Put Your Best Tootsie Forward by Ginger Simpson

Writing is like every other job you hold in life.  You should always put your best foot forward (cliche).  I've learned that by judging people's posts on FB...those who misspell words, use the wrong phasing...even create those cute MEMEs with blatant errors... until I realized I'd become one of them and thought blaming my cell phone for my mistakes would suffice.

If I use my computer, I'm given an option to edit and correct mistakes I knowingly make...or if I use my phone.. I need to.take the time to proof read before I hit "post."  I'm not the only one, that's for sure, but I'm taking steps to change.

I posted on my FB page today about going to a hairdresser who looks like she just got out of bed.  Picture someone whose hair is a mess, clothes wrinkled, and make-up smeared or missing.  Would your first impression tell you this person cared if you came out looking like you hoped?  Probably not.  Most instances I've gone to someone who doesn't take time to do their own hair, I end up wishing I'd listened to my instincts and ran away.  The same rule of thumb applies to authors who show an amatuer side of their writing on social media.

If you post something that contains lots of errors or you've used "your" instead of "you're, "whose" instead of "who's," or it's instead of "its," then people aren't likely to want to waste money on buying a book they have concluded is fraught with mistakes.  Read your work with an editorial eye and make sure you can be proud of what others will read.