Self-publishing authors and micro-press publishers generally struggle with a lack of funds and resources. The solution? Do as much as you can yourself. Can you do everything? No. But you can do more than you might think!
I can’t draw. If I want to include illustrations in the books I intend to publish, I’ll need to budget for it, and hire somebody else to illustrate my books. Also, English isn’t my first language; that’s German. It would probably be a good idea to hire a native English-speaker to proof-read my books before I publish them.
Does that mean that I can’t edit the books myself? No! Proof-reading is but a small part of the editing process, and I can handle much of it myself.
Over the years, I’ve compiled a list of editing mistakes that I’ve noticed in books published by various publishing houses. I use that list to check for mistakes in my own books.
I recently read Beate Maxian’s “Tod auf der Donau,” a book written in German, and published by William Goldmann Verlag in 2025. Beate Maxian is a best-selling Austrian author; this book is the 15th in a series with the fictional character Sarah Pauli as a crime-solving Viennese journalist. Beate Maxian is a successful author, her books are published by a large publishing house, yet the book contains inconsistencies which should’ve been corrected during the editing process. As a self-publishing author or micro-press publisher, you should take comfort in knowing that even big publishing houses publish books which aren’t edited perfectly — and that it clearly doesn’t matter to readers who buy their favourite authors’ books anyway.
Here are four of some the inconsistencies I noticed in her book, and which I’ve added to my list, so I can watch out for – and avoid – similar mistakes during the editing process of the books I intend to publish:
1) Inconsistency in regard to how brand names are printed – capitalized, or not: Maxian mentions the names of several different car brands. The car brand “MINI Cooper” (= official spelling) is spelled several times as “Mini,” and other times as “MINI.”
2) Inconsistency in regard to how proper names are printed – in Italics, or in Roman type: For example, the names of several TV-programmes, magazine titles, browsers, or websites appear in the book. Sometimes, they are printed in Italics, e.g., ZIB-Nachrichten, Wiener Bote, VOGUE, or ELLE; other times, these names appear in Roman (non-Italic) type, e. g., ORF, Top TV, Google Maps, or Instagram.
Now, you could argue that ZIB-Nachrichten is a product (= a TV news programme) produced and owned by a company, ORF. One could argue that only products are set in Italics, and not the names of the companies who own those products. But Google Maps is a product of Google LLC, and Instagram is a product owned by Meta Platforms, Inc. Clearly, there are inconsistencies, and it bothered me when I read the book.
3) Inconsistency in how fictional characters are described: One character in the book is a boat rental operator (= Bootsverleiher), and he is referred to as such several times in the book; once, he is referred to as a boat builder (= Bootsbauer); those are two different jobs.
4) Inaccuracies in regard to terminology: Early in the book, when it’s not yet clear whether someone died of natural causes, of an accident, or was killed by someone else, and if there will be any sort of police investigation, this is referred to by one of the characters as “Todesursache” (= cause of death), which is wrong. That would be “Todesart” (= manner of death). Cause of death would be something like a heart attack, or a gunshot wound. When you ask how someone died, you are inquiring about manner of death – which might necessitate a police investigation; when you ask why someone died, and are wondering about the exact reason as to why a person died, you are inquiring about cause of death.
So, if you’re self-publishing, relax! Editing mistakes happen, even if publishing houses with deep pockets hire professional editors.
Read as many books as you can, notice the mistakes other editors/publishers make, and learn from their mistakes.