad of software and human eyes, beta readers, advance reader copies, professional proofer, and my own fiftieth look at it—OMG I am so sick of looking at this manuscript—eyes, more times than there are stars in the heavens, and it should be good to go, right?

WRONG!

There are still a billion errors, words that make no sense, that creep out the moment you feel good about the editing and proofing, revisions, and eyeballs that have seen your work.

AND THAT’S THE TRUTH ABOUT WRITING…

Even after the book has been published, glowing reviews obtained, signings and publicity, there will come a day when, with pride, you pick up your book again, a month after you last looked at it, flipping pages to admire your handiwork, and, landing on a RANDOM page, the FIRST thing your eyes notice is… A STUPID TYPO!

WHAT! How is this possible? This thing has had more attention than King Tut’s mummy! And yet there it is. You now look at another RANDOM page, and there is yet another error.

Such is the truth about writing. It will NEVER end. there will always be another mistake, whether an errant comma, a missing word, or an abruptly ending sentence. And that is a fact of life. At some point you have to decide that enough is enough.

Nonetheless, your GOAL is to reduce, as best possible, these annoying distractions. And chances are that only YOU will find them—small solace, I know.

A friend of mine holds a contest, once his book is out. The person who finds the most mistakes wins a free, autographed, print copy.

Sounds like a deal to me.