Mistakes in books

I would actually say that a book with certain errors can spoil it totally. Like the example I gave of a Korean word being misused repeatedly - it sort of took me out of the fictional world if that makes sense? Like the story became unbelievable to me because I couldn’t believe that a Korean character would repeatedly make such an odd mistake. It began to feel like reading some sort of online fanfiction/amateur writing because it felt like an unprofessional mistake to make.

I wonder why more of it isn’t caught in word processors for the more obvious spelling/typo mistakes though? Is that a bit of a stupid question? I would just think Microsoft etc would catch the majority.

Yep, but with a fridge, it works or it doesn’t.

I don't agree. I've had fridges where various parts stopped working over time - the light has conked; the temperature dial stops working, one of the glass shelves gets cracked, the seal on the door is a bit iffy ... but it still functions basically as a fridge.

The level of error can be acceptable or unacceptable

The problem with error-riddled books is that it reduces confidence in the product, so you're less likely to shell out, say £15, for a book because past experience tells you it might be disappointing.

I will pay more for what I see as a 'nice edition' of a book I know and love; I also try to support local independent bookshops rather than defaulting to Amazon.

The odd 'typo' doesn't really bother me; it's more glaring continuity errors or lack of elementary research that have me hurling a book across the room.

Yep, but with a fridge, it works or it doesn’t. A book without an error (typo or otherwise) probably doesn’t exist. The level of error can be acceptable or unacceptable, and I agree you don’t want to buy a substandard book. But generally we are relying on human subjectivity to get books through, there are are always going to be things missed when reading text. Good editing and proofreading costs money, significant amounts. I work for a publisher that is willing to pay these prices, but for many this is where they save money. Blame the supermarkets/Amazon who want to sell for the lowest price, and the consumer who thinks paying more than a tenner for a book is a rip off. It’s a tough, cutthroat industry to be in.

Please tell my bosses that- it’s not up to me! Plus no one is going to die if there’s a typo or error in a book. We take in confidence what an author supplies and catch what we can. It’s not an exact science.

Yes, I realise it will be the chief execs who are responsible, not the front line - always the way .

No one will die from a kaput fridge or being overcharged on their mortgage but there'd be hell to pay from Trading Standards/the FCA if the relevant organisations tried to say they were short-staffed, so simply relied on errors being reported by the consumer after they'd bought the product.

I work in publishing - please do send them in! Often we work at such breakneck speed there these things slip though

Would that be an acceptable excuse in any other industry? Imagine it - 'your new fridge might not work properly because we're too busy at the factory to quality check them - please just let us know.' 'The interest on your mortgage might be wrong because we're short staffed at the bank - just let us know.'

Your industry shouldn't be relying on readers to do its work for it. If you are over-stretched, whoever is in charge needs to hire more people. Proof-reading can be done from home, so no excuse not to,

A book set in Stalin’s USSR had a plot line involving someone paying school fees. Mind boggling.

In journalism, as mentioned above, the mistakes are because sub-editor roles have been slashed almost everywhere and most get their journos to proof their own stories. They become word blind after a while, and they have targets (sometimes up to 10 stories a day) so I forgive that.

Books wise, yes, I have noticed it. Random ? in the middle of words, random misspelt words. Once I saw a name that had never appeared before and never appeared again – I assume a character name change.

I quite like spotting them tbh.

The Dinner Guest had me constantly ranting. I’ve never read a book with so many errors. Ages and dates changing as well as typos. I started to think I was being trolled by the library I’d borrowed it from or something.

I downloaded the sample chapter of The Flatshare, and was enjoying it well enough until I got to a bit about the hero (who works in a care home) helping one of the elderly residents trace someone he knew in the war. Apparently they had served in the trenches together, which came as a shock to me and made me wonder if I'd missed the book being set in the 1980s or something, as no one in a care home these days would have been old enough to serve in WW1...

Nope, apparently she meant WW2. A fast moving war in multiple theatres with no trenches. How did no one pick that up?

(I didn't buy the whole book.)

@NoSquirrels I am a boring pedant but I’d love to see some examples of Marilyn from the late eighteenth century.
Point taken about Hurdy Gurdy, but still…

One of the many things I love about my kindle is that I can report every single content error. I find it greatly satisfying. I've no idea if anyone ever reads them, but at least I feel I've done what I can.

Completely agree with PPs: the wrong names for the period and the jarring Americanisms from English/Scottish people. If you are an American who writes a book set in the UK, surely you should ask a British person to at least scan the dialogue.

Caroline - yeah, fair enough! But, OTOH, I’m not sure you’re supposed to take that book seriously, so…

I was reading a biography of someone who is autistic and there were two mistakes in it. It must drive the subject of the book crazy.

Yes yes to names! Two recent, literary, highly-acclaimed historical novels spring to mind: Blood and Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, set in the late eighteenth century with a character called Marilyn, and Hurdy-Gurdy by Christopher Wilson, a jolly yarn of the Black Death featuring the Widow Caroline. I can’t take a book seriously with an error like that.

I work in publishing - please do send them in! Often we work at such breakneck speed there these things slip though, and the people who work on the editorial side of things are looking after 20+ books at a time, it’s inevitable things get missed…

Yes! The names! When people of different generations have the same "type" of names. Like the mum and daughter being Tiffany and Brittany. When the mum should be Linda because nobody aged 50 is called Tiffany

I think it’s hard to find any book without at least one mistake.

I think it’s genuinely impossible. And people who work in publishing are pretty inured to it!

One of the things that irks me is when an author picks names for characters which are utterly wrong for the time.

Oh yes. Historical romance authors are especially prone to doing this. Or giving characters names that are quite wrong for their social background. An English aristocrat with an Irish name, for example.

One of the things that irks me is when an author picks names for characters which are utterly wrong for the time. I read a crime novel recently which was published in the late 1980s and featured a group of teenage boys, born in the early 70s, and the names included Len and Norman. Those names would have been very old-fashioned when I was a child and I am well over 10 years older than the characters. The author was thinking of names that were in use when he was a boy, I think, before WW2.

Enid Blyton.... is dreadful for it, probably because she churned out so many.

Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, of the Chalet School, is known for her continuity errors. But she wrote so many books, over such a long period, often at the rate of two, three or four a year. Keeping track must have been virtually impossible.

I don’t think it’s anything new - I have always noticed mistakes in books, since I started reading Enid Blyton, aged four, who is dreadful for it, probably because she churned out so many. I think it’s hard to find any book without at least one mistake.

I just finished The City We Became, which annoyed me by having a British character speak like Spike from Buffy (ie like no Londoner I have ever heard) and throw “pound notes” when the book is set in the present day. It annoyed me more because the intro made a big thing about all the sensitivity consultants the author had apparently employed to make sure she represented all cultures fairly. ( that’s a bit tongue in cheek, I do recognise getting British culture wrong is not the same as stereotyping, say, Native American culture.)
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There are a lot of proof copies around. If you buy from a charity shop then it's likely it's a proof copy. I don't understand how a decent publisher can allow mistakes like the ones above. There is such a stringent editing process that it seems almost impossible. I would always write to the editor about errors in a paid book.

Yes!! The idea that the son would have a personality transplant midway through…just ridiculous. All of it made less sense by the time they tied up the endings.

I listened to it rather than read it, so at least the errors didn’t upset me!