Quote:
Originally Posted by mldavis2
I think there is a factor being overlooked. In the U.S., a capitalist driven economy, profit is everything. Pbook publishers are seeing their tactile products being overtaken by eBook purchases which means there is less customer feedback through traditional booksellers (i.e. pBooks returned with complaints of errors) and lower prices expected from savings on paper, transportation, middle-man profits (B&M stores) and re-stocking returns. With lower prices comes less profit unless authors are screwed and/or publishing percentages are raised. The obvious short-term (and what capitalist is willing to deal with long term success these days) solution is to send them out 'as is' and hope the author knows how to run his/her spell-checker. Only when customer ire reaches into profits will proof-readers be re-employed. Right now, thousands of them are being laid off by major publishing houses and the results are painfully obvious.
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Where are these thousands of proofreaders/editors being laid off to be later re-employed??
I think most people here have an entirely exaggerated idea of the number of proofreaders/editors that exist in the entire world... I know of NO publisher that has thousands of them, let alone hundreds... this formerly respected job has been heavily destroyed over the past decades as a cost-cutting exercise and a mistaken belief in the power of spellcheckers and other computer aids. Decent proofreading is a skill that requires some time and effort to acquire especially once you've got rid of the existing employees... If any of those who proof professionally as freelancers or publish care to comment, they will say the same...
You can get a small number of people doing out-of-copyright material for love (and they'll tell you that proofing a book isn't some half hour read but a labour intensive process) but you cannot suddenly produce a cadre of proofreaders from thin air...