Common Copy Editing Errors That We See in Self-Published Books

Common Copy Editing Errors That We See In Self Published Books

Gary Smailes
Gary Smailes | 5 November 2025

Inconsistent Style Choices Throughout the Manuscript

Readers forgive the odd typo. They lose patience when style wobbles on every page. Your voice sounds unstable, even when the story works. The fix is dull and powerful. Decide your rules, write them down, and follow them from page one to the last line.

Serial comma: pick a side and hold it

If you write apples, pears and plums on one page, then apples, pears, and plums on the next, the rhythm breaks. Chicago style for books uses the serial comma. Most US trade houses do the same. UK houses vary. Pick one rule, record it, and apply it.

Quick check:

Style sheet entry example:

Capitalization: title vs role

President Smith visited. The president spoke. One takes caps because the title sits before the name. The other is a role and stays lower case. Same with Professor Lin vs the professor, Marketing Director Jones vs the marketing director.

Rules of thumb:

Add entries for recurring terms. Internet or internet. Government or government. Job titles in headings. Keep the list short and specific.

Numbers: words or numerals

Nothing trips readers like five pages of “three” followed by a sudden “3.” Choose a system and apply it.

Common book rule:

Style sheet entry example:

Quotation marks: smart vs straight, single vs double

Straight quotes look like typewriter leftovers. Smart quotes curl. Mix them and the page looks patched together. US books use double quotes for speech, single for quotes within quotes. Many UK books reverse that. Pick one system.

Steps:

Style sheet entry example:

Hyphenation: compounds need consistency

“Long term plan,” “long-term plan,” and “long term-plan” pop up in self-published books every week. Readers stumble. Hyphenation choices differ by dictionary and style, so build your own mini list and stop the drift.

Focus on:

Create a hyphenation section on your sheet. Add terms as you edit.

Dates and times: one format, all book

“March 3, 2023,” “3rd March 2023,” and “3/3/23” in one chapter screams no editorial oversight. Choose a format suited to your region and audience.

Simple US set:

Simple UK set:

Add time zone treatment and ISO forms if your book needs them. Then stay with them.

Build a living style sheet

A style sheet is the book’s memory. It spares you from guessing on every chapter. Keep it short, active, and shared with anyone who touches the text.

Start with these sections:

Format:

A 20-minute cleanup pass

Before final review, run a tight loop through common offenders.

Tip: work from the end of the book to the start once. You will spot late-stage drift that slipped in during revisions.

Mini exercise

Open one chapter and build a five-line style sheet from only that chapter. Then open a second chapter and check each line against it. Note every mismatch. Fix the text. Update the sheet. Pass the sheet to a friend and see if they can apply it without guessing. If yes, your rules are clear.

Consistency is invisible when done well. Readers feel a steady hand. Your story sits front and center. The style sheet keeps it there.

Grammar and Punctuation Mistakes That Break Reader Flow

Grammar errors pull readers out of your story. They stumble, reread, lose the thread. Fix the big ones and your prose flows like water. Miss them and every page feels bumpy.

Comma splices: the silent story killer

"Sarah opened the door, Tom stood waiting" stops readers cold. Two complete thoughts joined by a comma create a splice. Your reader's brain expects a period, finds a comma, and hiccups.

The fix is simple. Give each complete thought its own space:

Quick test: read each side of the comma separately. If both sides make complete sentences, you need stronger punctuation than a comma.

Watch for trigger words that create splices: however, therefore, then, meanwhile, suddenly. These words start new thoughts and need periods or strong connectors before them.

Wrong: The rain stopped, however the streets remained wet.
Right: The rain stopped. However, the streets remained wet.
Right: The rain stopped, but the streets remained wet.

Apostrophes: possession vs contraction

The grocer's apostrophe appears in every manuscript. "Apple's for sale" makes apples own something called "for sale." The apostrophe shows possession, not plural.

Rules that stick:

Memory trick: if you mean "it is," use it's. All other times, use its.

Dangling modifiers: who's doing what?

"Walking down the street, the trees looked beautiful." Unless your trees have legs, someone else is walking. The modifier dangles because it attaches to the wrong noun.

The walking person disappeared from the sentence. Fix it by putting the right actor first:

Wrong: Walking down the street, the trees looked beautiful.
Right: Walking down the street, I noticed the beautiful trees.
Right: As I walked down the street, the trees looked beautiful.

Other danglers to watch:

Quick check: who or what is doing the action in your opening phrase? Make sure that actor appears right after the comma.

Subject-verb agreement: groups are tricky

"The group of writers are meeting" sounds right but breaks the rule. "Group" is singular, so it takes "is."

Tricky collective nouns:

Distance creates confusion. The longer the gap between subject and verb, the easier it is to match the wrong word:

Wrong: The stack of books on the various tables throughout the house are heavy.
Right: The stack of books on the various tables throughout the house is heavy.

