Everyone bangs on about the importance of proofreading. But why does it matter?
The most important part of an author’s job is to tell a brilliant, gripping, powerful story. No one cares about a few misplaced commas and typos! True readers can see past those minor niggles and appreciate the author’s storytelling genius… right?
Wrong.
The last couple of Kindle titles I’ve bought have contained mistakes – minor annoyances such as missing punctuation and the odd misspelled word. But every error is a distraction from the story.
An author’s job is not simply to tell a story, but to do that story justice.
How can you claim to have given your story every chance in life if you haven’t bothered to proofread it?
Everyone makes mistakes – even the big publishing houses. But indie authors have more at stake. The naysayers who think indie means unprofessional are still out there; don’t fan their flames.
So: Proofread your work. Read the story backwards paragraph by paragrah to sense check every line. (That’s my technique.)
Then get your friends/beta readers to read your work. If you can afford it, get a professional editor involved.
Whatever you do, don’t rely on MS Word’s farcical grammar/spell checker.
Once you accept that Microsoft did not invent grammar, it’s amazing how many mistakes you can find.
A.M. Harte 
So totaly off topic. Your fans (well this one anyway) want to know how things are coming along with the greatly anticipated Darksight.
The teaser has my eyes begging for words!
Also, any thoughts on returning to Aboveground?
Lastly, continue to be your awesome self.
Jaid~ rule number 5 for winning at life: Be awesome
I’m about 1/3 of the way through with it… Need to power on through! Would you be interested in beta reading the first third or do you want to wait until it’s all done?
Also: are you okay with your name being used in it for a slightly villainous character?!
Anna,
You know you can always count me in for beta reads! As for name usage I don’t belive I have copyrights to it. So go for it!
But if you continue to use it in the aboveground series maybe I could not be a jerk in that universe?
Is all about balance right?
Jaid~rule number 2 for winning at life: Don’t be a victim.
Lol! You’re not a jerk in Above Ground – just a werepenguin :-D
Shall drop it to you via email, no rush on feedback but when you have time I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Anna ~ rule number 1 for winning at life: copy Jaid’s rules for winning at life
Okay I’ll get on it this weekend. Do you just want general feedback or proofing also?
And we don’t know about me as a werepenguin in above ground. You redacted that chapter (apropriatly). So if my name sake is gona be a jerk in Darksight maybe it could be ummm… not a jerk in Between Worlds? If used at all. ;-p
Also, and I’m being totaly seriouse here, rule number 1 for winning at life: Don’t die.
Jaid~rule number 3 for winning at life: Dont explode. The only thing worse than exploding and dieing is exploding and living.
Anything you feel up to providing feedback wise would be great. Sent it through to your hotmail, does that still exist or do you have another email?
I forgot about redacting that chapter. In my head, it still happened… But yes, I promise to keep things balanced.
And Between Worlds: I want to, but need to get Darksight out of the way!