Typos, printing errors and other annoying things in publishing

Yesterday I received one of those dreaded emails.  Someone reported a printing error in one of our books.  The last 8 pages or so were missing.  MISSING!!  At the end of a mystery, that is horrendous.

So how does that happen?

Well, something like this, pages printed upside down, or out of order is generally an error made at the printers.  A signature (a large chunk of pages) is inserted upside down or out of order.  In the picture, that signature was cut improperly and then bound into the book.

When books come into the warehouse, we check them for accuracy.  But we do not check EVERY box that comes in.  If we get 100 cases of a new book, we will spot check, unfortunately, we may miss a few boxes of misprinted books.  When we are made aware of an error, we check our stock and then proceed appropriately.  Generally we have to scrap the inventory and the printer reprints.

But in the case yesterday, the problem fell on us.  Somehow the formatting on a book we were sending to reprint got all messed up.  There were page breaks where we didn't put them and that threw off the flow, therefore cutting off the last eight pages.  We pulled our stock and corrected the file.  New copies will be in the warehouse in less than a month.

Well, what about typos?  yep, mistakes happen.  Doesn't mean we have to accept that and publish an inferior product.  But at the end of the day, remember that humans work on these treasures we call books.  And humans are prone to errors once in a while!  Honest! 

Back in my bookseller days, I would occasionally hear a customer complain about a typo.  Either the author or the publisher was blamed.  The customer would proclaim they wouldn't read books by that author again.  Really?  While a misused word or a typo might bother me, unless the book is riddled with errors, I can forgive that.  Afterall, I have probably made several typos in this blog post!

If the book has a printing error, all publishers will replace that book for you free of charge.  Take it back to store where you purchased it, and the store will replace it or refund your money.  The store then sends the book back to the publisher for full credit.  If it's a Midnight Ink book, you can call our customer service line, 1-800-THE-MOON.  We'll take care of you!

But if it's an editing error, a typo, etc, what do you do?  Do you have an extreme reaction?  Does it completely throw you from the book?  Or like me, are you a forgiving reader?  (well, within reason...)

Guidance from Senior Editor Becky Zins

Sometimes authors run into a bit of confusion because here at Midnight Ink/Llewellyn, authors have two editors.  I am the acquiring editor - the gatekeeper, so to speak.  I acquire manuscripts and often do a revision or two with the author before I formally put the book into production.  My revision requests are generally developmental - I don't correct grammar...



That job falls to the production editors.  I picked on one editor today, Becky Zins and asked her a couple questions.  First I asked if she would provide us a short description of her job:

I like to approach a fiction title with the goal of making a comprehensive style sheet that includes not only place names, brand names, etc. but also a list of the characters and their relationships, physical attributes, and quirks. Timelines are also something I keep track of. Characters frequently have name changes throughout a ms from earlier incarnations of the story, so keeping a style sheet is crucial. Also paying attention to physical details—if a character walks from a café to the store down the street at the beginning of a chapter, but at the end of the chapter leaves the store and jumps on their bike, then there's some tweaking to do. Perhaps the most challenging aspect is judging whether a character's actions, motives, or speech is consistent with how they've been set up so far in the story, but that's another important aspect of the editorial process.

How about a list of do's or don'ts?  Or, what would make your job easier?

As far as do's or don'ts for authors, I would suggest that if they're not already making up a style sheet for themselves, maybe they should think about doing so. The more mistakes that are fended off before submitting a ms to a publisher, the better, because despite our best efforts, errors do get overlooked! So if I were writing a novel, I'd have a comprehensive timeline, list of characters, and list of terms or phrases that I would want an editor to retain instead of change (for example, say I have a character who repeatedly screws up some aspect of the English language—it's part of their zaniness—I don't want a well-meaning editor or proofreader to come along and make them sound like an English professor!). Submitting this along with the ms would assure greater communication between author and editor(s) and proofreaders.

So there you have it - helpful hints from a production editor!  If you had the ear of an editor - what would you like to know?  Becky would be happy to answer more questions.  She's a sweetie.