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Book editors / publishers at large - please read


Julien

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Sorry to shout but you guys really need to hire decent proof readers.

I seem to be finding more and more errors in books these days. They are not massive glaring errors, but many small ones. Photos incorrectly captioned, aircraft miss-identified, and in some cases info just palin missing.

It just seems to me that costs are being cut a little too much. If I am paying anywhere between £10 to £50 in some cases for a book i do not really expect to find these kinds of errors.

Julien

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Sorry to shout but you guys really need to hire decent proof readers.

I seem to be finding more and more errors in books these days. They are not massive glaring errors, but many small ones. Photos incorrectly captioned, aircraft miss-identified, and in some cases info just palin missing.

It just seems to me that costs are being cut a little too much. If I am paying anywhere between £10 to £50 in some cases for a book i do not really expect to find these kinds of errors.

Julien

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Sorry to shout but you guys really need to hire decent proof readers.

I seem to be finding more and more errors in books these days. They are not massive glaring errors, but many small ones. Photos incorrectly captioned, aircraft miss-identified, and in some cases info just palin missing.

It just seems to me that costs are being cut a little too much. If I am paying anywhere between £10 to £50 in some cases for a book i do not really expect to find these kinds of errors.

Julien

hi Julien

just palin missing....think you need a proof reader :analintruder: roflmao

cheers ian :innocent:

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Others errors are a lot easier to see than your own, I'm afraid. Has anyone noticed the Spellcheck button on top right corner of the posting window? Looks like an ABC with a tick next to it. First time you use it, you'll be prompted to download the software and install it. Thereafter it's available to use at a click of a button. Very easy :)

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Sorry to shout but you guys really need to hire decent proof readers.

I seem to be finding more and more errors in books these days. They are not massive glaring errors, but many small ones. Photos incorrectly captioned, aircraft miss-identified, and in some cases info just palin missing.

It just seems to me that costs are being cut a little too much. If I am paying anywhere between £10 to £50 in some cases for a book i do not really expect to find these kinds of errors.

Julien

But seriously guys - Julien is right! If you look at books published 10 years or more ago then you rarely find mistakes. A year or so back I bought Roger Brooks' first Victor book. I loved the book but it was packed full of howlers (so many that I started again from the beginning and made a note of each one!) and it cost almost £30. I e-mailed Roger and he said that he just wrote it and didn't proof read it. That was a Pen and Sword book - note how many titles they bang out each month! - I would have happily volunteered to proof read that book and actually e-mailed P & S to volunteer in general terms but nothing came back(!) I bought Roger's volume 2 - not quite so many mistakes but a few. The publishers seem to be sacrificing quality for quantity, which is very sad. I must say that, in my experience, Osprey don't have that problem - but then maybe the American market wouldn't like it?!!!

(Don't think I've made any literary SNAFU's there!!)

Simon

Edited by Simon Cornes
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Others errors are a lot easier to see than your own, I'm afraid. Has anyone noticed the Spellcheck button on top right corner of the posting window? Looks like an ABC with a tick next to it. First time you use it, you'll be prompted to download the software and install it. Thereafter it's available to use at a click of a button. Very easy :)

no mike, doesn't show on mine

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For what it is worth, there has never been a 100% correct issue of the bible........ mind you a proof reader for that would need to be on something to do the whole book. it is a lousy read with no proper storyline.

Edited by TonyT
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no mike, doesn't show on mine

Suspect it's an Internet Explorer only option. What browsers are you guys using?

Oww stop taking the Micheal.

Micheal Palin that is. :P

Oh, and it's Michael :tease::dunce:

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Unfortunately, spell checkers only really work if you can spell.

Otherwise you end up with the wrong versions of where were, their there, faint feint, plain palin etc., etc.

Mike

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Sorry to shout but you guys really need to hire decent proof readers.

I seem to be finding more and more errors in books these days.

most publishers don't bother copy-editing or proof-reading or expect their authors to deliver perfect text. As proof-reader you'll probably only get the text for a few days and if the author is a non-native speaker as is quite often the case then it's impossible to correct absolutely everything in the time frame allowed.

Edited by FalkeEins
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I recently bought a reprint of HMS Illustrious The Fight For life which was originally published in 1955. It soon struck me that an original copy had been scanned with OCR software and reprinted without any proof reading. For example "the" has been consistently replaced by "me". That's a fairly obvious one but others are not. It takes a little while to work out that "unproved" should actually be "improved" and "eapcnditure" should be "expenditure". Other words just don't make sense.

The occasional typo can be mildly irritating and some times amusing but I've only reached page 17. :(

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The occasional typo can be mildly irritating and some times amusing but I've only reached page 17. :(

currently reading Zetterling/Tamelander's 'Tirpitz' (Casemate) - 'lookouts' has become 'outlooks' all the way through the book..

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(Don't think I've made any literary SNAFU's there!!)

Yes you did!!!??! Twice!!?!!??!!!

But I agree. Those Victor books are either the densest concentration of cock-ups in history, or just two: the whole of part 1, and the whole of part 2. And it goes way beyond typos - the language used bears only a passing resemblance to English. But as a rule, I've found most books are still pretty good, and International Air Power Review and related titles were mostly exemplary. Model magazines, on the other hand - don't get me started on the standards in them ...

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From experience, it's best if the proof reader has no knowledge of the subject, that way they do not read what they expect to read thereby missing obvious errors!

Absolutely, I can't check my own work because I know what I wrote! I've just done my first attempt at proof reading and because it was a subject dear to my heart, I kept missing things and seeing things that were not there.

Strangely I found that by working back from the last paragraph on a page, it all became much easier. Breaking the expected patterns, I expect.

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