"Stack" is the subject, not "books" or "tables."

Pronoun references: make it clear

"John told Mark that he should leave." Who should leave? John or Mark? Unclear pronouns force readers to guess or backtrack.

Common pronoun problems:

Fix by repeating the noun or restructuring:

Unclear: Sarah gave the manuscript to her editor. She was nervous about it.
Clear: Sarah gave the manuscript to her editor. Sarah was nervous about the feedback.

Unclear: The printer jammed, which delayed the project.
Clear: The printer jammed, and the malfunction delayed the project.

Watch for paragraph transitions where pronouns lose their anchors. If the previous paragraph introduced three people, "he" or "she" at the start of the next paragraph creates confusion.

Run-on sentences: when to stop

Long sentences work when they build momentum. Run-on sentences pile up clauses until readers gasp for air.

Warning signs:

Not all long sentences are run-ons. This works:
"When the storm hit, the power died, the phones went dead, and the family huddled by candlelight."

This doesn't:
"The storm hit and the power died and we tried to call for help but the phones were dead and we found some candles in the kitchen drawer and lit them and sat in the living room waiting for morning."

Break long sentences at natural pause points. Read them aloud. If you run out of breath, your reader will too.

The rhythm test: read everything aloud

Your ear catches problems your eyes miss. Comma splices sound choppy. Run-on sentences leave you breathless. Dangling modifiers sound silly when spoken.

Read your dialogue aloud first. Then read your narrative paragraphs. Mark spots where you stumble, backtrack, or lose the sense.

Grammar checkers help but miss context. They flag correct sentences and approve wrong ones. Use them for a first pass, then trust your ear and knowledge for the final call.

Five-minute daily drill

Pick one grammar problem from your last critique or edit. Scan three pages looking only for that error. Fix what you find. Add the correction to your revision checklist.

Common patterns by writer:

Know your pattern. Look for it first.

Grammar serves your story. Get the big rules right and readers will follow you anywhere. Trip them up with splices and danglers, and they'll put your book down before chapter two.

Dialogue Mechanics and Formatting Disasters

Dialogue shows character, moves plot, and sets pace. Sloppy mechanics trip readers, not the story. Nail the basics and voices ring true.

Tags: stay consistent and keep them invisible

Pick a tagging style and stick with it. Most modern prose uses subject before verb.

One book, one approach. Mixing styles distracts. So does forgetting the comma before a tag.

When the tag comes first, use a comma.

When a line stands alone, use a period and drop the tag.

Action beats count as attribution, so no comma inside the quotes.

Paragraph breaks: one speaker per paragraph

Two voices in one paragraph turns dialogue into a knot. New speaker, new line. If a character acts and speaks, keep words and action together.

Messy:
"Leave the files," Maria said, picking up her bag, "I'll grab them later." Ben stood and said, "No, I need them now."

Clean:
"Leave the files," Maria said, picking up her bag. "I'll grab them later."

Ben stood. "No. I need them now."

When one character delivers a long speech over several paragraphs, open quotes for each paragraph. Close only at the end of the final paragraph.

Punctuation inside quotes: mind the rules

For American English, commas and periods live inside the quotation marks.

Question marks and exclamation points depend on the sentence.

For UK style, placement differs, and single quotes often serve as the main marks. Choose a standard for your book and hold to it.

Said is your friend

Readers skip over said. That makes it useful. Piling in tags like "she ejaculated" or "he hissed" draws attention, often for the wrong reason. Reserve colorful tags for true sound words.

Show tone with action and context.

Thoughts: choose one approach and stay with it

Direct thought in first person often takes italics. Close third often folds thoughts into narration with free indirect style. Mixing quotation marks, italics, and plain text for thoughts turns pages into a jumble.

Pick a rule for your book.

Do not put thoughts in quotation marks. Quotes signal spoken words. Thoughts belong on the line without them.

Dialogue punctuation quick fixes

Dialect and accent: a light touch wins

Phonetic spelling turns reading into decoding. A sprinkle signals voice. Heavy eye-dialect turns characters into cartoon voices and slows pace.

Heavy:
"'Ello there, guv'nor, wot's all this then?"

Light:
"Hello there, sir. What is all this then?"

Or shape syntax and word choice.

Pick a few features and apply them with restraint. Consistency matters more than clever phonetics.

Maintain continuity within scenes

Keep a running sense of who speaks. Long stretches of back-and-forth need anchors every few lines. A brief beat or a name reorients the reader.

If two characters share a name or similar voice, clarify with action beats or distinct vocabulary.

