Back when magazines were delivered by mail or purchased on the newsstands—obviously pre-internet–one magazine, Calling All Girls which later merged with Young Miss, had a column called, “Was My Face Red!” The column consisted of letters by readers who revealed embarrassing moments. Some were funny, some sad, but they all had one thing in common: they showed how human we all are, reinforcing that we all make mistakes.
Well, I’m here to make a confession—a big one.
Recently, I discovered that my first indie-published book, Grendel’s Mother, was a bit of a mess.
A couple years after it was published, I saw a review by a German reader who commented on two characters’ names that were misspelled in the book. Sometimes Angus was Agnus. Sometimes Erik was Eric or Erick.
Fortunately, I was able to make the repairs to the names and provide a cleaner copy to Amazon and Ingram right after that reveal.
Or, so I thought.
Turns out there were more issues than just two names being misspelled. Now, I understand why there was silence from certain individuals, people who normally always have an opinion about a book.
During a recent experience of listening to Grendel’s Mother, preparing it to be listed as an audiobook on Amazon, I was stunned to hear the errors:
- Missing words
- Correctly spelled words but not the right word, such as again when it should have been against.
- Repetition of words… in the same sentence.
- Unclear meaning
- and more.
Is my face ever red!
I didn’t know. No one said a word. Did they just not want to tell me, didn’t know how to tell me, or did they not see the errors themselves?
I’ll never know the answers, but I can only imagine how some might have been embarrassed for me. I wish I could have known then what I know now, but that’s a fruitless wish. The mistakes I made back then:
- I had no beta readers, no proofreaders. Just me.
- I didn’t reread the book multiple times. Multiple as in a dozen or more, until I stopped finding errors.
- I suspect auto-correct may have been turned on.
- I didn’t read it aloud.
- I was in a hurry. The worst possible reason ever.
When I discovered all of these errors recently, I beat myself up for a few minutes, and then, I started to work the problem. I ran the story through the process I use today.
The one thing I don’t do anymore is be in a hurry. I take my time.
I figured it’d take me a week to fix Grendel’s Mother. It took me three weeks.
I’m happy to report that the audio version is now live!
To you readers who left glowing reviews, THANK YOU! To you readers who were brave enough to reveal the errors or flaws, THANK YOU! You made me want to be a better proofreader.
I appreciate you all!
How about you? Do you have any publishing or writing-related Was My Face Red stories you’d like to share?
Behind the Scenes with Diana Stout, MFA, PhD 
Great post! My biggest red face experience was when my first regency romance came out. Sales were pretty good, but one reviewer pointed out that certain events would not have happened as I described them in that time period. I learned to include beta readers who were well-versed in that era.
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I suspect that’s an early lesson for a lot of writers. Thanks for sharing, Patty!
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It’s great that you dug in and fixed the mistakes with the book. It’s great that it’s now getting good reviews.
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