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Finding Errors in My Own Books Makes Me Crazy

I’m a COPYEDITOR for crying out loud

Shannon Page
4 min readAug 13, 2019
Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash

I’ve just sent the draft of Orcas Investigation, book three of my cozy mystery series The Chameleon Chronicles (co-written with my dear friend Karen G. Berry), to our editor for his inputs and emendations.

As I was putting the finishing touches on my part, I naturally had book two, Orcas Intruder, by my side so I could refer to it, to help me remember all the little details that tend to slip an author’s mind: Had we given Lisa’s ex-husband a name yet? What weird vegetables did Paige bring to Cam’s house the first time? Which recipes did we include at the back?

And then I noticed the great big heading at the top of the “sneak preview” chapter at the back…offering an advance look at “Orcas Investigation, book 2 of The Chameleon Chronicles!”

Argh! In what kind of circular universe does book 2 offer you a sneak peek at book 2!?

I’m a professional copyeditor and proofreader, for crying out loud. I formatted and laid out that book myself. How could I have missed that?

Or another of my books that I also formatted (I swear I’m going to get better at this with practice…), the print version has a big chunk at the end of chapter five that is somehow still in draft-font and not…

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Shannon Page
Shannon Page

Written by Shannon Page

Writer, editor, thinker of things, living on Orcas Island, Washington state. https://www.shannonpage.net

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