Authors who publish for pay yet errors

[AloneTooLong]

I love Lit but I also have a Kindle which works well for travel or when I am not at home. One would hope that publishing for pay authors would research enough to not have a sentence that is impossible (unless, of course, one is writing in a genre where the impossible is expected).

Reading a book on Kindle, came across a sentence (keep in mind this is a story about a ranching family) where...they are waiting on Ruby, their STALLION (my caps!) to give birth/foal.

Surely a proof reader or editor should have been used?

 

[KeithD]

I've worked in publishing houses for the last quarter century and have yet to see a book after it hit the bookstore that didn't have technical errors in it no matter how many people edited and proofed it. It's something to just chill about. Nobody and nothing is "prefect."

 

[Jada59]

Wow!!!

 

[ElectricBlue]

I love Lit but I also have a Kindle which works well for travel or when I am not at home. One would hope that publishing for pay authors would research enough to not have a sentence that is impossible (unless, of course, one is writing in a genre where the impossible is expected).

Reading a book on Kindle, came across a sentence (keep in mind this is a story about a ranching family) where...they are waiting on Ruby, their STALLION (my caps!) to give birth/foal.

Surely a proof reader or editor should have been used?

You'd think so, but to think that something is published on Kindle makes it "better" quality is delusional. Kindle is a self-publishing platform, so the quality is going to be the same as here - highly variable. But at least you don't pay for it here.

EDIT: I was thinking of KDP when I wrote this comment, but yes, you can also get other published content on Kindle - as an Amazon content device.

 

[KeithD]

There are plenty of self-published works on Kindle, yes, but it's not a self-publishing platform. Nearly everything published makes it onto the Kindle platform.

 

[MetaBob]

There are plenty of self-published works on Kindle, yes, but it's not a self-publishing platform.

Sure it is. I won't link it since that might be verboten, but look up "Kindle Direct Publishing".

 

[joeyjax]

I love Lit but I also have a Kindle which works well for travel or when I am not at home. One would hope that publishing for pay authors would research enough to not have a sentence that is impossible (unless, of course, one is writing in a genre where the impossible is expected).

Reading a book on Kindle, came across a sentence (keep in mind this is a story about a ranching family) where...they are waiting on Ruby, their STALLION (my caps!) to give birth/foal.

Surely a proof reader or editor should have been used?

Maybe all the author was trying to say was that it was going to be an impossibly long night.

I read a story the other day that botched a quote from Pete Rose at the top of the very first chapter, before any of the author's original story even started. I admit it was distracting to see a typo in what was literally the very first sentence of the story, but that sort of things really does happen all the time.

I know in one of my own stories, I had a few character name mix-ups that I missed before publishing, despite the fact that I reviewed those passages dozens of times looking for errors. And even after I submitted an edit to correct them, I still missed one. I would hope if I'd enlisted an Editor, that they would've caught those errors, but at the end of the day, they're human, too. (At least, I assume so.)

Personally, it bothers me a whole lot more when I find a published error in my own writing than when I find it in others'.

 

[KeithD]

Sure it is. I won't link it since that might be verboten, but look up "Kindle Direct Publishing".

It's a platform for ALL publishing. Self-publishing is just one section of publishing. As I posted, nearly everything that's published is released on Kindle as well as other publishing modes. There's no reason to go right to assuming everything on Kindle is self-published. It's not. Not by a long shot.

 

[MetaBob]

There's no reason to go right to assuming everything on Kindle is self-published. It's not. Not by a long shot.

No one has claimed that. You have claimed that "it's not a self-publishing platform", which is false. But of course that's not all it is.

 

[KeithD]

No one has claimed that. You have claimed that "it's not a self-publishing platform", which is false. But of course that's not all it is.

Oh lord fuck a duck. Electricblue's post did run with a self-publishing assumption, and, as I've posted twice Kindle is not JUST--or even mostly--a self-publishing platform. All publishers put nearly their entire list on Kindle. Kindle is a publishing platform period--not a self-publishing platform. The OP's issue doesn't only arise with self-publishing. As I posted, there are mistakes in publishing house published works too. It's not arms and legs.

 

[KeithD]

In just the twenty-three years since I went back to the university for degrees in editing and publishing as a second career and started book editing for mainstream publishers, the standard production process for mainstream books has taken out two rounds of the standard total human reread process--one round from the editing process and one round from the proofreading process. They did this figuring that advanced computerization maintains files better when they are moved around in the process than older handling systems did. It's two fewer rounds of "read by human eyes and processed by a human brain" though. It's made everything a little less pristine. Readers have managed to adjust.

There are mistakes in everything printed and always will be. It's not just a self-publishing issue. What's notable is that "glaring" mistakes like the one the OP points to are actually much easier to survive the process once made than punctuation mistakes are. The mind flips right over them while it's concentrating on the minutia.

 

[Bramblethorn]

You'd think so, but to think that something is published on Kindle makes it "better" quality is delusional. Kindle is a self-publishing platform, so the quality is going to be the same as here - highly variable. But at least you don't pay for it here.

Even big-name authors with traditional publishers sometimes screw up badly.

Last year Naomi Wolf released a book that challenged historical understanding of how homosexuality was treated in 19th-century courts. While she was promoting the book in a live interview, a historian pointed out that she'd misinterpreted a key legal term to mean "executed" when it actually meant the opposite (sentenced to death but recommended for commutation).

The entire US run, already printed, had to be pulped.

I remember some pretty glaring errors about encryption in a late Tom Clancy novel, but I suspect he wasn't particularly concerned with getting it right at that point.

