book proofing

[John F]

It seems as though most of the books I read these days have typos or other errors. Has proof reading by publishers gone down hill?

Many of the typos jump out at me when I read the book, and I would think that anyone reading the book would notice the typo, so why not the proof reader?

I mainly read books from the big publishers. I am reading more new releases then I used to. Do typos get corrected in later editions?

[icallaci]

This is a pet peeve of mine. Even if nobody actually proofreads a book before it is published, it's not that difficult to develop some basic regexes to catch the most egregious problems with punctuation and formatting. Spellcheck isn't exactly rocket science. Catching wrong-word-use (i.e., they're for their; its for it's) is more difficult, but if the other problems are minimized, then proofreaders could concentrate on these.

I'm not sure the problem is getting worse but it's definitely noticeable. In early ebooks, I blamed bad OCR technology and a rush to get the books out the door, but now I think publishers have reduced their professional proofreading staff in favor of providing the general public with advance reader copies, hoping those people will catch the worst problems. But I doubt the readers getting free advance reader copies see it as anything more than a way to get free books.

Also, some publishers are worse than others. Some publishers are quite good. In general (and this is VERY general), I prefer publishers with an affiliate in Britain. For whatever reason, they seem to be more meticulous about their work.

Lol, thanks for letting me rant. I thought I was just pickier than others in this regard, so it's nice to see I'm not the only one being driven crazy by sloppy publishing.

[DiapDealer]

In the ebooks I buy, I see about the same amount of typos that I did in print books (pre-ebook). Which is not many.

[Quoth]

Paper books older than maybe 1980 or 1990s seem to have less errors.

The big publishers were getting poorer on quality at least a decade or two before ebooks. I've no idea about later editions as I have hardly any books in multiple editions.

[Kindleing]

My wife buys paperback books and she has been complaining bitterly about this for a couple of years. Big-name authors published by big-name publishers seem to have abandoned proof reading, or at least minimized it. It isn't just typos, but runs the gamut of wrong-word use to mixing up characters. In one book the character driving a car changed from one paragraph to the next without stopping the vehicle.

[ownedbycats]

A while back, my copyeditor friend told me that post-2010, publishers don't really use in-house editors as much and instead rely on freelancer pools. I can imagine this resulting in more inconsistent editing, or even an indication that they're cheaping out by not doing as much editing, but I'm not sure.

I asked him if he knows anything about the decline, will post an answer if/when he replies.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I asked him if he knows anything about the decline, will post an answer if/when he replies.

He simply sent a gif of someone making snow angels in dollar bills.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Kindleing

My wife buys paperback books and she has been complaining bitterly about this for a couple of years. Big-name authors published by big-name publishers seem to have abandoned proof reading, or at least minimized it. It isn't just typos, but runs the gamut of wrong-word use to mixing up characters. In one book the character driving a car changed from one paragraph to the next without stopping the vehicle.

I've done that in a Motorhome with Captains chairs (there is a gap between that and the co-pilots chair).
Cruise control... Very straight Freeway and little traffic nearby
Relief driver kneels in the gap (engine cover) and holds the wheel, while you slide out, they slide in.

[Apache]

I used to do restyling shows in the "80s and we used to do that all the time. We drove full size Ford Vans with Captain's Chairs. I would never do it if the vehicle had a console or a bench seat.
Apache

[Cactus Chef]

I can understand their/they're/there confusion, homographs, etc., but I don't see how honest-to-god typos still get through these days. We're past the days where you have to click the "Proofing" option in the word processor to scan for typos: pretty much any standard word processor will highlight misspelled words as soon as the document is opened. So assuming the author/editor just visually scans each page of the document, the red underlines should shake out any obvious misspellings.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by Kindleing

My wife buys paperback books and she has been complaining bitterly about this for a couple of years. Big-name authors published by big-name publishers seem to have abandoned proof reading, or at least minimized it. It isn't just typos, but runs the gamut of wrong-word use to mixing up characters. In one book the character driving a car changed from one paragraph to the next without stopping the vehicle.

That almost happened to me in my WIP. Fortunately I caught it.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I can understand their/they're/there confusion, homographs, etc., but I don't see how honest-to-god typos still get through these days. ...

I agree "they're/there/they're" I would probably skip right over (among other things) and not even notice. But some things like this from the book I just finished:

Even to the southwest, where we have the fewest aerostats, she would have been pinged for least a few minutes.

just stands out to me and makes me read the sentence again. I can see the author on a roll and not paying attention, but isn't this is what a publisher/editor/proof reader is hired/paid to catch?

[rkomar]

I thought I was pretty good at English grammar, but I don't see anything egregiously wrong in the quoted text. What is the problem with it?

[John F]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I thought I was pretty good at English grammar, but I don't see anything egregiously wrong in the quoted text. What is the problem with it?

Shouldn't it read:

Even to the southwest, where we have the fewest aerostats, she would have been pinged for at least a few minutes.

[rkomar]

Yes, you're right. I automatically supplied the 'at' in my head when reading the quote. I guess I should not become a professional proofer.