Typos in books

@Eixample - I think I'll promote myself to an Alpha, then.

Funnily enough, one of 'my' authors has contacted me this morning to ask if I'll do a first read before the other betas. I'll have to ask him how much he's paying 😄

When I worked in-house and was an editorial assistant, we'd all proofread each others' covers. Each one got checked two or three times. I think (hope!) we'd have picked up on something like that, rush or not. Then again, I suspect everyone in-house is more pressed for time now than when I was doing it.

On your kindle hold down the incorrect word/error and you will get different options. One is to report an error and you can then type details. You will then get a message to say thank you, it will be looked into.
Whether or not they do, I've no idea.

You aren’t correct about that. Many writers, particularly the amateur ones, skip that stage, but particularly very successful full-time self-publishers may have an alpha reader first.

@CrossPurposes
thanks for the link, explains it much better than I could, I must admit I only managed to watch two episodes I think, and I found it too irritating, I was thinking at this rate they will be mentioning facebook! I think it distracted me from the excessive use of the F word

Is it even possible to be a proof-reader with a full time 'day' job? I'd have thought probably not, especially if there are tight deadlines?

You have possibly read this blog post about the anachronisms: montclairsoci.blogspot.com/2019/01/mrs-maisel-expletives-then-and-now.html?m=1

The overuse of the f word drove me crazy even before I found out it was as overused as it seemed.

Re: rooves

In the U.S., roofs is the standard plural of roof; elsewhere rooves is fairly common but becoming less so. The same holds true for an increasing number of words ending in “f.”

It was the same for dwarves / dwarfs, hoofs / hooves as well.

@Riverlee
TV Shows can have this too, Mrs Maisel being the worst offender the language anachronisms annoyed me so much I couldn’t continue watching it

Ouch!! The cover is usually proofread in-house, not by a proofreader, and it's often the last thing to be approved and might be done in a rush...

Reading a book today that has 'rooves', surely it's 'roofs'. Looks ridiculous. Unless a roove is something that was commonly seen on the rooftops of Victorian England.

All the posts about copy editing were interesting and sad, you deserve a decent living.

I have the 'Happy Like Murderers' book by Gordon Burn (about the Fred West murders - grim, but very good). On the cover it has a quote: 'Startlingy original' - I can't believe it went to print with a missing L

Sure, but an example of how being freelance isn't all roses!

I used to work as a freelance copy-editor for indie authors (self-publishers), and charged £28-£34 an hour. But I never cleared as much as £30k p.a.

As others have said, there's all the admin time needed ... and it's difficult to copy-edit for more than four hours at a stretch, because you lose concentration. Plus there are gaps between jobs.

Anyone thinking of training in the field should check out ciep.uk

Maternity pay if you're self employed is a tiny fraction of what most employed women are entitled to, you don't get paid for taking time off for antenatal appointments, etc.

A benefit for some, but totally irrelevant if you have completed your family, or are child-free/childless.

that can be offset by the freedom of being able to choose one's own hours, not having your holiday requests declined, being able to work from home and so on

Having to market yourself constantly to ensure you have enough work, having to juggle work around family life, working weekends or late nights for rush jobs, not having colleagues to hand extra work to. It can take two years to build up enough clients so that you have constant work, and many editors/proofreaders find it takes them longer.

Being self employed might sound like a laugh, but it's a lot of hard work. Maternity pay if you're self employed is a tiny fraction of what most employed women are entitled to, you don't get paid for taking time off for antenatal appointments, etc. Of course there are benefits, like being able to be there when dc get home from school, taking time to go on school trips with dc etc if you want to, but it's hard work.

I have found my people!

Also audio books with words mispronounced! Recently heard the clanger of the Oxford college Magdelen pronounced as written. You can forgive an actor for not knowing but surely there should be a producer picking this up.

I find them in almost every book I read. Even by incredible authors. Found four in a local newspaper the other day too.

Irritating. Wish they'd hire me as a sub 😂

‘being able to choose one's own hours’ sometimes actually means (for me at least) working weekends and bank holidays to meet deadlines, and schedules changing so that projects and deadlines clash and you have to put in extra and/or unsociable hours, or, at the other extreme, being left high and dry with periods of No work and therefore no income. And ‘being able to work from home’ has advantages, yes, but also downsides including but not limited to the ones pied highlights.

If you deducted, say, six weeks' pay for holidays including bank holidays, and a pessimistic four weeks' pay for potential sick leave, you'd still be earning significantly more than min wage.
Again, I understand the lack of security and possibly erratic payment schedules, but that can be offset by the freedom of being able to choose one's own hours, not having your holiday requests declined, being able to work from home and so on

Hmm. See my post from earlier on. Yes, you work from home, but then you have higher electricity and heating costs to offset...

Yes, you can take holidays, but without being paid for them!!

And proofreading is not a minimum wage job!! Most proofreaders have a degree. They should all have specific proofreading training. It is a skilled job that not everyone is suited for!

@Eixample - no one ever talks about alpha readers; it's only beta readers.

An alpha reader is the first reader or in the first group of readers; a beta reader comes second.

I'm not saying it's a marvellous rate of pay when everything is considered, but not all salaried jobs offer sick pay above SSP or a pension with employer contributions, parental leave isn't relevant to everyone; and of course taxes apply to salaried employees.

If you deducted, say, six weeks' pay for holidays including bank holidays, and a pessimistic four weeks' pay for potential sick leave, you'd still be earning significantly more than min wage.

Again, I understand the lack of security and possibly erratic payment schedules, but that can be offset by the freedom of being able to choose one's own hours, not having your holiday requests declined, being able to work from home and so on.

To you, CurlyhairedAssassin and anyone else thinking this: being freelance is not like being salaried. You don’t get sick pay or holiday pay or paid parental leave. You don’t get a pension. All of that (plus taxes of course) has to come out of your hourly rate.
Plus, there may be weeks or months when work is sporadic or non-existent. And even when you do have adequate work, payments may be made weeks late (and sometimes only after much chasing, which damages professional relationships and takes a lot of time). For both of these reasons, your cash flow is frequently all over the place.