Whether we’re taking the Indie or Traditional path of being an author, one thing that will help an author’s career succeed long term is our attention to detail and steadfast pursuit of producing works to the best of our abilities.

As an Indie author and a voracious reader, I hate to say it, but in recent years I’ve noticed a rapid decline in the quality of work that is hitting shelves. Whether it’s an apparent lack of editing, issues with the book’s pacing, or inaccuracies concerning content, I’ve come across works that, if more time had been spent polishing these areas, they would have been much better stories.

With that being said, how can we as authors aim to not make these mistakes? Join me for the next few minutes, my friend, as we explore the top crucial editing mistakes that writers often make.

Mistake 1 | Skimping on Editing

To keep a rapid release schedule (a practice Indie authors have utilized for years and that the Traditional publishing industry has picked up), some authors choose to spend less time editing their works before publishing them. When I say “skimping on editing”, I’m not referring to finding one or two mistakes in a work. You’re guaranteed to find a few in any published work; however, if readers can easily catch more than five mistakes in a published book, especially within the first fifty or so pages, it’s a sure sign the editing process was rushed.

While this mistake is more common in the Indie author space, I’ve noticed a severe lack of editing when it comes to some traditionally published works over the past several years, when those works may have multiple editors. While this practice can still result in a good story that sells, it may miss the potential to be a great story because readers are distracted by constant typos, grammatical errors, missing or misused punctuation, and sentences that could’ve been condensed.

How Can We Prevent this Mistake?

While no author nor editor is perfect (and therefore no published book is perfect), when taking on these roles, we have the duty to provide the best book possible for our readers. This means that instead of reading through our works once or twice, handing them off to a proofreader, and declaring them ready to publish, we go through the manuscripts with a fine-tooth comb over multiple read-throughs. We train ourselves to have an eye for detail when it comes to recurring mistakes, an ability that can be learned and honed with each additional manuscript. We read through our works before and after sending them to our editors, even if they are the best in the business, because no one can catch everything.

And, I promise you, even after ten read-throughs, even after putting the work in front of several people, some things will always fall through the cracks until the book has hit shelves. It’s inevitable. Nevertheless, if we as authors put more effort into polishing our work, readers will notice its quality and will be more likely to stick around for future books.

Mistake 2 | Not Researching Topics, Historical Facts, or Locations Thoroughly

When it comes to the subject matter of a novel, nothing takes me out of a story more than reading information that I know is incorrect. For example, as a native of North Carolina, I often seek out fiction books that are set in my state; however, I’ve come across a few things written about my state that made me shake my head and ask, “no one thought to Google that before publishing it?”

For example, there is a novel (and film adaptation… so several people dropped the ball on this one) that leads the reader to believe Asheville, NC is a town North Carolinians who live on the coast would often travel to for supplies… when Asheville is several hours away from the coast. Another I’ve come across had characters stay at a ski resort in Raleigh, which is in the Piedmont region (meaning it has no mountains). In reality, the closest NC ski resort to Raleigh is around three to four hours away.

I’m not insinuating these mistakes ruined the stories the authors wrote (again, none of us are perfect!), but I, as a reader and viewer, would have enjoyed the content more if I was not questioning the accuracy of everything else that was written/shown after coming across the previous misinformation.

How Can We Prevent this Mistake?

I could understand how mistakes like these would be more prevalent in books written in past decades, but y’all, we’re living in the twenty-first century. It takes less than 30 seconds to do a Google search for “what cities are close to NC’s coast?” or “where are ski resorts in NC?” Rather than risking being called out for not caring enough to research topics, historical facts, or locations that mean a lot to some of our readers, we should always err on the side of caution and do our due diligence. This doesn’t mean that we must come to a dead halt in the middle of our writing flow and research on the spot. Instead, we can add comments to our documents, reminding ourselves to research a topic or check the accuracy of what we’ve written later. Or, if we handwrite our books, we could make a list of things to research later during the editing phase. Like with the type of mistakes we covered in the Skimping on Editing section, readers can tell when we care enough to do our research. Making sure what we’re writing is accurate will show readers that our hearts are in the stories we’re sharing with them, and that we are striving to do our best to make sure anything covered in our books represents the subject matter.

Mistake 3 | Ignoring the Three-Act Story Structure

If you’ve read my previous posts on writing, you may know that I’m a stickler for following the three-act story structure. What you may not know is why I became such a proponent of following this tried-and-true storytelling method. Mistake 3, my friends, is one I made myself when writing and editing my debut novel, Can’t Beat the Heart of a Carolina Girl.

While CBTHOACG was my first ever attempt at writing a full-length book and I wrote it when I was in high school, I focused more on getting the story out of my head and onto my laptop rather than planning out the book ahead of time or rearranging plot points in a way that gave the story structure. Back then, the three-act story structure was an afterthought, a half-forgotten lesson from English class that I thought didn’t truly matter if the book was interesting enough.

Fast forward to when Goodreads reviews for this book came rolling in, and I wished I had taken more notes about story structure, because several reviews critiqued the plot and pacing of the novel. You see, just because I thought the book I wrote was interesting (and of course I did at the time, as it was the only book I had written), it doesn’t mean it was an engaging book for readers. There’s a reason why the most read and beloved works adhere to the three-act story structure… because it works. It keeps readers engaged. And as storytellers, our literal job is to keep readers engaged with what we’re writing and provide them with a high-quality story.

Looking back, Can’t Beat the Heart of a Carolina Girl was not a high-quality story, and its lack of structure is the number one reason why I now consider it as such.

How Can We Prevent this Mistake?

Learning from this experience, I sought out how to give a story structure from resources like Abbie Emmons’s YouTube channel and Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. Through these resources, I not only discovered how the three-act story structure works, but why it matters to readers. If you haven’t already watched Abbie’s videos or read any of the Save the Cat! books, I highly recommend them if you struggle with plotting and pacing. Whether you are a plotter or a pantser, learning how storytelling works will only benefit your writing and make it shine.

Talk to Me, Arrowheads!

If you’re guilty of making any of these mistakes, please know you’re not alone. No writer is perfect, and every published work has mistakes; however, the important thing is that we learn from these mistakes and always strive to grow as writers.

Which editing mistakes have you struggled with the most? Let me know in the comments!

Aim high, stay strong, and always hit your mark.

-Allyson 😀