Technical Inaccuraces

[Pinecone]

Do they bother you?

If so, how much do they bother you?

In my case,they tend to bother me a bit and sometmies a LOT. I cannot understand why authors or editors/publishers don't have some subject matter experts available to check details.

A book I am reading now, within the first 50 pages (epub pages) it had a number of errors. Some minorly bothersome (Congressional Medal of Honor) and some more so (having a US Navy officer talking about "reupping" his "enlistment"). Also several aircraft/military flying errors.

And yes, I have an error in spelling error in the poll title.
In this case, enough that I will be unlikely to buy another book by theis author.

[Lazybones]

They generally only bother me when they are the sort of thing that anybody could discover with a bit of basic research. Unless someone is writing a book about a topic with which they are clearly not familiar at all, I'm willing to forgive an author mistakes that are incidental to the plot. However, if the errors were fundamental to the storyline, it probably would undermine my enjoyment of the book.

[HarryT]

It depends whether the inaccuracies fall within your field of expertise or not. If they do, they can be infuriating; if they don't, the reader probably isn't going to even notice. I wouldn't have known the "Congressional Medal of Honor" was wrong, had you not told me that it was.

[glendalekid]

It annoys me a lot. It also causes me to wonder what other errors there are that I don't know about.

I keep thinking one of these days I'm going to write to Robert Crais and tell him:
a. There are no lightning bugs in Southern California (or anywhere else in CA as far as I know).
b. Seagulls do not fly in a V-formation.
c. Route 66 started in Chicago and ended in Santa Monica - it did not go to
PA or anywhere else east of Chicago.

Even though he is originally from Louisiana, he has lived in So. CA long enough to know better. If he doesn't know, he should check it out. For me, this kind of error is jarring to the flow of the story line.

From another author, I've recently run into nightingales singing on the east coast of the U.S.

[susan_cassidy]

Yeah, I'm a birder, and I've seen stuff where an author just makes up a bird name, as if s/he couldn't be bothered to find a real bird species.

I've also seen revolvers with silencers (not normally possible), and all kinds of astronomical errors. like confusing galaxies with solar systems, etc.

It tends to make me not trust the author's storyline a bit, depending on the importance of the error(s) to the storyline. I may not buy any further books by that author, if the errors are egregious enough.

[ekster]

It depends on the genre of the book and the type of error...
If it's historical, I am not very forgiving. Best example is (even if it's not a book) Hollywood's version of WW2. I can't help but roll my eyes and get put off by it 99% of the time.
However, if it's fiction based in the past, I will be more forgiving if someone gets something minor mixed up.
With sci-fi, if I see an effort by the author, even if there's an error, I'll let it slide.
And due to my work experience, anything that involves accounting or computers becomes hard to accept if I see minimal/no effort. You don't run through the numbers of a multi-billion company by glancing at a random report for a couple of seconds, nor by spending a night going through a box full of paper and then find their 10 year effort of stealing money. Neither do you hack a computer by sitting down at a random computer and start typing stuff. As hard as I try, I just find it -really- hard to accept it because it's my field of work and I know it a bit too well.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Although I tend to get irritated at technical errors, I'll just roll my eyes and get on with it. I find the odd tech error to be easier to forgive than a four page info-dump on Soviet era nuclear submarines or Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic diffusionism.

[Thierry.C]

For me also it depends on the kind of the book.
For a reference book: irritating, even more so than usually you only learn later on, too late, that it is wrong or blatantly inaccurate. I'll forgive but lose confidence.

For historical retranscriptions or fictions based on real facts, lots of errors can irritate me but I do not bother too much and can usually take some pleasure with the rest of the story. However, it's quite annoying and it rises questioning when an author writes about a subject s/he obviously don't master even though that subject is the main thread of the book...

For fictions without any intention to relate real facts or "credible" facts (such as devices that challenge laws of physics in sci-fi), I do not bother at all if it's coherent overall.

Arrogant authors bother me much more than ignorant ones.

Thierry

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It depends whether the inaccuracies fall within your field of expertise or not. If they do, they can be infuriating; if they don't, the reader probably isn't going to even notice. I wouldn't have known the "Congressional Medal of Honor" was wrong, had you not told me that it was.

That's true, but at the same time, if the story is obvious fantasy, you can check your mind at the door.

For instance, glaring science mistakes in Space Opera don't bother me at all (well, maybe a little*), but if it's Science Fiction, they do.

*When people go out in space and immediately freeze.

[Apache]

I remember how shocked I was when watching Star Wars and Han Solo used it as time. It almost ruined the movie for me.
Apache

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It depends whether the inaccuracies fall within your field of expertise or not. If they do, they can be infuriating; if they don't, the reader probably isn't going to even notice. I wouldn't have known the "Congressional Medal of Honor" was wrong, had you not told me that it was.

I will go along with this.

It applies to movies as well.
Example: Three Kings with George Cloony.

During the period in question, NOBODY just up and went anywhere out in that desert.

All troop movements were authorized in advance with a roster made of who would be on each detail. Troops at checkpoints verified vehicles on the move to see if the personnel matched the rosters. If there was any question the post radioed both the originating unit and the command unit. Under no circumstance could anyone of any rank bloviate their way through a checkpoint, and an Officer or NCO of any rank that tried any such thing was going to have a real unpleasant consequence for the attempt - as would the troops manning a checkpoint that allowed it.

[pidgeon92]

The entire original post bothers me. If you are going to complain, at least be accurate.

[RichL]

Why in the world would I even finish a book let alone buy another when I can spot technical errors in it?

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It depends whether the inaccuracies fall within your field of expertise or not. If they do, they can be infuriating; if they don't, the reader probably isn't going to even notice. I wouldn't have known the "Congressional Medal of Honor" was wrong, had you not told me that it was.

I agree with this. If I don't know there's an error it doesn't bother me.

However, if I know it's an error I can be quite forgiving if it's fiction. I think there needs to be a balance between the time taken to research and the time taken to write an engaging story when it comes to writing fiction. So for fiction, for me it's a matter of degree.

I'm a bit darker on logic errors in the storyline. I'm reading a book where a woman is lying on a bed for the first part of the scene and is then suddenly rushing into her lover's arms when he enters the room. Because there's no mention of her standing up, it reads like the author forgot where she was. This sort of thing creates a problem for me while reading because I sense a subtle (or not so subtle) disconnect. I don't always feel this with an incidental technical error.

I can still be harsh on some errors though - ones that require almost no effort to verify. If an author tried to tell me that Sydney was the capital of Australia I'd be pretty pissed as it takes nearly no effort to come up with the correct answer.

[xg4bx]

in science fiction they could completely make up the science, i'm not about to check.