Before morphing into an author, I looked at book features differently. How did the front cover sell me? What did the back cover tell me? Now, I look to see how visible the words are on a book’s spine, and if it has a classic or trendy cover. I’ve read many books, penned by famous authors and edited countless times by reputable publishers. Nita Prose’s novel The Maid is a perfect book, inside and out. Its cover displays an image in a black keyhole set against a brilliant red exterior. I just love it.
What impacts me the most now is when I find a mistake, like I did in Hilary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny’s bestseller State of Terror. It tells me that regardless of where we sit in the pecking order of our craft, we make mistakes. Even for talented authors with big budgets, they happen. When The Park Street Secrets was published, I gifted the gentleman who owned the building (where this story is set) with a copy. He asked me for two more, and I promptly delivered them. As I handed them over, he smiled rather coyly and said, “You’ve made a mistake.” He was right. I acknowledged him as Mr. Fediorek in the novel’s credits, when in fact, his surname is Fiedorek. I accept full responsibility for it, especially when I correct those who misspell my own name. This mistake is being addressed, hopefully along with all the others which I, or my editors have missed in both novels. My sincerest thanks (really) to everyone for bringing them to my attention. As Mr. Henry Ford said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
In my next blog, I’ll tell you about a man I met who started our conversations with “I’ll never see you again, so I might as well tell you this…”
Take good care!
Yvonne
0 comments