Mistakes in books

[VictoryLap]

Almost every book I've read over the past few years has mistakes in it and it really annoys me! Anyone else?
I could understand if it was someone self publishing an ebook or something but these are Sunday Times Bestsellers etc. And not just one error, but multiple ones throughout.
I don't remember this happening so much several years ago or perhaps I am just more tuned in to it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There was a big mistake in one of books by Alexander McColl Smith.
He credited Joesph Lister with the discovery of chloroform as an anesthetic, when it was James Young Simpson.
I sent an email to his publishers and got a nice polite response saying thank you , & Mr Smith was horrified by the mistake, that he was embarrassed and that it would be corrected in the reprint.

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.

A spellchecker won't pick up mistakes that are valid words and/or not grammatically incongruous - such as the 'sewing wild oats' that was mentioned upthread.

The amount of rainbows in children's books that include pink or colours in the wrong order is incredible.

There's also a book in my nursery with shapes: A picture of a square with "Square" written underneath. Then a triangle with "Triangle" under it. Next is a page with a circle with the word "Round".

@Rhannion

There was a big mistake in one of books by Alexander McColl Smith. He credited Joesph Lister with the discovery of chloroform as an anesthetic, when it was James Young Simpson. I sent an email to his publishers and got a nice polite response saying thank you , & Mr Smith was horrified by the mistake, that he was embarrassed and that it would be corrected in the reprint.

Was it corrected in the reprint?

@elegy

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.)

The Russians had trenches in WW2 and there was also trenches in the Korean War as my dad spent time in more than one.

The amount of rainbows in children's books that include pink or colours in the wrong order is incredible.

Richard of York gave battle in vain ...

The French and Germans also had trenches.,

Yes, the mistake was corrected in the AM McC book, I made a point of checking 😄

@VictoryLap

Almost every book I've read over the past few years has mistakes in it and it really annoys me! Anyone else? I could understand if it was someone self publishing an ebook or something but these are Sunday Times Bestsellers etc. And not just one error, but multiple ones throughout. I don't remember this happening so much several years ago or perhaps I am just more tuned in to it.

I wish you would have clarified whether you're speaking of factual errors, vocabulary errors, or proofreading errors.

I see mistakes everywhere, and not just in recently published books. I have a good few used books of varying age, all featuring annoying typos, inaccuracies, repetition of words, and misspellings.

Punctuation errors too.

I recently read a book which quotes “British Author Oscar Wilde”.

It made me really angry so I emailed the publisher explaining how insulting it is for Irish people to be put under the British umbrella.

It may have been a genuine mistake but its such a sensitive mistake to make.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

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

There’s a book I’ve got that had a character called Ysandre in it. Later on, in the same book, she’s referred to as Ygritte

Not quite the same thing as clearly a printing error, but my copy of Lucy Mangan's "Bookworm" repeated the first 38 pages. I have no idea how the printers didn't notice the obvious thickness change of the book.

I am enjoying The Thursday Murder Club, but am unreasonaby annoyed that it starts in Waitrose in Tunbridge Wells. It doesn't have one. I am disgusted.

@Dontgetyerknicksinatwist

Could this be a sign of standards slipping in schools?

No people have always made mistakes. I'd say it's a sign of the commodification of print literature. Books don't make as much money as they used to so publishers have to put more and more out. It stands to reason that there just isn't the same amount of time to spend editing as there used to be.

Came across “Dr Martins” recently.

I could understand if it was someone self publishing an ebook
I self publish ebooks, read about 30 times throughout the process, have 5 readers and I pay an editor and proof reader. Please please don't make comments like this (am sorry if I sound cranky but this attitude is so prevalent. Just because our books aren't in print and aren't literarily commended doesn't mean they're not quality products). And the reason for mistakes now (it's generally thought) is that the publishers have cordoned on that the only way to make money now is quantity so while they try to keep quality, they're also working with almost impossible turnaround times so they have in some cases a year to promote and get into awards etc

@HilaryThorpe

I am enjoying The Thursday Murder Club, but am unreasonaby annoyed that it starts in Waitrose in Tunbridge Wells. It doesn't have one. I am disgusted.

I was annoyed that someone got a home shopping delivery from Lidl!