My sister-in-law emailed me about a book her husband brought home from Barnes & Noble that was replete with errors –she counted dozens. “There’s three or four mistakes on every page.” She didn’t get beyond the first chapter. She asked me how mistakes like this can happen. I typed up a long email about how a book goes from draft to publication:
· Author writes book.
· Editor reads book. Likely asks for some changes or highlights problem areas.
· Author revises book. Sometimes step two repeats.
· Book gets line edited and copy edited (for some houses, these are separate steps and the author incorporates the line edits into the electronic file, which then goes onto production. For my house, this happens at the same stage.)
· Marked up hard copy is returned to author often with “queries”– inconsistencies or questions the copy editor had (i.e. “Your heroine was blonde in chapter one but a brunette in chapter three . . . did she get a dye job? Explain.”)
· Author answers queries, makes any additional changes to the book (sometimes inserting or cutting complete scenes), “STET’s” copyeditor changes she doesn’t agree with, then sends the whole manuscript back in.
· Production puts all the changes–line editor, copy editor, and author–into the document and produces “page proofs” which are also known as “galleys”–they are formatting for print.
· Author is sent page proofs. Major changes are discouraged–if you make too many, you’ll be charged for them. But this is the place to catch any mistakes–typos, anything you missed in copyedits, tweaking words here and there, making sure the line editor/copy editor/author changes were made correctly, making sure someone doors that are open stay open and doors that are closed stay closed, unless someone is walking through them . . .
· Some houses, like mine, have professional proofreaders that read the page proofs along with the author. Any page proof changes are sent back to the production coordinator who transfers all changes to the master document from all everyone.
Lots of checks and balances, but also room for error. Mistakes happen. I’m usually pretty forgiving of mistakes provided there’s not too many.
But dozens of mistakes in the first chapter alone? I asked my sister-in-law who the publisher was. She said iUniverse. Ah-ha, I said. She then explained that the author was signing at the local store and my BIL bought the book from him.
I’m not here to diss self-published novels–even big NY houses have errors in their books. But most readers don’t notice who the publisher is when they buy a book–and most readers think the errors, no matter who the publisher, are the author’s fault.
Sometimes they are.
I had one typo that my mom found in THE PREY (a missing word.) I had one reader point out a plot inconsistency. (My villain said to himself that he was nervous to be “going back to Texas,” but on a previous page I had made the point that he’d never been in Texas.) Good catch. I remember in the page proofs of the same book I had a character leaving the room twice. I caught that one, but not the Texas reference.
But when I was reading the page proofs of THE KILL, I noticed that many of the changes on the copy edits hadn’t been incorporated into the proofs. I panicked a bit, emailed my editor, and she told me that production was already aware of it. Whew.
Even with all the checks and balances, mistakes can happen. A good friend of mine with her debut novel coming out in May 2007 posted on my blog that four people had read her book specifically for errors before it went to her editor, and all of them found different errors.
So don’t blame the author, or the publisher, or the copy editor, for the occasional mistake.
That said, sometimes the mistakes are glaring, like my Texas problem in THE PREY. Or when the map I used for Seattle in THE KILL didn’t show an impassable barrier and I had a person biking through it 
Without mentioning authors or titles, what is the worst mistake you’ve seen in a book?
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Oh, the worst mistake I’ve found in a book was my own. LOL. It was in the ebook version of Layover. The characters were in Seattle and instead of seeing Mt. Ranier, they saw Mt. McKinley (in Alaska?!?) We all scratched our heads over that one, I ran a contest, and then corrected it for the print version.
What are you gonna do? I’m far more forgiving of mistakes in books now
I’ve found a few typos in my own books, but I’ve been pretty lucky so far with the print versions.
The mistake that sticks in my head is a well known romance author whose heroine changed ages – first she remembered an incident happening to her at age 13, later in the book when she recalled the same incident she was 14 and finally she was 15 when it happened.
I’m forgiving.
Not so much a typo, but in a certain fantasy book by a well-known author, the MC’s wife was killed by a mare in the beginning of the book. Half-way through the mare suddenly became a stallion.
And now that I’ve mentioned it, I just know that I will let a similar mistake slip through, should I ever be published.
A June blizzard stranding the h/h near San Antonio, Texas. I laughed myself silly.
I can include one from my own books also– at the end of Cougar Lake a character was pregnant with a girl–in the sequel she had the baby: a boy.
No one seemed to notice it for several years–and when someone read them back-to-back and told me, I just said the sonogram must have been wrong. LOL
I was proofing my ebook for print and found where I’d written organism instead of orgasm.
