About Me

My photo
Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom
West Country author, winner of Piatkus Entice award for historical fiction 2012.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Rookie Mistakes. Embarrassing and Avoidable.



Okay, so this post is going to be extremely embarrassing, but it’s got to be done. As you may or may not be aware (depending on whether you’re familiar with me and my work, or have just dropped in out of the Netosphere) I recently leapt onto the self-publishing magic carpet, and published The Dust of Ancients in paperback and e-book formats.

People seem to like it. Which is a HUGE relief. 4 and 5* reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and steadily climbing the Authonomy chart. Hooray!


BUT - Here’s the embarrassing bit, and the bit I hope you’ll forgive:
  • I got the proof copy.
  • I carefully read the proof copy.
  • I cried. (Not really, but I groaned quite a lot.)
  • I went in and made numerous amendments.
  • I uploaded again.
  • I launched the book.
  • I received wonderful feedback (thank you!)
  • I also received wonderful feedback (thank you!) with the rider that there were numerous typographical errors (thank you.) Nothing major, just little things; missing full stops, and backward-facing speech marks, that nevertheless pulled the reader out of the story.
  • I cried some more. (Not really, but I was puzzled.)
  • I checked the uploaded file.
  • I cried for real 

Yes, of course I had, in fact, re-uploaded the uncorrected proof, for which I cannot express enough mortification, or sincere apology. I have now uploaded the correct copy.

Unfortunately I’m unable to offer any kind of refund, but to try and make up in some way for this stupid, avoidable, rookie mistake, I will be offering the sequel, The Lightning and the Blade, at a discounted price when it’s released this summer, to anyone who e-mails me to say they bought, or were given, a copy of The Dust of Ancients between September 2013 and January 2014.

Please send your e-mail to info@lynhermill.co.uk with your receipt (if you have one) or the name/contact details of the gift-giver if not, and let me know whether it was the e-book or paperback version.


I will now go and bang my head against a wall for ten minutes.

Thank you for reading.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to admit that I did spot a few typos while I was reading but they did not spoil my enjoyment of what is a fantastic read - and I continued to persuade everybody to buy the book. Tbh, because I know all too well how meticulously you did edit and proof read I blamed the errors on Amazon (via my Kindle. I won't be asking for a discount on your next book - but please hurry up and get it out there. You have an incredible talent and a few mis-placed apostrophes can't take that away from you

Shelley said...

Terri, this grabbed me instantly and left me desperately needing to know what happened. I felt the fear and turmoil of the character so quickly. To accomplish all this in 500 words, I am once again immensely impressed!