Can YOU Find the Mistake?

Proofreading Matters

Find the Error - I Challenge You

Proofreading is soooo important. Of course, proofreading your manuscript and then your final book is important but today, I want to point out the importance of proofreading your marketing materials. Specifically, the graphics you create to get your book seen and sold.

Last week, I posted an article that you guys loved titled, I hate it, too, about selling yourself. (I will make a note to myself to post more articles like this - exploring the “emotionality” (as my friend Kate Brenton would say) of book marketing for writers.)

In that substack post, there was a proofreading error on one of my marketing materials… can you find it?

I’ll reveal the error below in a minute.

In the meantime, I would like to point out another error. My book, It Gets Easier and Other Lies We Tell New Mothers, released in 2009. The audiobook, released in November 2022 and I promoted it. One of the promotions was to create an ad for the audiobook in the form of a graphic and then share the graphic as a Facebook Ad. I also posted the graphic as an Instagram post and on Twitter.

Below is the graphic I created (a gal at Fivver put the graphic together, I provided the content). Can you find the mistake?

So, first. Great ad, right? The pic of the frazzled mom is funny. The message is supportive of new moms and pitches what the book is all about - honesty and humor in motherhood. Plus, it includes the message that Moms are not alone and that there are some tips to make momhood a little easier! I also include a website where folks can go to buy the Audiobook and where to go to get more information. I emphasize “audio book available now” so potential buyers understand that they can find the audiobook wherever audiobooks are sold - I don't have to specify ONE audiobook outlet.

In short, everything was looking good with this ad.

But…

There is one error. I bet you have found it by now… Yes, BRAKE! BRAKE should be BREAK, of course.

Now, this ad went through several edits and I Beta tested it. NO ONE CAUGHT IT. Except…. After it was posted…. my daughter, a young professional, newly graduated at at the start of her career (darn college education), texts me after I post it to Instagram - “Ah, Mom, great Ad but you know that brake is spelled incorrectly, right?”

Did You Find The Error?

On to the next error. Did you catch the error in the “I hate it, too” Substack post?

This week, I am working on gathering Blurbs and Endorsements for Get Your Book Seen and Sold from colleagues and friends (who are interested in book marketing.) If you are keeping track, that is 4 - 5 months before publication on September 15th. The long-lead book review submissions were sent last week.

Well, of course, my MAC laptop screen decided to break at this critical moment of pre-publication promotion so I didn’t have my oft-used graphic files at my finger tips. I created the Substack post on my iPad instead and pulled the banner graphic “Count Down to Launch Date…” from my Fivver account. Well, you may have guessed by now, I pulled the wrong graphic.

The first banner graphic created:

The graphic had one problem… “Diary” was spelled “Dairy.”

This was an error that I did catch at the time and corrected but when with my MAC laptop out of service, I pulled the banner with the error. TISK, TISK - I didn’t proofread my published graphic!

I sent the Substack post “I hate it too” with the errored graphic. One of my subscribers, author Joan Price, who writes great books about senior sex (one of my MOST popular Stories and Strategies for Women podcast episodes, btw) sent me a gentle email. She wrote:

FYI, you might want to correct an amusing error in your Substack (https://claudinewolk.substack.com/p/i-hate-it-too) – the subtitle says “Countdown to Launch Date Dairy” (not “Diary”)!

Joan informs me of the error in the nicest way, but how embarrassing! Still, I am leaving the banner with the error on that post because I have found it so useful to remind all of you to make sure to PROOFREAD ALL of your promotional materials.

Have a great weekend. Next week, I’ll be posting a fabulous interview with 2BlondesMedia - book marketing experts with a strategy that works for authors.

Thanks for reading. Any embarrassing proofreading misses that you would like to share? Please include them in the comments.

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