Making Bloggy Mistakes | Like A Book Blogger

Posted March 5, 2015 by Asheley in discussion, Uncategorized / 20 Comments


[MAKING BLOGGY MISTAKES] like a book blogger. 


Nobody likes to make mistakes. It’s inevitable that we will have little slip-ups now and then, everyone does, particularly when we put out something public like a website where we write stuff and post photos and get creative. I’ve spent my fair share of time cringing over my own mistakes. 

Want to hear some of the little bloggy mistakes I’ve made over the past few years? Here are just a few:
  • I’ve posted reviews or discussion posts and not realized until later that I’ve called characters by the wrong names, even when I knew their names. That is so embarrassing because maybe the author/publisher will come read your thoughts, and maybe it will come across looking like you didn’t pay attention when you read the book. Of course this isn’t true, but oh the horror of discovering this mistake. I’ve done this more than once. 
  • When I’m typing, I sometimes mix up the letters in some authors’ names. Sometimes my fingers move faster than my mind, I think. ALSO there’s this one author in particular – I KNOW HER NAME, but I often type a similar-but-incorrect last name because it’s so, so close. She is so nice and interactive and I’M SURE she’s seen my error with her name before but not mentioned it. It’s kind of like when someone calls YOU by the wrong name and it’s all awkward, facepalm facepalm
  • We’ve ALL hit “publish” before our blog post is ready. 

A few days ago my review for Right Kind of Wrong by Chelsea Fine went up with the wrong book cover in place. I’m not exactly sure how I did this – except that I was probably excited about the book and just chose the wrong cover when I wrote the post. I always search for book covers by the author’s last name and I guess I accidentally picked the second cover in the series instead of the third? Sigh. That moment when I realized that the cover and blog title didn’t match was first hyperventilation, then reaction. I wanted to hide. YES, I made the switch to the correct book cover the very second I recovered my breath. But by then the tweets were already out, the post was already live, it had already been sent to the publisher and posted to various social media sites, incorrect incorrect incorrect.  

Hold on a second while I hyperventilate all over again.

I’m not that much of a perfectionist. I know that I make mistakes. I allow for disorganization and a little bit of chaos. But MAN it stinks when a blunder is extremely visible to the entire world because, hello internet

Source
So this book I reviewed – I loved this book. It was a pleasure to read and I wanted other people to know about it so they would maybe read it too. And bless her, the author more than likely saw this incorrect version of the blog post, and probably also the publishers. Maybe some of you have seen it. It stinks but by the time I realized I needed to update my post, I couldn’t take it back! 


This is Author Chelsea Fine’s Finding Fate Series
I accidentally posted the middle cover when I reviewed the book on the right. 
 No, no, no Asheley! 

With book blogging, some of us post to multiple places, which means we should theoretically be double-checking the blog post in multiple places to make sure it is correct and if it isn’t, we should be making changes. I had to make very specific changes to the book review links that included an image for the book cover. This was good for me, because with every correction I made, I felt better. It didn’t change my initial embarrassment, but I felt better because I didn’t leave incorrect things floating out there. 

I do not think that I am a bad or sloppy blogger. I didn’t write this review in too much of a hurry or try to post it too quickly, I do know that some bloggers struggle with that from time to time. I do sometimes use a template for my blog posts, but I didn’t this time. I just chose the wrong book cover. It was just a mistake, but it made me irritated with myself, and it embarrassed me. 

Like many of you, I’m probably my toughest critic. I’m sure I’ve probably put way more time into thinking about this than I should, and this is a thing. This is probably a thing that many of us do. Maybe we’re a little too hard on ourselves. I think that I was in this case. 

See, I beat myself up over something very simple, a simple incorrect copy-and-paste. I loved this book and I wanted to share good thoughts with the world, but I wanted for them to be CORRECT and MY BEST and aaaahhh, can you see how making a bloggy mistake can be embarrassing? Can you imagine how far a little mistake can reach if it isn’t fixed, with social media links etc? Sometimes blogging mistakes aren’t this big, but with a book cover being the image for the blog post, it IS kind of a big deal and took a little bit more work to fix than a normal mistake, something like text inside of the blog post. I was so happy to make adjustments to this error and think about ways to avoid making it again while I worked. 

The more I thought about improving and re-organizing my process, the sillier this little mistake seemed. No reason to beat myself up over it too hard because it was a simple fix. 

Source

Mistakes are okay. Blogging mistakes are okay. I’m human, and this situation has been a great evaluator for me. Things like this are great ways for me to take a step back and re-work my steps. Can I be more efficient in this process, in that process, in how I order things? Can I be a better double-checker? It’s never a bad thing to improve my method. Also, I’m quite sure I have mistakes sitting out there on this blog that I haven’t noticed – it’s better that I noticed this one early on so I could fix it as soon as possible.