LOL I blame spell check for that one. Because ewww…who wants to have a organism?! 
I don’t even want to think of having multiple ones…
I read a book once where characters are at a summer picnic in western America (can’t remember if it’s memorial day or fourth of july — something), and then, at the end of the book, the heroine follows the hero to New Zealand — by FLYING THROUGH EUROPE, ridiculously — and finds him on a hike in the south island wearing a tank top and shorts. Um, it’s the dead of winter there, hon. The dead of winter in the land of penguins. Frostbite, much?
My publisher also printed my galleys from half of the copyedited manuscript and half of the uncopyedited manuscript. That was fun.
Also, there’s this one reader who emails me all the time to tell me about errors they claim to have found in my book. They are never correct, but it concerns me that they spend months looking.
This is the funniest one that sticks in my head, and although it’s minor, it did tick me a bit.
In one of the Stephanie Plum novels (can’t remember which one), one of Stephanie’s pals or rivals supposedly was a NY Giants cheerleader.
Except the football Giants do not have cheerleaders. Never did, probably never will.
That was jarring, esp. as Stephanie went along with it.
BTW, I still enjoy reading the series, because I think everything else is spot on (and my hubby works in Trenton, so its doubly fun).
~Nancy
http:/writerlystuff.blogspot.com
The worst mistake I’ve seen was actually on the back cover copy. They spelled the hero’s name wrong. I think they left out a letter or two.
The heroine’s name misspelled on the back cover copy. How about the plot wrong on the back cover copy, not once, but twice?
I shall not even start on grammar errors. They are particularly heartbreaking when you correct them.
Especially when the founder of the Kwanzaa holiday’s name is completely wrong.
I could go on, but I might cry because these are true, very personal stories.
Ann, I sympathize with mistakes in our own books. I cringe when I find them. It’s like, how many people missed it? Some are totally my fault. I just got a query from my editor about a timeline issue. It’s not a timeline problem, it’s a name problem. I may have typed–and completely missed the umpteen times I read it–the wrong victim. But the production manager, who hasn’t read my book before (or at least more than once) wouldn’t know that and would assume it’s a timeline problem.
I’m pretty forgiving of mistakes. There’s some that annoy me more than others, but typos and missing quotation marks don’t get to me.
Now my best friend has HUGE problems with errors in books! LOL — especially when they’re character issues.
Bernadette, I caught an age change in my copyedits for THE PREY. Originally, my heroine had been traumatized when she was eight, but my editor felt she wouldn’t have been mature enough to do what she did (I sort of didn’t agree because I have an exceptionally bright daughter), but I changed the age to 10 and everyone was fine with it . . . except where I missed an “eight” in the middle of the text!
Thank you Bernita
We love you.
C, the author probably thought being killed by a stallion was much scarier than being killed by a mare (which is such a nice word!)
LOL Darla. I started SPEAK with a rain storm, then did a little research because I forgot the rainy season in Southern California and realized that there’s actually very little rain in February. I also had the heroine bundled up, but the weather is actually quite temperate. I’ve been to San Diego often, but only in the summer. So no rainstorm in my book
ROFLOL, Robin! My best friend had a sonogram that told her “boy” and she ended up having a girl. I’d believe it!
LOL Diana. I didn’t know until just a couple years ago that Australia was in the winter when we were in summer. I’d probably make the same mistake! (Well, I’d probably email a writers on-line group and ask someone . . . )
Anon, I’ve heard of readers who do this. I had one reader who told me about an error in THE PREY. It was a good catch and I told him so, and in fact told him that I’ll expect him to find all the mistakes in my books (urging him indirectly to buy the other two, LOL) and he emailed me back apologizing, saying that he very much enjoyed the book but just want to point it out incase the book goes into another printing. I don’t even know if we can make changes in next printings, I’ve never asked . . .
There you go, Nancy, I never knew the NY Giants didn’t have cheerleaders. Yeah, I’m pretty forgiving of mistakes when I like the author. I love the JD Robb series, own all of them, even in hardcover, and there’ve been a couple inconsistencies over the series, but nothing I’d get worked up over. It’s still a great series.
Monica, that’s awful. Back cover copy is the worst, and I’d cry too. Especially since authors have very little input in the back cover copy, and sometimes they get printed without us seeing them. I’ve been fortunate there, but I’ve heard other stories about cover copy. Cyber hugs going your way . . .
One of the most glaring ones for me was on the FIRST PAGE of a very well known NY Times best-selling author’s 12th book in a series. People were walking down the “isle” at a wedding instead of an “aisle.” It happened three more times in the subsequent pages, so it wasn’t just a missed typo. A year later, the paperback had the same error even though something else in the book had been changed.
