Typos: Who Cares?

[Apache]

Originally Posted by issybird

The second spelling is incorrect. Correct is jewellery.

That's what I get for not being in a hurry.
Apache

[gmw]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is not horror. It is a post-apocalypse sci-fi story. A very dark one, to be sure. But it is not a horror story.

Thanks. Given the title and the cover I saw on Wikipedia I just assumed ... and you know what they say about that.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm not an "immersive" reader at all, and I tend to blow off the occasional typo** rather easily.

I'll blow off the occasional; but if a book is rife with them, yes, I report them. Why should I not? I better than most here know exactly what happens with Amazon and KQNs (Kindle Quality Notices) and all that, but whose fault is that? It's not Amazon's and it's not mine. I've paid for that book. It's being sold to me as a professional, commercial product. It's not being posted on a writing group's site, or on Scribd or Wattpad for free. It's a product--period.

If I'm getting yanked out of the story consistently with homophones and typos and broken paragraphs, you can betcha that I'll use the button to report it and YES, I will also mention it in the review. Again--the author should have made more of an effort. Swapped proofing with another writer. Used a critique group or service. All those things can be done for free or with the investment of a bit of time.

If it's not done, again--not my problem.

** And no, my use of "the occasional typo" does not equate to the error-laden work of untalented, uneducated, and unprofessional "hacks" (like some in this thread seem to want to make this issue all about for some reason). I use it to refer to the "normal" amount of typos (including by the most professional of authors/editors/ publishers) that has always been a part of preparing novel-length works for distribution, in any format, since the beginning of books.

Agreed. I'm not going to turn Berserker over a handful of typos. But if I'm skimming Amazon and in the LITB, I run across the "Forward," that's an immediate fail for me, because that's an immediate Early Warning System that tells you that the author didn't use a proofreader or an editor, or have ANYONE ELSE even look at the accursed thing.

I've recently run across a surprising number of typos, etc., in a series in which I know that the author is doing quite nicely. (Sales rank). This latest book was well along in the series, like Book 9-10. He's making money and he has Beta readers that he thanks. Unless they were unconscious, he must not have used them for this last one and obviously did not use a proofreader. WHILE making pretty damn good money. That feels very disrespectful toward his fans and readers, to me.

Hitch

[Uncle Robin]

Not a typo per se, but the sort of slip that does make me pause - reading Martin Walker's Fatal Pursuit, a character says "I studied Romantic Languages at university". I found that jarring since they're Romance languages, not Romantic Languages (though of course many say they're both)

[DNSB]

Hmmm... one book my wife was reading where the author wrote: "He spewed filthy names at me as he filled several syringes with heroine." Hmmm... is that the higher class stuff like Smith and Smithe?

[Frenzie]

Sounds like a videogame powerup. The kind of stuff Lara Croft injects herself with when she's in danger of becoming a boring archaeologist.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Hmmm... one book my wife was reading where the author wrote: "He spewed filthy names at me as he filled several syringes with heroine." Hmmm... is that the higher class stuff like Smith and Smithe?

OMG, just perfect. I did indeed literally lol. (LITERALLY!!!).

Hitch

[Jack Torrance]

I don’t read a lot of small press books. If anything it’s 99.9% novels from the big publishers.

That said, I’m not a grammar Nazi by any stretch and it has to be pretty glaring problem for me to notice. I’m more apt to notice a continuity issue than a typo and can’t recall a single book I’ve read that didn’t have one.

So even the newest Steven King, Tom Clancy or anyone that’s popular that I’ve read I’ve found a typo. No ones perfect and if the story is good and I’m involved I’ve probably glossed over more than I can count.

[doubleshuffle]

If you say Steven King, at least be consistent and say Tom Clancie as well.

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

If you say Steven King, at least be consistent and say Tom Clancie as well.

Lol. I left it because we all make mistrakes and autocorrect
Is as bad as we are. It lets our human side show.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

If you say Steven King, at least be consistent and say Tom Clancie as well.

I was going to point out Steven King as well. But when a post ends with Sgt. Hulka's "Lighten up, Francis" it kind of deflates the nitpicking.

[doubleshuffle]

Well, I don't usually nitpick about typos (unless they produce something of humorous value). But in this of all threads, no typo should get a free pass. Says my inner grammar nazi.

[JSWolf]

One thing to note. If you are reading a book that was not recently released and you are finding typos, try downloading it again and reading the newly downloaded copy. You might find the typos have been fixed.

[Greg Anos]

Is there a good word processor with a spell checker available that can handle epubs?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Greg Anos

Is there a good word processor with a spell checker available that can handle epubs?

My recommendation would be to use a word processor and then take your output from that as input to Sigil or calibre's editor. Take the time to learn about styles so you can produce an epub with minimal issues. Sigil has a plugin to import .DOCX files and calibre can convert .DOCX to epub.