Monday, July 20, 2009

It's a Mistake

The other day I did something I don’t usually do. I reread one of my books. In a fit of writer’s block, I picked up ABOUT LAST NIGHT, a Harlequin American Romance released in February 2004. This book is one of those special ones. It outsold the rest of the line that month. It got 4.5 stars from RT. The funny thing, my editor didn’t like my hero. She kept saying, “I would never stay with a man like that.” But women do, and the book jumped off the shelves because she had the vision to let me keep Shane Jacobsen as he was. In fact, I had to stet the first line that copyeditor changed, and made them change it back.

Normally I don’t reread what I write, at least not right away, because I’ve already read the story about five or six times before I even sent it in to my publisher. Then I’ve read it again and again as the book went through revisions, copy edits and line edits. Yet, with all these things, mistakes can be made. I was reminded of this fact this week when a reader found an error in a Silhouette author’s book. A friend posted on a list serve that the reader wanted to know if she should let the editor know. The question then became, should she?

As an author, we want to hear from the reader first if you are so bothered by something. First, it’s our name on the cover. Second, editors are busy. Once the book is published, the fact that the hero got out of his truck on one page and into his car on the other isn’t something an editor has time to deal with. The book won’t be reprinted. An editor isn’t going to go search and try to figure out who made the mistake either. Yet as the author, I will. Why? Because my name is on the cover and I’m a perfectionist. I’ve put my heart and soul into the story. While I can’t necessarily change it, I want to know.

In my Harlequin NASCAR, HART’S VICTORY, on page 243, the spotter says “Pit car on pit road next pass.” Eke! It’s a pace car, and of course as a NASCAR fan (go #14) I know that.

But you know what? It’s my mistake. I wrote it that way in the original draft, and because I type really fast and a P is a P, pit and pace got jumbled in my mind, as they did my poor spotter. But I didn’t catch the mistake on edits. Neither did the NASCAR editor or the copy editor. Or my editor. Or anyone else for that matter. Still, I’m the one frustrated. It bothers me.

In EMERGENCY ENGAGEMENT, another Harlequin American, my corrections never got inputted. Production’s fault this time as they sent the book through without them—one of those glitches that happen. They thought they had the green light to start production on a Friday; my editor and I thought we had that same Friday to make final changes. My editor and I both winced—we discovered what happened after the book came out. And there it is—on one page the heroine had a glass of milk, and on the next it was Gatorade. Yet it didn’t detract from the story, which won Cataromance.com’s best Harlequin American Romance award for that year.

Unfortunately, mistakes things happen. I just read a Dorchester release and noticed a period was missing in one of the sentences. It didn’t ruin the book for me. I’ve found small typos where bat is pat and so forth in others, or thing is think and vice versa. Usually these happen because your brain fills in the blank or auto corrects. Lik U can rede dis. Yes, there are those books out there that are so riddled with mistakes that you wonder if anyone ever read the thing or at least used spell check before printing. I am not excusing those.

I promise you I comb through with a fine-tooth comb, as does my editor. We work very hard to bring you the best book possible. My latest release, BACHELOR CEO, is on the shelves now and I’m praying it is error free. But I won’t read it for at least another few years to find out. But you can, and if you do find something, feel free to let me know.

Michele Dunaway
Bachelor CEO--out now
Baby in the Boardroom--Feb. 2010

5 comments:

Marcie said...

I read a Harlequin where it was a mother/daughter scene. The author typed the daughter's name when she was referring to the mother. I caught it twice. First pass I said 'huh?', re-read using correct name. Didn't ruin the story though. But if there are a lot of misspellings - very annoying and does ruin the book for me.

Anonymous said...

Well, I definitely haven't met a mistake that just utterly annoyed me and make me put the book down. Yeah, I figure that there are probably enough people reading a book so maybe someone would catch a mistake that someone else wouldn't -- but really, at the end of the day, what's a missing period or a tiny spelling boo-boo. People are human. However, the mistakes that would really make a huge difference is factual -- if it's historical, for example, you better know your history (or have a really good reason to chance something); for contemporary, you better have an idea on the location you're using or something like that. Those are totally different. :)

Lois

Pamela Stone said...

I also am a perfectionist, but in all fairness, we're human. Mistakes happen. When proofing my drafts, it can be spooky how many I find. Sometimes I also spot them in books I'm reading, but you know what. If it's a good book, I hardly notice. I wouldn't stress over things that are out of my control.

Winter said...

I've read quite a few books that had typos, or missed periods. But I understand the whole process and gave the author a break, tho maybe I should have let them know in case the book went into other printings. I just hope my future readers are as forgiving to me.

Tho, a misspelled word can throw the meaning of a sentence sometimes. Which can make you stop and go, huh?

Anonymous said...

I'm a writer trying to find an agent. I think it's a double standard for them to say they will toss your manuscript into the slush pile if there's a mistake. Then I turn around, go to the book store and pay for a book that has errors in it. The agents seem to present themselves as being above reproach, but then why are there books on the shelves that consumers are paying for with errors in them?