Ah, yes, the pain ... the pain of it. When I scan books and see something that looks wrong and check the book and oh no, that's exactly what is in the book, I think, "what will the poor proofer do who doesn't have the book." If the book has more than usual typos, I do mention this in my notes to the proofer.
During the current recession, publishers may be cutting back on copyediting, but I'm pretty sure that the mid 1970s to early 1980s were much worse, especially for paperback publishers. At that time not only was the economy not so hot, but computers had just become cheap enough that even relatively small publishers could afford them. And, hey, instead of hiring all those expensive copyeditors, they used computerized spelling checkers. This isn't just guessing. At that time I went to a lot of science fiction conventions. Writers complained about how many typos they found in the final printed copies and they were told the spelling checker says it's ok.
Misha EVAN REESE wrote:
I know exactly where you're coming from here, and I feel your pain. The temptation to fix typos in the original text can be very hard to resist. And these publishers have people who are paid to proofread the books they publish.It may just be that I'm getting older, but it seems to me that newer books have more misprints than older books do. The pressure to get books out as cheaply as possible may be taking a toll on text quality.Evan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim Friedman" <kimfri11@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 10:22 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Submitted: Venus in CopperHi, Tracy, boy, do I agree with you! Last time I proofread a book which was so well scanned but when I wrote the submitter saying that the sentence I was reading needed a "The" inserted, I was sent a message saying "Sorry, no can do. The word was not in the text and we have to leave the text as is." I'm sure the author probably wouldn't wish to see typos or missing words in his/her books. So, you guessed it, I had to leave the word out. Regards, KimFriedman. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 7:02 AM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Submitted: Venus in CopperI have just submitted Venus in Copper (A Marcus Didius Falco Novel). I read through it and fixed all the errors I found, and fixed all the headings. Theerrors that are left should only be ones that are in the actual book. Publishers should hire a few Bookshare proofreaders!This book follows Shadows in Bronze. Falco is a PI in ancient Rome. I like to think of him as Sam Spade in a toga. This time, our boy Marcus is hired by a family who think a gold-digger is after one of their members,and allher previous husbands have had fatal accidents. This should be an easy job for anyone who wants to take it on. British spelling and punctuation. Tracy To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list ofavailable commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signaturedatabase 5254 (20100706) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signaturedatabase 5255 (20100706) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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