The typos that slipped through the net...

I’ve just read StarMark through for the first time since I sent it to Bedazzled Ink last November. Weird, reading your own book. 

You think you know the story after so many years of working on it, but there were sections I hadn’t remembered writing – particularly where I’d rewritten with the express intention of getting the character’s voice across more strongly. Perhaps it was just that they were the 'new' bits, and hadn't had long enough to settle in my brain?  

Anyway, you know that before you send anything off to an agent or a publisher, you check and check - and check again - to make sure there are no typos or obvious mistakes. I thought I’d done a good job of StarMark before I sent it off to Bedazzled Ink: was I wrong! 

I am mortified! I’ve found some bits that don’t quite work…several instances of repeated words on the same page…formatting errors (though that could be to do with the fact that I change the look of the printed page to a book on the laptop when reading through, which sometimes beetles the formatting…) I've even changed a character's name between the start and the end of the book - rookie error! Although to be more accurate, it's how I've spelt his name rather than changing him from Fred to Frank, so perhaps that's not quite so bad. At least he's consistently Simean at the start and Simeon at the end...

I have it on good authority that Bedazzled Ink have some very special polish they use when editing manuscripts – I think I’ve just found quite a few places that will need shining up...