 

[LupusDei]

I love Lit but I also have a Kindle which works well for travel or when I am not at home. One would hope that publishing for pay authors would research enough to not have a sentence that is impossible (unless, of course, one is writing in a genre where the impossible is expected).

Reading a book on Kindle, came across a sentence (keep in mind this is a story about a ranching family) where...they are waiting on Ruby, their STALLION (my caps!) to give birth/foal.

Surely a proof reader or editor should have been used?

You know what else is impossible?

It is impossible to make sure a computer program -- or any other written text for that matter -- is error free. No matter how thoroughly it is tested or for how long it is corrected, the mathematically required time to correct all errors in any given text is infinite.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Reading a book on Kindle, came across a sentence (keep in mind this is a story about a ranching family) where...they are waiting on Ruby, their STALLION (my caps!) to give birth/foal.

Surely a proof reader or editor should have been used?

Maybe it’s a mare that self-identifies as a stallion?

 

[KeithD]

You know what else is impossible?

It is impossible to make sure a computer program -- or any other written text for that matter -- is error free. No matter how thoroughly it is tested or for how long it is corrected, the mathematically required time to correct all errors in any given text is infinite.

If some computer in the processing system mysteriously has its autocorrect turned back on, that can cause havoc in the file as well.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

My stepdad after retirement loved to read the NYT daily. He took great pleasure in using a red felt-tipped pen to circle every typo, incorrect punctuation, and other errors he could find. I don't think there was a single article he read that didn't have at least two or three errors in it.

I've read books put out by Random House and Pocket Books with glaring errors. On book had a character change his name three times over the course of a 320-page book.

The Three Musketeers by Dumas has D'Artaniagn (sp?) get inducted into the Musketeers two different times several chapters apart.

 

[KeithD]

The Three Musketeers by Dumas has D'Artaniagn (sp?) get inducted into the Musketeers two different times several chapters apart.

In the same vein, the Bible has two different creation stories, given nearly back to back, and somehow the Bible continues to be a best-seller.

 

[lovecraft68]

Sure it is. I won't link it since that might be verboten, but look up "Kindle Direct Publishing".

Kindle started with all self published authors because when they first came up with the idea of the e-book...the big six publishers said, fuck this, its not going anywhere.

So kindle was initially stocked by indy authors and blew up-especially erotica.

Of course when it did the mainstream wanted in and amazon said welcome...problem is as soon as the mainstream got in they wanted rid of the pesky indy authors and amazon has beeen doing nothing but fucking them ever since, especially erotica.

 

[lovecraft68]

My stepdad after retirement loved to read the NYT daily. He took great pleasure in using a red felt-tipped pen to circle every typo, incorrect punctuation, and other errors he could find. I don't think there was a single article he read that didn't have at least two or three errors in it.

I've read books put out by Random House and Pocket Books with glaring errors. On book had a character change his name three times over the course of a 320-page book.

The Three Musketeers by Dumas has D'Artaniagn (sp?) get inducted into the Musketeers two different times several chapters apart.

Random House published 50 Shades...proving editing means nothing anymore.

 

[AloneTooLong]

supposedly the author lives in Ohio, this 'collection', four stories about members of the same ranching family seem to have lots of friends, visitors, etc who 'back down the driveway to the main road'. Now previously I lived on a small, five acre place; home was 500 ft from the road, no one ever backed down the driveway. On thousands of acres, I doubt the homes are built almost up at the road. Most folks would have somewhere to do a three-point turn; needless to say I won't be reading/buying anything else from this author. Vent over.

 

[KeithD]

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

 

[TxRad]

supposedly the author lives in Ohio, this 'collection', four stories about members of the same ranching family seem to have lots of friends, visitors, etc who 'back down the driveway to the main road'. Now previously I lived on a small, five acre place; home was 500 ft from the road, no one ever backed down the driveway. On thousands of acres, I doubt the homes are built almost up at the road. Most folks would have somewhere to do a three-point turn; needless to say I won't be reading/buying anything else from this author. Vent over.

Obviously you haven't met some of the old farmers and ranchers that I have. Cantankerous is one word, ornery is another. If they don't feel like visitors or don't like the visitor, they will lock the gate at the end of the driveway. Not wide enough to turn around so you back out. I'm using just that in a novel I'm working on and yes, it is based on fact and someone i used to know.

Signed: An old fart from the country.

 

[LupusDei]

supposedly the author lives in Ohio, this 'collection', four stories about members of the same ranching family seem to have lots of friends, visitors, etc who 'back down the driveway to the main road'. Now previously I lived on a small, five acre place; home was 500 ft from the road, no one ever backed down the driveway. On thousands of acres, I doubt the homes are built almost up at the road. Most folks would have somewhere to do a three-point turn; needless to say I won't be reading/buying anything else from this author. Vent over.

Different country and all, but my driveway is exactly 300 meters (~984 ft) from the road to the gates and there's only one midway point (or at least two, for off-road vehicles) where it is possible to turn around or exchange. There's rather comfortable square in front of the gates where smaller vehicles could make a full loop or even the largest a three point turn safely, but it being unpaved reinforced lawn often in full bloom with little while flowers seem to confuse some, especially uninvited people, so backing all the way out isn't anything unusual at all.

And for that matter, the trash collection vehicle -- arguably the second heaviest beast that use my driveway regularly (monthly) -- choose to back all the way in every time. I have tried to coach them it is possible to turn around at first, but I doubt I have ever seen the same driver more than three times. (The heaviest being propane truck twice or thrice yearly, and it has no problem to turn around.)