In ‘The Chamber’ John Grisham calls Jack Daniels bourbon. Its not. Bourbon can only come from Kentucky. Jack Daniels is Tennessee Sipping Whiskey. He also placed Mississippi in the 9th Circuit of Appeals in Atlanta. Its not. Its in the 5th out of New Orleans. This guy used to be an attorney, IN Mississippi.
In my book I had the heroine in a tweed pantsuit in August, in Alabama! Fortunately I caught that one myself. I would’ve had a fit if someone else had.
One error I didn’t make, but somehow came out in the final version is bubble but, instead of bubble-butt as I wrote it. I have no idea who changed it, but my husband caught it in the printed book!
And the granddaddy of them all: My name is misspelled on the cover! Aaaaarrrggghhh!!!
My favorite mistake isn’t in a book but in the song “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”. Everytime I hear the line “Picked up a boy just south of Mobile,” I laugh. I was in Mobile once and the only thing SOUTH of it is ocean, so unless they were in a boat, I don’t think they picked up anybody!
My pet peeves are using there, their, they’re and where, wear incorrectly. Drives me insane! I had one book where the author kept talking about going to they’re yacht. *banging head* I wanted to rip the pages out and throw them across the room.
In an old Dana Fuller-Ross book a baby is rescued from a burning covered wagon by a prairie dog. Yep, a prairie dog. Or at least that’s what they call said creature all through the book. It’s described as a coyote, and I’m sure that’s what the author meant, but it kills me that whoever wrote that book (note, there is no “Dana Fuller-Ross, it’s a pseudonym owned by the publisher) apparently didn’t know there’s a real animal that IS a prairie dog, and it’s basically a giant gopher.
I spent hours laughing over the image of a fat gopher the size of a pug leaping into a burning wagon to rescue a baby. In fact, I’m still laughing.
So let’s count: the author didn’t know, the editor didn’t know, the copy editor didn’t know. Seemingly no one in the larger metropolitan area of Manhattan had ever heard of a “prairie dogâ€. Guess they don’t get out much . . .
A recent release from a NY Times best selling author – a secondary character’s last name changes halfway through the book. Grrrrr. This from a BIG pub house.
In another book by a well-known romance author, the h/h go to Bermuda and lay on the powdery white sand. Um…. Bermuda is FAMOUS for it’s pink sand. And trust me (as a Bermudian), it isn’t powdery.
There were at least two mistakes in the book I just finished but both were in the last few chapters. There are a few other books I’ve read where there were mistakes, but they were few and far between.
Still waiting to see my first published novel (e-mailed reports say Wolf Hunters is on the shelves in PA and NJ, though it’s not due out until next week)but…
On the BattleCorps website I have a series of novellas that follow a group of mercenaries called the Chaos Irregulars. Because these stories are set in a licensed universe, in addition to the usual series of editors there are also continuity checkers who make sure all stories on the site remain consistent.
To the amusement of all concerned, somewhere between “Decision at Acamar” and “Crossroads at Outreach” the executive officer’s gender changed from male to female. (Despite several requests, I have no intention of writing a story about the transformation.) Fortunately, with digital publishing it was easy to go back and make her a woman from the beginning.
Over the years, I’ve read several books set in New Orleans. Some of them mentioned the horse drawn carriages in Jackson Square. When I first went to NOLA for RWA in 2001, I went to Cafe du Monde and saw the line of carriages across the street. I pointed them out to my friend, “Look, there are the horse-drawn… no, wait, those aren’t horses. They’re mules!” Now whenever I see horse-drawn carriage for NOLA, it jumps out at me.
Recently, I read a book that used Columbia for the country Colombia. I might not have noticed had my editor not corrected that goof in my manuscript.
Speaking of my work, my aunt noticed a name switch. The particular character never appeared in the story and was only mentioned at the end as part of the ‘bringing down’ of the bad guy. Leave it to this particular aunt to notice, bring it to my attention, and tell me that she thinks a book should be perfect.
Can’t remember the title, but the book was about a rock star from N. Ireland who couldn’t divorce his first wife – there being no divorce in Ireland. His solution was to contemplate bigamy. Of course, N. Ireland is part of the UK, and he could have got divorced. Always wondered what the author felt when she realised the error.
The error in the book I treasure is the advice of one jail-escapee to another on how to travel unnoticed through the N. Irish countryside. You just greet any passers by with a merry ‘Top O’The Morning!’. [And try not to trip up any leprechauns with your shillelagh, either.]
