Checking Your Spelling
The most obvious way to spot an amateur in the publishing industry is less than perfect spelling. Make sure if you write on a computer to use the spell check function, but don’t trust it completely.
In certain contexts a homonym (a word that sounds the same as another word, but is spelled differently, like right and write) may be overlooked by your spell checker, because it’s spelled correctly on its own, but may be the wrong usage for that individual word.
It’s a good idea to print out your manuscript and go over it with a pen. For those who always write on a computer, this is essential, because words can look entirely different on paper than on a screen. For those who write on paper already, type up your novel and take advantage of technology.
Also, have other people look it over. Not just your mom or sister, but someone who may spell better than you, or a professor or teacher. They’ll catch things you missed, having never read your novel before. Familiarity with your own work to the extent that you miss (sometimes huge) things that are wrong with it is a handicap writers can’t avoid.
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