This is a little strange, this blogging thing. I have never done it before but it's four in the morning and I can't stop thinking of what happened to me today.
Rewind to last June, after I finished writing a book and sent it into a publishing company. i only went online and googled 'Book Publishing' and clicked on the first thing that came up and sent in a request for the company to read my manuscript. Okay, I know that was not the best move, but seriously, I wasn't really expecting that they would want to publish it so imagine my joy when I found out they wanted to sign a contract! I couldn't beleive it, I was so happy!
What I didn't know is that the company I went with has an, ahem, reputation for being terrible. I was soon to learn that this was true. The company I went with is the infamous PublishAmerica. It was only after signing the contract and everything that I learned how it was so poorly viewed by others and let us not forget the Atlanta Night thing with them...
So I sign the contract and send the manuscript and blah blah blah, all that stuff gets taken care of. Well, I got an email that said they sent it to the editor and that this was the final script and they wanted me to check it out. Well, I am a busy 19 year old, dealing with college and studying and a job - life can be hectic and I assumed that if they sent it to an editor that it should be fine so I didn't do anything with it, I only sort of scanned my eyes over a couple of pages and was like, okay, this is fine. I think I was way to excited that I was being published and I just wanted the book out there are soon as possible.
Now jump back to the present, more specifically today, and I got two copies of my book. I was so totally excited! Imagine the total letdown I felt after waiting so long, telling so many people and finally having my dream come true, and when I start to read it it's totally full of spelling errors and sentences don't end in any puncutation! i could not believe it!
I called the company and tried to see if it can be fixed and they said that I will have to email hte support team all of the mistakes so they can correct them. I got out my trusty highlighter and began highlighting all of the mistakes. I swear, it looks like my book is radioactive because it's glowing neone yellow on every page! It would have probably been easier if I emailed them the parts of the book that were fine, that would cut my time in half!
Seriously, I don't know what the editors were smoking when they made the changes but I think it is a little insane how many errors there are. What I am afraid of is that someone will order the book and give it a bad review and hate it because of the errors. If they hate it I want it to be because the plot or characters or my writing style, not because of errors. I want it to suck because it was my fault in prose, not because of horific editing.
Though I am not sure who would buy it because, although I think it's a very special book, $16.95
for the book, in my humble opionon that is very overpriced! I mean, goodness, that will give me almost half a tank of gas!
Well, live and learn I guess. I only hope that the company will fix the book because I am seriously not going to promote it if I don't think it is deserving of all you who would read it. I just can;t believe that a publishing comapny would do this. We will see how this all turns out and see if I am able to be proud that I am a publish author. I will never use the comapny again. I really need to investigate a place before I sign a contract with them (haha).
All I can say is: What a bummer...
Jamie