A mini checklist before you line edit

Study dialogue in published books from your shelf. Pick three favorites and transcribe one page. Note where tags appear, where beats land, how punctuation works. Then write a style note for your project and follow it from chapter two onward. Your readers will hear the voices, not the machinery.

Word Choice and Usage Problems That Weaken Prose

Words do heavy lifting. Choose well and readers glide. Choose poorly and meaning tilts, pace drags, voice thins.

Confused pairs that trip meaning

Affect vs effect

Lay vs lie

Past forms:

Who vs whom

Restrictive vs nonrestrictive information

Redundancies that pad nothing

Scrap the second word in pairs like these:

Trim a draft by hunting phrases where one word says enough. Gift covers free. History covers past.

Mini exercise

Weak verb plus adverb

Pick a stronger verb. Trim the helper adverb.

Not every -ly word needs cutting. Precision trumps rules. When a single verb gives a cleaner picture, use it.

Vague pronouns that blur reference

Ambiguity wastes attention. Readers should not pause to decode who did what.

Another common muddle follows a long sentence.

A simple fix works. Replace vague stand-ins with the exact noun. Repeat a name or object when clarity requires.

Mini exercise

Clichés that flatten voice

Readers skim stock phrases. Fresh writing earns attention.

Trade these for concrete detail or plain speech:

Swap in specifics.

Preposition pileups

Long strings of of, to, for, in, on, by, from slow reading and blur focus.

Try these moves:

A simple habit that sharpens prose

Build a personal list of crutch words. Adverbs you lean on. Empty openers. Favorite fillers. Keep the list nearby while revising.

Then use the Find function:

One hour spent on word choice pays off on every page. Cleaner lines, faster pace, stronger voice. Readers feel the difference, even if no one mentions grammar.

Formatting and Technical Inconsistencies

Readers forgive the odd typo. They do not forgive friction. Clunky layout pulls them out of the story faster than a plot hole. The fix is boring and mechanical, which is why it works. Set rules. Use styles. Test early. Your future self will thank you.

Scene breaks that survive the journey

Decide how you signal a scene break. Three asterisks. A small ornament. A blank line with extra space. Pick one method and set a paragraph style for it. Centered. Space before and after. No manual returns. No strings of periods.

Blank lines alone often vanish in ebook conversion. Rendering engines collapse multiple returns. Your thoughtful pause becomes a run-on scene. A styled break survives because the style carries spacing and alignment.

Try this

Chapter headings that guide readers

Choose a format, then marry it. Chapter 1. Chapter One. 1. Do not switch mid-book. Do not flirt with ALL CAPS in one chapter and Title Case in the next.

Mark chapter titles with a heading style. In Word, use Heading 1. In InDesign, set a Chapter Title paragraph style. Turn on automatic numbering. This feeds your table of contents in ebooks and helps print pagination behave.

A good chapter style includes

Your reader should not need a compass to find the next chapter.

Spacing that behaves

One space after a period. Old habits hang on. Fix them with Find and Replace. Replace two spaces with one, then run it again until the count settles.

Never hit Return twice to create a blank line. Use space before and space after in the paragraph style. Never use tabs to indent. Set a first-line indent in the style instead.

Watch for random extra line breaks that sneak in through copy and paste. Show hidden characters and clean them out. Ebooks treat stray returns like landmines.

Quick sweep

Fonts and emphasis with purpose

Pick one body font for print. Use a readable size and leave it alone. Avoid mixing fonts in the text. Headings can take a contrasting face if used sparingly.

Ebooks are different. Many devices override font choices. Do not fight the device. Focus on clear hierarchy instead. Headings should be headings. Body should be body. Emphasis should be true italics, not faked by slanting a roman font.

Use italics for emphasis, foreign words, and titles of works. Bold belongs in headings, not in narrative voice. Underlining looks like a link on screens and a typewriter on paper. Skip it. ALL CAPS reads as shouting. Use once for acronyms, rarely for emphasis.

If you need small caps, use a true small caps style. Do not type caps and shrink them. Fake small caps look thin and amateur.

Lists that look and read clean

Lists help only if they are tidy. Mixed bullets, random capitalization, and wobbly grammar make a mess.

Set list styles. Use a single bullet shape for unordered lists. Use numbers for steps or sequences. Keep punctuation consistent. If one item is a full sentence, end every item with a period. If items are fragments, skip periods for all.

Keep parallel structure. Start every item with the same part of speech.

Avoid building lists with hyphens and spaces. Use the list feature so spacing and alignment stay stable in conversion.

References that do not break

“See above” dies the moment your text reflows on a phone. Page numbers shift between print sizes and ebook screens. Better to refer by chapter or section title. Better still, link to the target in digital formats.

In Word or Google Docs, use cross-references that update. In InDesign, build cross-references and update them after layout. In EPUB, create internal links with anchors. For print, check every page reference after final pagination. No guessing. No placeholders like page xx on press day.