Authors and publishers are people too. We all make mistakes, actually. And I’m sure that if an author like Chelsea Fine sees things like an incorrect cover or character name, she shakes it off. I’m sure authors see all sorts of mistakes, all the time. I’m sure if that one super-nice author sees something like a misspelled last name, she shakes it off. Authors are always so graceful when they do this. We all make mistakes, let’s not beat ourselves up for them. Or if we do, let’s only do it for a second and then let’s shake it off, shake it off. If the authors and publishers can forgive my mistakes so gracefully, certainly I can too. 


Source

*Of course I’m going to toss in Shake It Off a bunch of times. Of course.


Have you guys ever made any bloggy mistakes? 


Surely I’m not the only one!



Don’t miss my thoughts!


Asheley

About Asheley

Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.

You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.

Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!

Divider

20 responses to “Making Bloggy Mistakes | Like A Book Blogger

  1. Totally have made so many embarrassing mistakes like that! Some happen because I'm tired or lazy and some just are totally brain slips even when I'm trying to be careful…even after I've reread something I wrote. I think sometimes you don't pick up on mistakes bc you have been working on the THING for a while and you know what you mean. Recently could NOT type Blue Lily. Lily Blue right and kept calling it Blue Lily, Blue Lily…like I knew the real title but every time I would type it out I'd mess it up. TOTALLY did that in the post and it was soooo embarrassing. Luckily Jess (gone with the words) discretely messaged me and was like HEYYY SOOO. I was so eternally grateful!!! I had read it and just my eyes didn't pick up on it. Totally have published before I was ready. Oh oh and sometimes I don't finish sentences randomly in a paragraph lol. Totally have called things the wrong thing. There's nothing like that OH SHIT panic that comes when you realize it and then frantically trying to get into the post so you can change it. WORST FEELING ESP IF YOU AREN'T NEARBY A COMPUTER.

    I just kind of laugh and go "oh well" what can you do?? I mean, sure, I try to reread and edit but sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day to be as thorough as I'd like and I just want to get things up and sometimes it's just that i didn't notice it. And maybe it looks sloppy when these mistakes happen but…it's just me here…(as with you)…one woman team. It's for fun. I don't take it too seriously like I would work. Soooo…who cares?!? But it's super easy to beat yourself up. I totally have.

    • I think you're totally right when you say we don't always notice mistakes because we've been working on things for a while and we know what we're trying to say. I have all ideas that this happens to me a lot because I take a long time to do some of my blog things sometimes.

      And JESS IS SO GOOD LIKE THAT. It's always great when a friend will be the one to say pssst, hey, fix this thing!

      And not being around the computer but knowing there is something that needs work is TORTURE. I can't stand it. Trying to shake it off today!

      xx

  2. Aw, I hate that you stressed over this! I think we've all been there, made that typo or uploading error, and then had panics about it afterwards. I try to remember that for the most part, the people who read my blog aren't cruel or critical or anything remotely close to that. If I make a mistake and they point it out, it's 100% out of kindness than criticism. When I was reading Throne of Glass I kept calling it Game of Thrones, despite knowing these were two COMPLETELY different things. Even when I was writing the review I had to correct myself several times because I just auto-typed Game of Thrones. That's why the title of that review is called "Geez Candice! Stop calling it Game of Thrones! It's Throne of Glass!" 🙂

    I make sure to shake it off (love the Taylor Swift references in your post!) because chances are I will make more mistakes in the past. No sense in stressing over something I do for fun! If a mistake happens, just fix it and move on to the next thing! Don't beat yourself up! 🙂

    • Okay see the Throne of Glass/Game of Thrones thing is so easy to do! I get the two mixed up when I want to refer to the titles by letters ToG or GoT! And what a GREAT idea to spin the title of your blog post like that, I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT.

      Taylor makes me laugh and is encouraging, she's helping me not feel silly today. (:

    • Taylor is a big help to me today! Shake it off (:

      I'm not *always too hard on myself, but when I am BOY I REALLY AM. This time, I was. I was really embarrassed and I need to NOT be, but I also know that if I am, other people are too. I want us all to shake it off and just have fun with blogging.

