The one thing that is sure to kill sales is BAD GRAMMAR and TYPOS

Take a look at these scathing reviews.

2-star review

The concept was excellent. The execution fell through on many levels. He kept using there instead of their. I had to stop reading.

1-star review

Wish I had opened this book sooner, I would have asked for my money back. Very poor English usage. Even the chapter headings were incorrect. Hard to take the author seriously when he won’t even hire an editor.

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There are readers who are fanatical about grammar and who will give you one or two star ratings because they have found typos or poor grammar usage in your book.

BUT they may never get that far, because if your TITLE is spelled incorrectly (I kid you not) or your description is riddled with mistakes, they will never purchase your book no matter how enticing your sales copy is.

What was your reaction after the reviews above? When I see comments about bad grammar, my reaction is to hesitate and read another few reviews. I always read the “look-inside” material and if I see problems there, I’ll pass.

Bad grammar is evident in three places:

Your title
Your description
The “look inside” section of your book

ALL of these need to be PERFECT. Actually, your whole book should be as perfect as you can make it, but errors in these three very visible places can and will kill book sales.

Take a look at this review:

This was one of the first reviews this book received. It basically helped kill any further sales, which was too bad because the book actually had “potential.”

What can an author do?

Here are two tactics that work when bad grammar is killing sales:

The first and fastest route is to correct the errors. Choose this route if you already have some good reviews.

Depending on the type of errors your book has …

Go through your entire book using either ProWritingAid or Grammarly.
Hire a professional proofreader.
Hire a professional editor.
Hire an editor (first) and then a proofreader for a final run through.

Be careful when hiring proofreaders and editors on job boards such as Fiverr … most of them will use ProWritingAid or Grammarly. Specifically ASK if they use them or if they “manually” read the book … OR if they use a combination of both (which would be MY preference).

Once your book is free from grammar errors and typos, upload the edited version. Then at the very top of your description put a Big Bolded notice. Something like this:

DATE: Due to comments about grammar errors, this book has been professionally edited and is now error free.

You need to put the editing date into this message. This way readers can see the dates on the bad grammar reviews and the date on which the book was edited.

Do It Yourself Grammar Software

Here are two grammar software programs that I have tested.

The first thing I want to emphasize is that these are mechanical programs. While they are both good at finding typos, punctuation and grammar errors, they are not perfect. You need to be judicious when using them because they might actually interfere with your writing style. You can ignore or over ride suggestions IF you want.

The second thing I want to note is that these programs are an excellent way to learn how to speak and write English better. If you take the time to read the rules and if you pay attention to the mistakes you consistently make, you will become a better writer. IF English is a second language for you, you will find yourself rapidly improving if you take the time to pay attention, learn and then use what you have learned.

Grammarly is a nifty piece of software that can save you from embarrassing errors. It catches typos that Microsoft WORD misses and catches grammar snafus, offering better alternatives in most cases.

My biggest challenge with Grammarly is the PRICE. The Pro upgrade is simply out of the picture for many writers at $30 a month or $140 a year.

So imagine how happy I was to find ProWritingAid!

It does everything that Grammarly does and MORE. And the price is only $70 per year or a lifetime membership for $240.

And YES, it actually works in Scrivener too!

Pro Writing Aid’s free editor allows you to check up to 500 words at a go. This is great for testing out the software and checking your first few book chapters … but after that free gets very tedious, just go for the Pro! You simply can’t beat the price!

Hiring An Editor

.For those who want to hire a proofreader or editor, here is an article that outlines the different levels of editing.

I am NOT endorsing this service provider, but am suggesting that you look at their service levels so you know 1) what to ask for and 2) what to expect and so you have an idea of 3) editing fees. When you hire, make sure everything is clear and in writing.