st louis « Robin Writes

Naturally, the first thing I did after finishing REDUCED was to send it to a few beta readers. I also queried half a dozen agents. And heard zip.

So, after making a few tweaks as per my readers’ suggestions, I simply published the book.

I really had no plan. I wrote it, yay, I wrote A BOOK! And I was done. I used CreateSpace, picked a cover template (but used my own photo), and I was good to go!

And then someone said, well, great, but what happened next?

Next? How should *I* know??

So I sat down to write REUSED. But this time, I had a plan. Sort of.

A couple days in, I got stuck. And then more stuck (stucker?). So I gazed around my office, trying to find something to do to avoid writing this book.

And then it hit me—I’d publish OTHER people’s books! Really, how hard could it be? I’d fielded so many questions about my CS experience, so yeah, that’s it. Start a publishing house.

So I did. Rocking Horse Publishing.

I planned to release 6 books in 2013, including the one I was writing and was stuck on—I wasn’t even sure I’d get any submissions.

I got one. Then another. Then a virtual flood of manuscripts.

RHP published 12 books that year; we did 17 this year, and have 14 scheduled for 2015, so far.

REUSED? Oh, yeah—after I got done with the flurry of starting the publishing house, I sat down and wrote non-stop for four weeks. REUSED came out in December 2012.

And then someone said, well, great, but what happened next?

Crap.

So I scheduled RECYCLED to come out in March 2013. I had nothin’. Zip. Postponed the launch.

July arrived, suddenly and without warning somehow, and I had promised my fans, er, fan, or well, something like that, that the book would ABSOLUTELY be available in July.

Finally, I sat down to write. Three weeks later, RECYCLED saw the light of day.

Whew. A trilogy. I DID IT!

And then someone said, well, great, but what happened next?

Darn. Repeat. Oh, yeah—REPEAT! That’s it!

Coming in March 2015 . . .

A typo is when you hit the wrong key—hence the word “typo,” short for “typographical error.” It could even be because you—one time—typed the wrong word in a manuscript, such as “to” for “too.” It happens.

When it comes to social media, though, I expect the writer to make that correction as soon as possible. It’s a little different than going through an entire manuscript; sometimes those just don’t appear. And I mean one time, not continuously.

See, if you consistently use the wrong word, to me that means you don’t know the CORRECT word. As a writer, you should. It’s part of your trade, your art, whatever you want to call it. Just like a carpenter would be expected to know how to use a hammer and saw—you, the writer, should know how to use words.

Don’t say, “Excuse the typos.” Have some pride. FIX them.

Some authors swear they don’t “see” errors when they read; they’re caught up in the story. I have to say, I’ve NEVER been so caught up that I miss repeat mistakes. And it detracts from my experience as the reader—any distraction from the story will, in my opinion, and should, lower the rating given to a book.

Maybe it’s word usage; maybe it’s misspellings. Maybe a hyphen instead of an em dash. Maybe a word repeated not only throughout the book, but used in sentences that are in close proximity. That’s what editors are for—to catch all this stuff.

But the author must take responsibility too, first and foremost. After all, in a professionally published book, the editor isn’t listed by name. It’s the author’s book.