I think the worst I have come across was an erotica ebook with tons of spelling errors and plot problems that didn’t match up or get resolved.
I can’t remember the titles exactly, but I’ve read at least four stories (two were romances I believe) where horses change color from one part of the book to the other. I figure it was a revision error. Yet I’m pretty forgiving–it doesn’t matter much to the plot what color the car/horse is.
Ten, LOL on the isle! There are some words I always spell wrong. In SPEAK NO EVIL, I spelled “bandanna” with one “n” (bandana). Two “n”s just didn’t look right to me. Fortunately, the copyeditor fixed them all
Oh, Roslyn! Your name! I’m sending you a cyber hug, too
(and I didn’t know that about Grisham’s book! But I’m not from the south, so I probably wouldn’t have caught it.)
Cindy, that’s hilarious! Now I’ll never be able to listen to that song again without thinking of you
Kalen, that reminds me of a conversation I had with my editor about “A-frames”. Being from Northern California, an “A-frame” is a specific type of cabin with a steep roof. Very common where it snows. To me, “A-frame cabin” is redundant, because an “A-frame” IS a cabin. But if you’ve lived in the city your entire life, you probably don’t know that. So I did end up changing the first reference (for clarity), but called it an “A-frame” through the rest of the book.
But even I know what a prairie dog is!
Wylie, that’s the problem with writing about places you don’t know. I made a little problem writing about Seattle. Big mistake, really. Some people weren’t as forgiving as others. My next book as a disclaimer in the acknowledgments because of it, in fact.
Regarding the name change . . . bizarre. It must have happened in the final stages and maybe they were slammed and didn’t catch it. I had to change a name in THE PREY during the copy edits. I missed ONE–found it while reading the page proofs (whew! Mistake averted).
Sara, I think that’s common. Virtually every book I read has an error or two. As long as it isn’t a major story error, I’m lenient. Mistakes happen.
KeVin, good thing it was digital! Though I do think that readers are forgiving for the most part. JD Robb ended up changing Dr. Mira’s backstory at one point. It doesn’t bug me in the least. When you have a series going on 20 books, sometimes the details get lost–as long is it isn’t a major story detail!
Oh Mary, I’m sorry! I think we writers (and our loved ones) are the toughest. My husband had a fit because I used the wrong word. He was right, I was wrong. But I didn’t sweat it. He nagged me about it nearly every day and, probably because he nagged me (he read the revised manuscript and I was working on the page proofs of the same book), the “error” slipped my mind completely. He then asked it I fixed it when I told him I sent the page proofs back. I said, “What error?” I ended up looking at my proofs and emailing my editor to ask her to change the word “succumb” to “submit” as in “submit to a DNA test.” Hubby told me he would be embarrassed beyond belief if I let the error go through.
LOL Marianne.
Terra, I’ll admit I haven’t read a lot of ebooks. Maybe four. One was really good, but it was a NF book. The others all had errors. More than print books? I didn’t count, but they were obvious, maybe because they were ON the computer and that’s where I see mistakes best. I don’t know.
Suisan, maybe the horse had a dye job . . . Glad you’re forgiving! My heroines almost always change eye colors. I don’t know what it is with me, but I mess them up ALL the time, even when I write everything down in a book bible.
Allison,
Mistakes…I don’t always see them in other people’s works, but in mine??? Oy! I can read my work two and three times and still miss errors (missing words, characteristic changes, typos, etc.) I even read my stuff out loud to try and catch everything. So when I miss a mistake, I feel responsible, because I know that with small press houses the author is considered the point person for catching errors. *sigh*
I do seem to be getting better at catching things though. Reading out loud TWICE is a real checks & balance type of thing.
The funniest one I saw was an erotic romance where the hero thought about his *bullocks* tightening at the thought of the heroine.
I encountered similar mistakes by the same publisher in consecutive books last fall. In the first, the husband snapped off the radio two pages before end of chapter – then the very next chapter started with the wife (who was in the car with him!) turning off the radio.
In the second book, two characters were at a diner and the owner brought them cups of coffee, chats a bit, leaves – and then the waitress shows up with the coffee they had been waiting for. It really turned me off that series for a while.
It’s versus its. Drives me nuts. Just a tiny little thing, but enough to jolt me out of a book every time. Sigh.
A paranormal by Tor Romance. Drove me nuts when Outremer was spelled Outermer several times. And there were lots of other misspellings and various typos. Honestly, I never could bring myself the finish the book after all that in so short a page count. And sadly, I read another book my that line and found lots of typos. Which has made me extremely leery about reading more, although I have a few on my tbr pile.