to wonder how there can be spelling or grammar errors in books?

[dipdapispants]

I don't know anything about publishing a book but I presume books are proof read before being published. I read 2 or 3 fiction books a month. I have seen spelling and grammar mistakes a number of times and can't understand how nobody seems to have noticed before publishing. Sometimes a name can change! One book I read, Edward became Joe for a couple of sentences then returned to being Edward! One author seems to think affair has an e kn the end to make affaire, this is in at least 3 of her books!

Aibu?

Often people make changes after books have been corrected. If proofers are used, they are woefully underpaid (and often not any good for that reason; the good proofers are considered too expensive).

Ha ha!

Because mainstream fiction publishers are the lowest payers in the publishing industry?
Because the publishers just don't care, as readers will buy their books anyway?
Because proofreaders don't get paid much to work on them so the books might not attract the best-qualified people?
Because the author has made changes after the book has been proofread, so the proofer doesn't see them?
Because the typesetter is in India/China and makes a mistake?
Because the printer is in the UK and makes a mistake?
Because an author might not want to have a change made, and if she is influential enough she will get her own way?
Because proofreaders are human and miss some mistakes?

Some thoughts off the top of my head there

The publishing process:
Author writes book.
Book is sent for on-screen editing to copy-editor.
Word file is sent to author, author queries resolved, sent to typesetter/printer.
Proofs come back to author/proofreader/in-house.
Proofs are read and changes are collated onto one master copy.
Proofs sent back to printer, who produces revised proofs.
Proofreader reads revised proofs.
Proofs are sent back to printer, who produces perfect, error-free copy.

:)

I've taken to emailing publishers when they use England instead of GB or UK, or mistranslations in the dictionary. I live in Denmark and the translations are sometimes a bit ... literal. A menneske = A person. No we dont have A and B persons in English. We call them morning and evening people. Drives me insane.

affaire is a word in its own right and has a slightly different meaning.

Because some publishers rely on the authors to ensure spelling/grammar are correct before submission.

I am an advance reader - I get sent a book manuscript and get to read through the work before it is sent to the publisher, amend as necessary and send back. It's great for someone who likes grammar and reading

Don't try reading Detroit 67 by Stuart Cosgrove then. I can only assume they accidentally sent the first draft to the printer. It's shocking.

I read a LOT of crap. I've had two that I had to put down and not finish recently, one described how her step son had been in a 'comma' and the other (crappy American romance fiction) had autocorrected 'Panties' to 'Pan tiles' throughout the book.

Probably my own fault for reading crap.

Human error. I'm a proofreader and yes, things can slip through, especially if you're given a very tight schedule. And yes, later fiddling by the author late in the day which may not get properly checked.
In mass market publishing schedules are getting stupidly tight and this kind of thing happens. Sometimes a book is on such a compressed schedule that it may not get proofread at all.

Flinging that book is self published.

LiviaDruscilla - what a fantastic job. I love reading, and love a good nitpick too. How did you get that job?

Because no one wants to pay proofreaders, copy editors or editors.

Slightly OT but the same is true of national news media websites: the number of errors in online articles (not just bloggers or tinfoil hat clickbait sites) is horrifying.

I found out today, for self-publishing the process generally goes ... writer > alpha readers > beta readers > editor.
I would always have thought the editor would work their magic and the beta readers would be the last call before publishing?

I just got done beta reading for a friend. She's written many books.

Are these self-published books, OP? And if not, are they on the Kindle? I notice quite a few errors in some Kindle books, where the text has been taken from the print version and certain letters have been changed into other ones, the letter l becoming I, for example.

I was going to ask LiviaDruscilla the same question!

I sometimes mention certain errors if I leave feedback on Amazon - especially if it has really annoyed me. One author, in a book which I really liked, didn't distinguish between appreciably and appreciatively and confused vicious and viscous. I just find those really irritating for some reason.

And don't get me started on apostrophes ...!

I'm an editor/proofreader. I work for a lot of self-publishers and many do have their work professionally edited and proofread.

Many don't, however.

That's why 'see inside' in Amazon is such a useful feature!

Kindle editions aren't usually proofread but the creation of an ebook shouldn't result in that kind of error, at least not how I've created ebooks in the recent past.

But when a word is misused, such as 'disinterested', then I think that's been read by the author, the agent and the editor and none of them has picked it up. How can that happen? (I'm not talking about self-publishing here.)

I have used the 'report error' function on the kindle many times. I don't ever seem to be able to find out whether it has been actioned - not that I particularly care, but it does say that you can find this out if you connect the kindle to your desktop account.

Because the use of 'disinterested' and 'uninterested' in becoming blurred and many people don't know the difference, sadly, Imperial.

Oxford Dictionaries: 'Nowhere are the battle lines more deeply drawn in usage questions than over the difference between disinterested and uninterested. According to traditional guidelines, disinterested should never be used to mean ‘not interested’ (i.e. it is not a synonym for uninterested) but only to mean ‘impartial’, as in the judgements of disinterested outsiders are likely to be more useful. Ironically, the earliest recorded sense of disinterested is for the disputed sense. Today, the ‘incorrect’ use of disinterested is widespread: around a quarter of citations in the Oxford English Corpus for disinterested are for this sense.'

But surely one of them should know!

It's not just that example, though; there are loads of times that I'll read something and think, "That's not what that means" and yet it's gone through a number of people before it's published.

Is that the sort of thing you pick up on as a proofreader?

drezilla It is for an author I am friends with on FB - he advertised on his page for advance readers and then chose some of us to do it - it's chaotic when you get a week to proofread a 450 page document but it's fun!

I also proof read for a friend of mine.

It's voluntary so it can be worth contacting your favourite authors (obviously not the hugely popular ones ) and volunteering!

Imperial - yes, they should, and yes, I do. But nobody's infallible. There are certain words I have to look up every time because I keep forgetting their meaning/spelling - but it's easy to do that with online dictionaries!

You also have authors who, despite being told by all and sundry that they have used a word incorrectly, refuse to change it. Add to that lots of young editors who have come through an education system that doesn't teach grammar (even though they might have an English degree from an RG uni) and you've got proofreaders tearing their hair out. Not that I've got bitter experience if this, oh no .

Of this!

I would expect a publishing house to tell me that I could go elsewhere if I thought they were going to print a book with a word that's used incorrectly. It doesn't tend to be the big, established writers who do this, either.