Guest post by Irene Watson

I had a concerning email conversation recently I want to share with you. It's about editing issues in the final print of the book. The author asked for a review and our reviewer pointed out some major editing issues and gave examples. The author was upset and told me a professional editor had been hired, and as well, the author pointed out she was also an editor in her work situation. In an email I said to the author:

you may consider pointing out the issues [to the editor] and requesting a re-edit or a refund.

The author came back with:

I disagree. I am extremely happy with my editor and I intend to use her future projects. I certainly would never hire you or your reviewer.

If the you and the reviewer are expecting downright perfection on every page, then you will be unhappy. That was not my goal. If I waited for perfection at every point, the book would never get done, and I would be waiting and waiting. That is why I self published because I was tired of waiting and waiting.

I think you are out of touch with the average person. I didn't write the book to pass the standards of an English Professor. I wrote the book for the person who... [taken out to keep the author confidential.]

I don't consider your review as a rejection so don't flatter yourself as being on the other end.

I am saddened that a fellow author has this attitude. Unfortunately we were the brunt of an author that sets a precedence for many self-published books. We frequently review self-published books that are not properly edited and it's obvious the author only ran the manuscript through a spell checker. That's not good enough. Not good enough at all! A spell catcher doesn't catch incorrect verb and pronoun usage, nor does it catch incorrect word usage. For example, we've seen "dairy" used instead of "diary." Correct spelling but a totally different meaning! It sure changes the context of the plot when the character writes in her dairy.

I have to qualify and say that many authors are very grateful we point out editing issues and immediately make corrections for the next printing. However, some we never hear from; others get a little nasty but not as nasty as this last one. The reason I'm telling you all this is, if you are an author, please (and I beg you) have your work edited by a professional.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.