Happy and relieved. That’s how I felt last week when I approved the “final” proof for Crossing the Bridge. Ah, what a feeling of accomplishment, After nearly a year, the collection of practical pointers for success in a two-year college was DONE.

“Aren’t you going to order a few copies?” My husband asked.

“Yeah,” I answered. “In fact, I’m going to go ahead and order 30.”

“Go for it,” he said.

Ordering those 30 books was so exhilarating!

But then, I did what many writers do. I took another look at the PDF proof supplied by Amazon. Right away, I noticed that some quotation marks were missing at the end of a direct quote. I swallowed hard and thought, “That’s not too bad. No one will notice something so minor.” Then I spotted a spacing issue…and then a missing period.

“Oh well,” I reasoned, “that’s not like having a misspelled word or missing words.” Who was I kidding? With a sinking feeling, I knew that there was no way that I was going to allow that version of the book to go out to the universe, especially when one of my “practical pointers” to students is to proofread their work carefully before submitting it.

I sent the “next final” revision the following morning and approved it several hours later. Is it perfect? Probably not. But it’s superior to its predecessor.

Meanwhile the 30 copies arrived, my “review copies.” At least that’s what I’m calling them. Major publishers distribute hundreds of review books before a book is officially launched. Why can’t an independent writer do the same thing? She can and did.

I stumbled, but it was part of the dance.