I read a lot of advance readers’ copies (ARCs). They all contain some version of this disclaimer:
Uncorrected proof: Please do not quote without comparison with finished book.
I get distracted when I’m absorbed in an ARC and I encounter a spelling or grammatical error. But I don’t begrudge anyone, because I was warned. However, when I read a finished book I don’t expect to see errors. Recently, I’ve been finding a lot of mistakes in published books. Yesterday, at Printers Row Lit Fest, I picked up a copy of Megan Stielstra’s fantastic essay collection, Once I Was Cool. I’d seen a great review of the book in the Chicago Tribune and was eager to read it. I started the book last night and finished it this morning, and I wholeheartedly agree with Beth Kephardt’s review — it is definitely “edgy, funny, surprising, a ricochet of wow”. (I could have done without the profanity, but maybe that’s because I’m not, nor have I ever been, “cool”.)
Here’s one way I know Once I Was Cool is an amazing book: I couldn’t stop reading it even though it was full of spelling errors. “Relator” for “realtor” (more than once); “assessements”; “bounncing” ; “MacBeth”. Every time I hit an error, my reading flow was disrupted. I know that Stielstra knows how to spell those words, and I know she knows grammar. Her mother, a teacher, instilled in her a deep love of reading and also taught her the importance of proper grammar:
Grammar was an important thing in our family. While my friend Becky and I were welcome to ride our bikes to the library, me and Becky most certainly could not.
Spelling and grammar are important to me, too. Am I an uptight fussbudget? Is it wrong that I was annoyed when the people in charge of my children’s education sent home a flyer signed “All the middle school teacher’s”? Or that I feel the urge to correct the chalkboard outside a deli that offers “Fresh sandwichs $6.99”?
Our store is so quaint that we still regularly mail a newsletter to our customers, with book recommendations and upcoming events. Once, someone anonymously sent the newsletter back to us with an error circled in red ink (I think the error was a misplaced comma), with an admonishment: “You need to proofread!” Not very nice, but it certainly made us more vigilant about proofreading.
Once I Was Cool was published by a small press, Curbside Splendor. I’m sure they operate on a shoestring, and I’m willing to give them some leeway. Maybe I’ll volunteer to proofread for them. I once had a job in pharmaceutical marketing and I was required to proofread package inserts for prescription drugs. I was told that if we published an ad with an error in the package insert section, we could be sued and our whole team would probably be fired. (It turned out that our whole team did get fired, but not because of a spelling error.)
Of course, anyone, even a persnickety person like me, can make an embarrassing mistake. Recently, I updated the store’s website with the news that a particular “pubic” library would be hosting an author event. I received a very polite email, with a signature, suggesting that I might want to correct this . . . immediately.
Anyone, including the overworked and underpaid people at Curbside Splendor Press, can make typographical errors. Is it best to point these out gently, or ignore them? I vote for letting people know about their mistakes, in the kindest way possible. In one of my favorite essays, simply called “Nice”, Megan Stielstra says:
If someone cuts you off in traffic, let it go, it doesn’t matter in the grand, glowing scheme of you and me and all of us breathing a little easier. Above all else, when you get home tonight, write these words on a Post-it note: BE KIND, FOR EVERYONE IS FIGHTING A HARD BATTLE.*
Stick that Post-it to your bathroom mirror and read it every morning, before you leave the house:
BE KIND.
BE KIND.
BE KIND.
*This has been attributed to Plat, Philo of Alexandria, and John Watson aka Ian MacLaren. My thanks to all those guys.
I’m a middle-aged suburbanite and probably not Stielstra’s intended reader, but I found a lot of wisdom and humor in her essays. Stielstra frequently appears at live storytelling events in Chicago. I’d love to see her perform — I wouldn’t have to worry about being distracted by spelling errors!
Books on the Table 
It has happened more than once that I stop reading a book because of this sort of thing, particularly when it becomes apparent that it wasn’t just a glitch. (Of course, vernacular is always fine, and I expect that in a novel, particularly.)
Me too! It just stops me in my tracks. In this case, I really liked the book, so I kept going . . . but if I’m not sold on the book, and I come across a mistake or two, I stop.
Yes, I will put the book aside if I think it’s lack of knowledge rather than poor copy editing.
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Yes, that would be very distracting. I am a former copy editor and can’t help myself. I once entered a needlepoint shop and explained to a very young and very bewildered sales clerk that the sign in the shop window should probably have read “Crewel Embroidery” instead of “Cruel Embroidery.”
Haha! You did her a favor.
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I find such obvious typos actually less irritating than ones that show the writer does not know what the word means — like the constant confusion of “palate,” “palette” and “pallet” that I see everywhere these days. Sometimes I let them go. Sometimes I point them out, in which case gratitude for my doing so is rare. I have made stupid, embarrassing errors too, and I have been corrected in unkind ways. It’s surprisingly hard to navigate this difficulty.
I agree –my particular pet peeve is the confusion between “lie” and “lay”.
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I find it a crazy and gratifying challenge to always find a typo in any book or article I read!
Of course, with spell check and auto correct, these little boo boos happen more often that
we like.
Ugh…than!!!! here we go
LOL! It’s easy to make those mistakes.
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I’m with you all the way on this topic. When I see continuous errors in published works, it pulls me out of the story, and in fact after I’ve seen two or three I actively start to look for them. I do think this is the fault of the publisher and not the author, but OUCH. I think many authors are so grateful to be published they probably just sigh and hope for better next time.
I’m sure you’re right, but that would really annoy me as an author!
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I totally agree with you here. Too many typos are not just distracting, they make me question the whole team behind the book and the press. I sympathize with the smaller presses and agree that gentle corrections are the best way to go – if you love the book and have time – but if you want to grow you can’t make amateur mistakes like that.
As a self-published author who is 99.9% sure her books don’t contain any typos, it drives me nuts to see typos anywhere but especially in traditionally published books, no matter how small the press. Us self-published authors constantly have to prove we’re as good as traditionally published ones and if we have a typo in our book, the reviews slam us and say stuff like “you can tell it was self-published.” But traditionally published books don’t seem to be held to the same standard. If I gave up more of my profits to let someone else publish my book for me, I’d expect them to clean up any typos in my manuscript! My pet peeve is “discreet/discrete”. People try to be fancy and then end up not even using it right.
I love finding typos in finished work because it boosts my ego. Lol, but quite a few years ago, when is first started teaching, the principal sent home a letter about a situation that read something about “in order to asses the situation.” I’m assuming he meant “assess,” but you know what they say about assuming, right? Makes an asses out of you and me, apparently.
I read Once I Was Cool, and seeing the errors really made me upset, but as you said, I continued to read. Even though I wanted to set it down and be angry with the lackluster editing, I really needed to read what she wrote.
Thank goodness I’m not alone.