WHAT IF YOUR BOOK HAD MISTAKES, WHAT WOULD YOU DO ?

10/15/2009


Hi Everyone...

An author e mailed me and said their book had
several mistakes, they contacted publisher and
said publisher said it was too late to fix the PDF
file, it was about to be printed and if said author
wanted changes they would have to pay for it to
be fixed. Now I read once someone said even
famous authors have mistakes in their books.
Should this author let it go ? What is your opinion ?


Cheers..Joe..

PDF files can be fixed. I don't know of any publisher except a vanity publisher that would charge the author to fix the mistake. But then, I don't know a lot of things. It depends I suppose on whose error.

Yes, famous authors have mistakes in their books; but I believe they are there by mistake after many proofings, not allowed to be there. I think there will always be misses; but adding mistakes known before printing compounds it.

A recent book to which I am a contributor has a double "has has" in it. This was missed in multiple proofings. I am sure the publisher would have removed it if it had been caught. I notice in my own proofing that I am more likely to miss something like that when it ends a page.

Isn' it funny funny how clearly we can see after a book is in print and how oblivious we are before.

I would pay to have the errors fixed.

Alice, I agree about paying to have them fixed. There will be enough errors that show up anyway without adding the ones that are known.

Lately, I have trouble with posting and am grateful for the edit button.

Mistakes in books published by reputable publishers are rare, yet this is a cop-out used by many amateurs. A manuscript containing errors should never be submitted. It is the job of the writer, not anyone else, to see that the manuscript is clean. If the errors in your friend's book are allowed to stand it will reflect on no one but himself. That said, it doesn't seem that he is working with a reputable publisher.

All this talk about mistakes in books amuses me. If people did not become ill, all doctors would be out of a job. If writers did not make mistakes, all proof-readers would be out of a job.

Another thing that amuses me is the advice to polish, polish, polish and only submit absolutely perfect manuscripts that are error-free. The impression given is that the manuscript will go straight to the printer as is. BUT those who advocate that manuscripts should be perfect also say that PA does not edit properly and leaves/adds mistakes to books. If manuscripts are perfect and PA doesn't edit, why would there be mistakes in any PA books?

THE REASON MANUSCRIPTS HAVE TO BE PERFECT IS TO ENSURE THAT THE CONTENT OF THE BOOK THAT THE EDITORS DO NOT RECOMMEND CHANGING HAS TO BE ERROR-FREE.

Editors do not want to spend time checking manuscripts for typos and grammatical errors. Dick, as usual, is spot on; this is the author's responsibility.

If a manuscript is submitted as a word document to a publisher it can suffer with format clashes . For example if it was typed in word and the author left auto format on and did not press return at the end of each line. Word starts a new line automatically but when the document is transfered to the program the POD printer uses, mistakes can occur. Spaces between the words at the end of a line and the begining of the next vanish merging two words together. This happened to me when the first print of my book came out. I checked the final manuscript and found no errors in the manuscript where they were in the book. My publisher explained how they may have occured as stated above and advised in my revised manuscript I should ensure the auto formatting is switched off in word. I did so in my revision. Sadly the revised version still has a few typo's that I fail to find in my revised text.
But even the Harry potter books suffer from some typo's so I'm not alone.

Good point David. I have also noticed errors in books by top named authors. It happens.

It's strange that so many people claim that books from large trade publishers contain errors just as those from POD publishers. I read at least two books a week and will go for months without encountering an error. The same is true of mystery magazines and even such publications as the 4th Infantry Division magazine. Errors are inexcusable.

Dick,
I beg to differ.
Two book I read recently had at least one error:
Millenium by Tom Holland and The Killer angels by Michael Shaara.
When I came across the error, I was going to make a post about it but then decided it wasn't important. The next time, I will make a post, indicate the error, the page number, etc. It does happen!

10/15/2009

Thanks for the info, my friend informed me that one
word was written twice ( never, never, the other was a mis-
spelled word.) I told them if they could live with it, don't start
a big fight with the publisher, see if I get another e mail..


Cheers..Joe

lots of books have errors in them. isn't that strange?