A Rant Against Typographical Errors in Books

[Ronsworth]

Continuity irks me more - one if my fav books is riddled with them. Urgh.

I feel the same way. I can pass an error here and there without any relative problem. But when the oversight is with the actual story it can turn me off rather quickly.

 

[J Riff]

Advice to new authors- never ever even turn the thing on. Turn it off before writing. Do not use. Do not trust. Ignore. Edit it yourself or get an editor. Uninstall all spelling/grammar checkers. Place a dictionary by the computer and use it insted uv spelchek.

 

[j d worthington]

It leaves me wondering whether proof-readers actually read any longer or just rely on software to do the job. I can't understand how anyone with at least a smattering of education in English could possibly read these books without seeing the errors. They leap out of the page and slap me around the face.

From my understanding in dealing with various writers, there has been a severe reduction in the number of proofreaders at several of the publishing firms; "downsizing" may well have a lot to do with this increasing problem....

Just for the heck of it, some of you might enjoy this little take on the issue of grammatical and spelling errors:

38 Common Spelling and Grammar Errors - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep.9) - YouTube

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Advice to new authors- never ever even turn the thing on. Turn it off before writing. Do not use. Do not trust. Ignore. Edit it yourself or get an editor.

Nice one. Self-editing isn't easy, but it is possible.

 

[Vertigo]

That's a nice little summary of some of the most common ones, JD.

Just remembered I forgot another couple: their, their and would/could/should of (argh!).