Attention All Self Published Authors! The #1 Mistake You Are Making When Publishing Your Books On Amazon Are Simple Grammar Errors. (GAHHH!)
If you are considering writing a book and publishing it on Amazon.com then I highly recommend that you hire an editor because there is nothing more embarrassing then seeing reviews for your book that love your topic or your story but couldn’t get through it because of the amount of errors:
While I am a writer by trade (and passion:), I am also an avid reader. I buy a LOT of fiction from Amazon and read it on my iPad with my Kindle App. I am amazed by how many errors I find in these books. In fact, I’ve run across a few where I had to reread passages in order to try and make sense of them. Basically trying to figure out what the author intended to say.
While it doesn’t discourage me from reading self published authors (there are plenty of fantastic books written by self published authors), it does discourage me from purchasing from that particular author again.
As an author, avoiding the reviews that you will receive (like those I’ve shown above and they aren’t the worst of it!), are worth the investment of hiring an editor.
If you are on a super tight budget and can’t pay anyone, then another thing you could try is to form an alliance with another author and agree to proofread each other’s work. You can find other authors in your area quite easily through social media. Just put it out there and people will be very willing to connect you with others.
Hi Lisa
Very good points you make. I have taken your course and I would like to add a little tip.
You may remember I, like you am a Mac user and the speech app on the Mac is fabulous for proofreading. You write your article then run it through the speech output–listening to what you have written. I find I catch many many mistakes with my ears that I missed with my eyes using this method. I have also found if the writing sounds OK when being heard, it also tends to read well. Can you do this on a PC? I’m not sure, but I would suppose so. Some of you PC user–followers might be able to let us know about that.
Warm Regards,
Terry Johnston
Hi Terry,
That is a great tip! PC users can try Natural Readers (http://www.naturalreaders.com/) which is free I believe to use. Thanks for your input today:)
Best,
Lisa