Tu meik ay kople ef poynts, grammer ees ay berry eemportunt ting two preserb. Hau yu rait seis a lat abaut wat yiu haft tu sei. Di werse yiu rait, di lays chanz yiu haf ouf meikin an eempact.
Now tell me you didn’t throw up a little at the above train wreck of a paragraph. Although exaggerated, it does clearly share the point that grammar matters and that lack of grammar hurts retinas. As a writer, you have to be stuck up when it comes to grammar, at least that’s my take on it and I suspect I’m not alone in my grammar Nazi sentiments.
Case in point, it’s not that your book can’t have any typos whatsoever, it’s just there’s a very small threshold a reader’s patience will endure. If you take the Peter and the Star Catcher’s series, the stories were quite enjoyable although I found myself cringing at the variety and abundance of typos. Having paid full price for a book, I expected more from the publishing house, the writers and the editors.
For me, every time I’ve learned of a typo in my first book, I’ll admit it, I die a little because even if it tops 164,000 words, I’m disappointed in myself that I allowed something to take away from the experience. I don’t want ANYTHING to distract from my story because I have something to say.
So here’s to proof reading, to being anal retentive and OCD oriented and never settling.
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