Table of contents tips

Simple habits that prevent headaches

Good formatting is invisible. Readers glide. Your voice carries. And your book looks like it belongs on the shelf.

Fact-Checking and Continuity Oversights

Readers forgive typos. Readers do not forgive a character who turns 30 twice in one year or a train ride that takes ten minutes in one chapter and three hours in the next. Continuity keeps trust. Facts keep trust. Miss either, and the spell breaks.

Build a timeline that holds

Dates, days, and durations slip fast once revisions start. Lock them down.

Quick test

Keep characters consistent

Readers meet a person on page one. Keep the same person on page three hundred.

Mini-exercise

Map the world and the logistics

Settings behave like characters. Give them rules.

Reality check

Verify research, then verify again

Readers bring knowledge, and they notice. Dates shift. Science updates. Law varies by country and state.

When expert help helps

Clean up internal references

References break when text moves.

ToC and links

Respect real-world specifics

Small details carry weight. They signal care.

Cultural accuracy

A repeatable process that saves you

Build systems once, then reuse for every book.

Last step before you send

Accuracy does not kill creativity. Accuracy lets the story breathe without tripping over itself. Keep the world steady, and readers follow you anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I build and maintain a living style sheet for my book?

Start with a simple two‑column table: term on the left, decision on the right. Include dictionary and style guide, spelling choices, serial comma policy, hyphenation, number and date formats, character names and special terms. Add a version number and date at the top and save each update as a new file.

Keep it live: record every editor query and your answer, share the sheet with design and proofing, and use it as the single source of truth so decisions travel from manuscript to typeset pages without style drift.

What’s the fastest way to fix inconsistent style choices across a manuscript?

Pick your authorities (e.g. Chicago + Merriam‑Webster or Oxford for en‑GB), set the document language, then run a two‑step process: automated checks with PerfectIt or controlled Find/Replace for obvious variants, followed by manual review for names and titles. Log every chosen rule on the living style sheet.

Focus on high‑impact items first — serial comma, hyphenation of common compounds, quotation marks and the nonbreaking space between number and unit — then sweep the manuscript end to start to catch late‑stage drift.

How should I format dialogue to avoid reader confusion?

Adopt a clear rule set: one speaker per paragraph, a comma before tags ("I agree," she said), action beats as separate sentences ("I agree." She stood.) and a consistent approach to thoughts (italics or free indirect style, not quotation marks). Use "said" and "asked" invisibly; reserve colourful verbs for deliberate effect.

Also record dialogue mechanics on your style sheet (smart quotes, US vs UK placement of punctuation, nested quotes) and enforce the one‑speaker‑per‑paragraph rule to keep exchanges easy to follow.

What quick formatting and technical checks should I run before converting to EPUB or sending to design?

Apply named paragraph styles for headings, body, lists and a specific scene break style; replace double spaces and tabs; turn on smart quotes; standardise hyphenation and nonbreaking spaces; embed fonts and check image resolution (300 ppi for print). Generate a clean file for design and keep a tracked redline in the archive.

Export a sample EPUB and perform device testing for eBooks (Kindle Previewer, Apple Books, phone) to confirm scene break style survives conversion, links work and lists render correctly — device testing for eBooks catches issues desktop review misses.

How can I prevent continuity and fact‑checking oversights in a long manuscript?

Create a story bible or character tracker that logs names, ages, nicknames, timelines and key physical details, and build a timeline spreadsheet for dates and durations. Add a setting map and log travel times, time zones and seasonal anchors so logistics remain believable across chapters.

Maintain a fact log of claims to verify, save source links or screenshots, and give a beta reader a single task: check continuity and facts. Targeted checks (two‑page expert reads for legal/medical scenes) catch high‑risk items without a full external review.

How do I stop style drift after revisions and late changes?

Freeze a canonical manuscript version (Title_MS_Final.docx) for design and forbid background edits. If changes are necessary, update the living style sheet immediately, run a consistency checker, and reapply the same Find/Replace rules across the file so email, hyphenation and number formats remain uniform.

Archive earlier versions and require any post‑design edits to go through an approval ladder — this minimises reflow risk and preserves the decisions already documented in your style sheet.

What short daily or preflight drills catch the most common grammar and usage problems?

Do a five‑minute daily drill focused on one recurring issue (comma splices, dangling modifiers, pronoun clarity or -ly adverbs). Use Find to locate crutch words, read one page aloud to test rhythm, and scan for repeated names or inconsistent numerals to catch drift early.

Before final handoff, run a 20‑minute cleanup pass: replace double spaces, standardise quotes, check scene breaks, verify dates and times, and run a consistency checker like PerfectIt — these short rehearsals remove the small errors that make pages feel unsteady.

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