This post is really just for my record of self-publishing posterity. (Something which I have decided to make public. Warts an’ all.) You have been warned.
I’ve had Rope Enough available at Amazon and Smashwords for a month now and Making A Killing available at both since before Christmas. In that time I’ve had some helpful feedback. What particularly interested (concerned) me were the number of mentions of typographical errors, missing/repeated words and incorrect use of names. Every time I read something to that effect it was like driving a six-inch nail into my bare foot.
So, because it’s important to me to make the books as perfect as I can (as it should be for anyone who wants to be taken seriously) I have naturally amended them to take into account the necessary corrections that have been high-lighted. I also read them both again (again! unbelievable but true) and found a few other things that I had obviously missed on my previous proof-reads. These were mostly punctuation marks, but there was also another wrong name.
I have now resubmitted the updated versions of both titles to Amazon and Smashwords.
I do not intend to read either of these books again for at least a year.
I am half-way through my final, final proof-read of Joint Enterprise the third (and final?) Romney and Marsh File. It is my hope and intention that by the time the other two have been accepted into circulation by Amazon and Smashwords Premium Catalogue, I will have Joint Enterprise ready for submission.
Regrets? I have a few. But only one I care to mention. I regret that the people who have downloaded the two books already will probably end up harbouring some negativity for my output because of the errors. Time cannot be reversed, so I can only learn from it. I still don’t think that I particularly rushed getting either book out there. I was as certain as I could be that they were as good and error free as I could make them – at the time. This, I suppose is why there are professional editors and professional proof-readers. It’s just one of the advantages that industry supported published authors have over penny-less self-published authors. I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I’m really not. I’m cross about it. I might be giving them away but I can’t get away from the idea that, freebies or not, the people who download them are customers. Now, they might be customers who don’t come back. Bugger!
Oliver Tidy 
When the stories are as interesting as Romney and Marsh were, then people will come back!
🙂 Thank you, Francis. That’s a nice thing for you to say and a good thing for me to read.
Hi, I am half way through the third (and final?) Romney and Marsh file. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them all and hope that this won’t be the final one. Like you I am living in Turkey, (Fethiye, to be precise) and it is great reading about somewhere that I know, having lived in Canterbury (Sturry, to be precise) for many years and spent many wasteful(?) hours sitting on the cliffs at Dover watching the ferries come and go.
However, I have one question: Why did you change the name of the ferry that capsized from Herald of Free Enterprise to Herald of Joint Enterprise?
Hi Emmy,
Thanks for getting touch. And thanks for your purchases.
Very pleased to see that you are enjoying the books.
Ah, Turkey. I’ve not been to Fethiye, yet. But I understand that it is quite beautiful. Not like Istanbul, all cars and concrete.
I love those Dover cliffs. I’m back in the UK for a while and I hope to take a walk on them next week.
As to the ferry name change, I’m not going to say. It should become more obvious by the end of the book, but if not, i have included an author’s note about it all at the end. If when reading that you still have questions, please get in touch again and I’ll be happy to answer them.
In fact get in touch anyway and let me know what you think. I like communicating with readers and there is always something for me to learn.
Best wishes.