No Errata · 18 May 2024
The nice thing about print on demand is that there are no errata.
When you publish a book or paper, you might later publish a list of errata. Errata are those pesky little errors that you or your editor did not catch before publishing. No matter how good you are, they seem to crop up. The nice thing about self-publishing and print on demand is that you can just fix the errata and nobody is the wiser. At least nobody who gets the book after you made the correction.
I came across one of these pesky little mistakes when I looked at a print copy of my latest book, The Church Underground. There it was right in the first chapter. My two main characters were talking about Moses and his older brother Aaron.
“I think you read that someplace.”
“Yeah. Genesis.”
Genesis! Moses and Aaron in Genesis Really! They are introduced in Exodus. Exodus. (That is Exodus in the Bible, not the Leon Uris novel by the same name.) Oh the horror.
I was disgusted at myself because of the blatant and obvious error. But I knew it was okay. After all, to date, I have only sold one copy of the book and I only have five other print copies. (I have a few people that I am planning on giving those copies. And I will tell them how embarrassed I am to have that glaring error right in the first few pages.) Oh the horror.
But like I said, I only have a few copies in print so far, so fixing the error will just be a quick fix. One quick edit. Create a new PDF. Upload said PDF. And voilà! A new version of the book. No need for recalls or a list of errata. Or a new edition. Of course, I have not yet done said process. At least not at the time of this writing. I have been too busy writing blog posts and working on other writing projects. So in the mean time, I suppose other people could buy the book with the glaring error. Oh the horror.
I suppose the folks who have a copy of the book or will have a copy of the book might keep it for posterity. They might save it as a possible collector’s item. One of the six copies in existence of the famous book, The Church Underground. Which is funny to think about. In reality, those six might be the only copies of the book ever printed. Which is okay. I love to write. And I love it that my books are published. I love it that anybody who wants a copy can order it and have it printed and shipped in just a short amount of time. Not that anybody will do that, but it is nice that writers like me can at least dream of a few sales here and there. Or even of just that one sale.
By the way, I like the fact that I actually do sell copies of my books now and then. Sure. The sales are neither rapid nor voluminous. But that is okay. The books are out there. I no longer just dream of having books that people can buy. I actually have books out there. Lots of books. At least lots of books ready to be printed. (Fifteen at last count and ten more available digital only.)
I know that my books are not hot sellers. At least not yet. But it might be a good thing. After all, since I just throw stuff out there, they might have a lot of errata in them. Which is okay. Since they are all self-published and print on demand books, I can just fix them. And voilà! No muss. No Fuss. No errata.
© 2024 Michael T. Miyoshi
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