Indie Publishing -- Getting the Typos Out of Published Books

I ran across an article from John Doppler recently called No, Amazon Will Not Penalize Your Book for a Typo and it made me wonder how my books will weather the latest change from Amazon. 

Seems Amazon is planning to post warnings for books that have certain types of errors. Read Doppler's list for details.

I think I'm okay. I try to make corrections when I learn of them. Other writers I've talked to about this think it will be good for us. There is a lot of junk out there that makes indie publishers look bad.

My latest novel, Murder in Sun City, was launched with FIVE errors that I learned about after the launch. 

My wife found some, a writer friend found several, and a reader reported one. Based on Doppler's article, these errors probably would have been disregarded by Amazon. But they were embarrassing to me. Here are some examples:

• where for were
• by for my
• placed for place
• it for them
• an extraneous the

Why is it so difficult to proof my own work?

I'm not blaming my editor. I want her to concentrate on the big things which she does quite well. I should have caught these myself, and I suspect they all happened after she turned the book over to me. 

I read the book from start to finish twice before publishing it. My critique partners say I am good at proofreading and a publisher I worked for seems pleased with my work. 

The good news is that it is easier to update published books

In the past, it took forever for me to make changes to Kindle editions of my books. I'd have to find the chapter, open the chapter file in an XML editor, and make the change without messing up the HTML code.

Now, I have Scrivener. All you have to do is make the changes in the text and compile for mobi. Much faster and no chance of accidentally messing up something else.

Murder in Sun City -- Are all the errors out?

I correct the paperback and the Kindle edition. If you already have a copy, Amazon will replace your Kindle version for free. If you want a correct paperback, contact me.

However, if you find errors in the corrected version, let me know.

Now, if you see any typos in this article about getting the typos out, please let me know.