  3. YES! Everyone makes mistakes. I just went through a post (I'm cross-posting now) and caught a spelling error that's been on my blog FOR TWO YEARS. Ughhhh.
    I've definitely posted too soon, misspelled an author's name (It's still spelled wrong in my permalink because it was too late to change it (Niven vs Nevin)) and I think I've even posted on the wrong day…
    I'm SOOOO bad about double-checking my work. I think because spellcheck catches so much and I've already spent so much time on it? But I usually preview my post to make sure it'll go live. It's just SO embarrassing when someone else catches it or esp if the author/publisher notices!
    Oh and once I couldn't remember the MAIN CHARACTER'S name so I put [character's name here] AND THE POST WENT LIVE LIKE THAT ASH. Thankfully I read it early in the morning and fixed it……. but I'm pretty sure the author had already seen it because she RTed. AHHHH

    • I love your character's name mistake, this is one that I'll have to remember when I need a good smile or laugh, B! Sometimes when I go back and work on old posts, I want to hide. HIDE. I am shocked at how long I've let some errors sit up here on my blog, but HEY, shake it off, right? That's my whole point today.
      And the blasted last names, although my first name is difficult so I can't really complain too much!

  4. With me it is tweeting incorrect titles! Examples: Of Unbreakable Things (Of Breakable Things) and The Gates of Thread and Stone (Gates of Thread and Stone), and these are just two of many, many. Then top that off by tagging the author in the tweet! I am awful remembering if a title has a "The" in front of it or not. The worst was when I did a review with a giveaway the author had contributed to and I misspelled the MCs name! Thank you for this post. I feel better now that I know I have company!

    • I totally understand adding extra words to titles, I do that too sometimes! Yes! And it's the worst when we tweet and have tagged the author, sometimes I wish I didn't know about these mistakes (: You definitely have company!

  5. Oh, girl. You KNOW we've all made the same mistakes! Even after reading over everything and editing, I've still posted incorrect things: character names, author names, book titles, publishers…I've done it all. And sometimes, I don't even catch them unless someone points them out in my comments because, once it's live, I'm not very likely to read over the whole thing again. Just think, even published books, having been seen by multiple editors multiple times, still have errors in them. We do what we can, yanno?

  6. Kay

    You are not the only one! I think the worst mistake I ever made has to have been when I spelled an author's name wrong. So embarrassing! I try really hard to catch all my mistakes like that and usually I do a pretty good job. It doesn't hurt that I have my husband read posts before I make them live as often as possible.

  7. Gah, I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to my posts and such, that I HATE making mistakes! And also because it IS embarrassing when you spell someone's name wrong. I did that during Alexa Loves Books' love-a-thon! I wrote "Alex" on my posts and never even realized it until AFTER the event was over! THE EMBARRASSMENT I FELT. And all I could think was: oh god I hope she didn't notice that. I'm sure she did, which just makes it so much worse. Haha.

    I just have to remember that we all make mistakes! Even when I edit a post 1,000x, I'll still find a mistake, maybe weeks later. Or I spelled something wrong a graphic and it would take too long to fix it. I don't think people really care. It happens, even if we wish it didn't. Haha. Shaking it off is the best move (and that gif is perfect). 🙂

  8. Omigosh, yes. Just last week I posted a blog tour post (review) in which I gave the author the wrong last name. As soon as I realized, I felt so embarrassed! Bless her heart, she hasn't said anything, even though I know she came by the post because she answered some of people's comments. But as you say – we are all human. I fixed it as soon as I spotted it, and I just hope she wasn't offended.

    I'm a former English teacher and a stickler for proofing my work – and I still ocasionally find typos or mistakes (like the wrong character name) in posts I wrote months or years ago. Sometimes you're just too close to it to see it at the time – you see what you meant to write, not what you actually wrote.

  9. Oh, I totally have made my share of blogging mistakes too! Misspelled words, incorrect links, grammar mistakes – you name it, I've probably done it before. Honestly, I do feel like cringing a little whenever I catch one and I get so embarrassed! But I generally just fix it and then shake off the bad vibes from making a mistake. As a perfectionist, it's really hard sometimes; but I'm learning!

  10. Nope. Never. *haha* Just kidding! I'm sure I've made more mistakes on my blog than I'm even aware of. But, like you said, we're human and we make mistakes. We are our toughest critics, for sure. I just published a blog post a few days ago that I was trying to schedule for next week. Ugh! But I've laughed, or shook, it off now. Great post!

  11. I make mistakes all the time, spellings, wrong image, image stops working, missing links when I was going to put links in, many many things, and it sucks, but sometimes, I just let it go, because I can fix it, or if I forgot a link, oh well, stuff happens. I guess, I just consider what's important, and if a word is spelt a little wrong or the link isn't there, it's not the end of the world, I'll just sort it, or leave it, the many content and context is there, and that's what's important to me. Great topic though! 🙂

  12. This definitely happens to us all! I think my worst one was an error that had been up on my About Me page for months that I only noticed when my sister pointed it out to me. So embarrassing!

  13. MG! Yes. I have it the back button only to have my unfinished post get published. SSOOOO annoying! I have typos all the time and they kill me when I notice them weeks later. Great post!

Leave a Reply

Want to include a link to one of your blog posts below your comment? Enter your URL in the website field, then click the button below to get started.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.