Publishing is hard. Even when you’ve got a great team of people helping you out every step of the way. Nobody is perfect. Mistake happen. Sometimes books are released in less-than-perfect condition.
The same goes for any form of entertainment. Movies have all sorts of mistakes in them. I’m not talking about plot holes or story inconsistencies. I mean stuff going wrong at some point during one of the various stages of production and winding up on the screen for generations of audiences to see.
Art is never flawless.
You see it with video games also. That is a behemoth of an industry, pulling in more money than my tiny brain can even fathom, and they still contain bugs and glitches. While not a big gamer myself, I’ve come across many a pissed-off gaming enthusiast complaining about massive titles arriving in stores before they’re finished just to hit a specific release window.
Does that make it a bad game? Not at all. It just means that a little patience is required while playing through for the first time. The same can be said for books, especially in the age of the ebook.
Despite my best efforts, my debut novel Nostalgiamares: Phantom Delivery contains some typos, formatting mistakes, and a few instances of weird phrasing. As utterly embarrassing as this truth is, I try to be Zen about it. People tell me they like the book. They say they noticed some issues, but assure me it did not hinder their enjoyment. That’s good to hear.
Still, that doesn’t stop me from cringing when I consider the fact that a few writers I admire have copies of the book and are forced to forgive a newbie’s oversight. Then, I remind myself that they were new to this at some point too. Chances are they have a few horror stories of their own to share about slightly imperfect books being sold to readers.
Another helpful tactic is to remember all the times I’ve encountered errors in books released by publishers with far more resources than my own. I won’t point any out here but they do exist. They know who they are.
So, I tell myself it isn’t a big deal. It eases my anxiety. Until I think of someone buying my book after meeting me at an event only to go home, hoping to lose themselves in a new story and be slapped in the face with a fractured sentence. What if they never trust me again?
All I can do about that is stay in constant contact with my publisher, making them aware of what I find, and seeing that it gets corrected. After all, someone who comes across the book a month from now will have no idea there were ever any errors. That is until they find one I missed.
All of that is to say that the book may be offline for a few days soon. We’re working at making the reading experience as simple and enjoyable as possible. So, if you haven’t purchased it yet, it’s okay if you hold off for a bit. I promise it will be worth the wait.
Mark Guyer Writes When He Can 
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