Self-Review
August 5, 2025 by Tracy Reed in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed, Writing tagged as corrections, editing, errors, review
Recently, I was given the opportunity, to assist a couple of writers with proofreading. For the record, when I complete a project before sending it to my editor, I send my book to a proofreader. I ask my proofreader to check story flow, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The projects I worked on, involved those basic items.
Once I completed the first proofreading project, I needed a palette cleanser and read one of my books. Let me clarify, this project wasn’t the only reason I re-read my books. I wanted to amp up my special edition omnibus. So, I dove in ready to be entertained, only to discover the book was crawling with errors. I was shocked. The very things I tell people to look out for in their books, is what I was guilty of in this book. I don’t know how I or my editor missed the glitches. I’m not sure if errors happened during the formatting process, or when.
What’s the lesson? Don’t assume the file is clean just because you used it make a different version of the book. I assumed, because all I was doing was cutting and pasting, the files were clean…error proof. The joke was on me, they weren’t. I hear you asking, how many errors…is it even worth your time to update the book? I maintain, readers will forgive approximately five errors (I know there’s no set amount of acceptable errors). Anything over that and your book and writing gets a bad reputation. In this case, there were enough noticeable errors to make me look like a novice writer.
So, while kicking myself for the over abundance of errors, I noticed how different my writing had become. In case, I hadn’t mentioned, the books I’m talking about are the first book I published and the other two in the series. When I started writing, I was writing a different genre…steamy Christian fiction. Now, my preference is Contemporary Romance with faith elements and heat. This series is a prime example of how my writing has changed. Although the books center around one couple, the tone in all three are different.
The other thing about these books is, they’re told in third person. Again, this is because I was trying to fit into a certain romance genre. I personally like multi-voice. That’s not to say I won’t write in third person. I will when I feel that’s what the story calls for. I have a duet, which works well in third person, but the books in the omnibus really would read better in multi-voice. I’m seriously considering re-telling these stories in multi-voice.
There’s just one major problem. If I rewrite them, what do I do with the original books? My solution is to repackage them with new covers, titles and update the original stories. And possibly make the repackaged books exclusives to my bookstore.
Have you thought about or repackaged a series? If so, what was the reader response? How often to you re-read your books?
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