Friday, July 6, 2012

Perfectionism

I am a perfectionist, and it's very scary for me to accept that I have a book coming out next year, and that book will NOT be perfect.  Because nothing is perfect.  While I know this, I'm still irrationally convinced a typo or wrong word choice will appear and ruin the book for any potential reader.  I remind myself that nearly every book I've read in the past year has had at least one typo, or if not a typo, at least something I would have done differently or a word choice or sentence structure that makes me stumble while reading--and yet I still enjoy those books.

Why am I writing this post now?  Well, I've been bugging my publisher with tons of tiny changes to my galleys, and I'm pretty much at the point where I can't make any more changes.  But of course I continue to look at my galley (basically a copy of my book formatted for printing), and tonight I noticed the word "a" where it maybe doesn't need to be, and a repeated word that I could have replaced with a synonym.  Yes, I am really that obsessive-compulsive!  And the worst thing is, I'm sure there are many similar issues I can't see because I've read the book so many times.  But what I need to remind myself is...

No book is perfect, and that's okay.

So what about you?  Do a few typos in a book bother you?  What about sentence structure and word choice issues?

And to leave this post on a more positive note, there's one thing about my book that's undoubtedly perfect...the cover.  Just look at that:




8 comments:

  1. I am definitely a perfectionist. Once I've proofed the final review copy, I'm done. I've never done more than glance through the finished versions of my books. I'd hate to find a typo now.

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    1. I know...it's so awful to find something you can't change!

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  2. I know exactly what you mean. We missed something in my last book. I'm so used to it now that I've actually forgotten what it was. Haha, guess that's a good sign. What I have learned is readers are people just like you and me. They'll notice or they won't. If they love the story, they won't care. Think of it this way, the next one is going to be that much closer to perfection, eh?

    Thanks for joining my blog. It's amazing how happy it makes me to see those numbers keep rising. LOL. It's all about feelings, SC, and expectations.

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  3. ps. Love the cover. Why not put a brief synopsis below the cover? It couldn't hurt.

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    1. Thanks! I might try to add a synopsis but I'm a moron with blogger...if you click the link to goodreads there's a synopsis there!

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  4. I know what you mean and did the same thing prior to the release of my novel. Joylene is right, readers aren't going to dislike a novel for one or two words. Love the cover :)

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  5. I feel the obsessive behavior and read my stuff over and over, each time finding one mistake or changing one word. Why can't I do it all in one read through? But that's just how it goes. I find comfort in the fact that I care so much about my work because I feel lackadaisical in so many other things. Your cover looks awesome! Thanks for following. :)

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