I know there is an increasing upward trend in sales with audiobooks lately; people listening to a book while multitasking, perhaps gardening with earbuds in, driving, doing the dishes, etc. I get it; who didn’t love having someone read to them as a kid? And still does as an adult? But I like to read the words on the page. Slowly. Digesting every word, usually while lying on a sofa or in bed before nighty-night. That is why, perhaps, I find mistakes in published books, both traditionally published ones (even ones published by the big boys with all their highly-paid editors), and of course in self-published books.

The mistakes I’m referring to are usually minor such as punctuation, a missing s at the end of a plural word, or something or other. I’ve caught misspellings too. Wait, isn’t that clause missing a comma? These types of mistakes. I haven’t listened to an audiobook, so I don’t know what the voice over artist did at these junctures, probably not notice it and skip over it or …?

I recently read a self-published book written by someone I know and found many mistakes. I gave this person an average review (for story etc.) but didn’t say anything about the couple dozen mistakes I found. What should I do? Well, I’ve written this in the hope that that person and others who are thinking of self-publishing will think about this. And what is this? You need to hire a professional copy editor before you self-publish. You WILL miss the mistakes you have made; I have, even after proofreading the blasted manuscript ten times (or more). You can find professional reputable editors on Reedsy, at FoxPrint Editorial with our friend Tiffany Yates Martin and other reputable places. It will cost you a few hundred dollars, BUT it IS worth it because you want to have a well-polished final product and look professional. I do this even before I submit my manuscripts to my publisher who has an in-house copy editor who then edits it again because we all make and miss mistakes.