proofread

eBook Plague – Errors Aplenty

“Annoying.” “Very irritating.” These are just a couple of the most common descriptives readers are using when talking about their frustrations with the numerous errors in e-books.

These readers are asking Amazon and other e-book distributors for refunds without finishing the books….and they’re getting them. This should be Chapter 1 in the “Don’t Let This Happen To You” handbook for indie writers.

It’s such a prevalent problem that there are entire forum threads in which readers are complaining about this problem. To give you some idea of their feelings, one of those readers said, “I really believe that writers need to make an effort and deliver a product worthy of what we are paying for it.”

Another contributor voiced a similar feeling, which sums up the sentiments of most, “When I pay for a book, I want it to be done correctly.”

Yet another reader had great advice for writers, “Stand out in the crowd – make that effort, and give readers the best experience possible. They’ll thank you with repeat business and recommendations.”

Information like this is extremely valuable to indie authors because it gives us important insights into what readers want, don’t want, and won’t tolerate. And let’s face it – once you turn a reader off with so many errors that they can’t read on, they’re not likely to give your upcoming books a chance.

So how can an author produce the cleanest copy and best possible experience for his/her readers? Some rely on proofreading software, but that doesn’t always do the trick. Here’s why:A Girl and Her Fir Coat

1. Much like spell checking tools, many times it will allow incorrect words to remain unquestioned because they’re spelled correctly.

2. It won’t always pick up repetitions of words or phrases and so many other things that require a trained human proofreading eye.

3. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) scans are notorious for misreading certain letter combinations, especially in certain fonts: “th” can be misread as “til”, “1” instead of “i” or “l”, and “rn” is misread as “m”.

Rampant misspellings, punctuation errors, characterization problems (among the top three complaints), and spacing issues should all be corrected before you publish your book, especially if you introduce it through a limited time free offer – lots of readers take advantage of those offers, and word will quickly spread if they are annoyed by errors. As the saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”.

Don’t take chances – nothing beats the accuracy of a sharp, trained, professional proofreader’s eye.

Hot Today, Cold Tamale…Another Menu Misspelling

Restaurant menus are fertile grounds for misspellings that are either funny or create double entendres. This one actually gave its customers the wrong impression, as the entire dish was hot:

So this hot dish has a chilled sauce? Interesting.... ;)

So this hot dish has a chilled sauce? Interesting…. 😉

The funny thing is that “chili” was used in almost every dish on the menu, and it was correctly spelled everywhere else! Sometimes I think restaurant owners do these things on purpose just to give us a chuckle. 🙂

Proofreading 101: The “Mined” Chicken Incident

Here’s a fun little typo from a restaurant menu – it insinuates that the chicken was actually mined, the way diamonds or gold would be.

Mined chicken

Funny, I always thought that chickens were farmed, not mined! 😉 That proofreading error – “mined” instead of “minced” – flashed this image in my mind:

"Mined" chicken!

“Mined” chicken!

Another case where a detached second-party proofreader would have caught and eliminated the error!

Ironic Forbes Error

This misspelling – and obvious proofreading oversight – was in a June 2, 2013 Forbes article titled, “Book Publishing May Actually Save Itself”. What’s ironic is that the error appeared in an article about publishing! And the misspelled word, which should have been spelled “Hackathon”, was the subject of most of the article.

Forbes misspelling

Forbes’ sales probably won’t decline due to mistakes like this, but books, articles, or publications without as much credibility – especially those just trying to establish themselves – may not fare as well. It’s always best to have your work reviewed by a detached expert.

Be Careful How You Flash Those Descriptives…

I was reading a take-out restaurant menu when I came across this description – look at the orange word on the first line:

homely vegeterian food menu 2

“Homely” vegetarian food? In America, that would insinuate “plain, unattractive” food. I’m sure that’s not what they were inferring!

But in British English, that would mean “homey” food, like the kind of good home cookin’ grandma would make. In fact, “homely” does have a second, almost opposing American definition in Merriam Webster as “being something familiar with which one is at home”, but that’s a bit of a stretch for a menu listing.

You can see from this example how using a word that’s not quite right could stop readers in their tracks while they try to figure out what you’re saying. And that stops the flow of your story and can – if it happens frequently enough – stop them from reading your work altogether.

While “homely vegetables” might just cause a pause, a snicker, and a raised eyebrow, “homely” used in other less-than-ideal ways would lead to completely wrong impressions:

“She was thrilled with the homely gift he’d given her.” Any red-blooded American woman reading this would wonder why she didn’t kick him out the door!

“His hug gave her that homely feeling, and she knew she could spend the rest of her life with him.” Because “homely” is more commonly used in American language to mean unpleasant or unattractive, an American reader would wonder why an ugly feeling would make her want him at all.

So even though your word choice may be technically correct, it’s always best to think about how your readers will interpret your words. Then your concept and their interpretation will be in sync.

Wall Street Journal Gaffe

Believe it or not, this typo appeared in the May 20, 2013 Wall Street Journal article, “Considering an Underground Park in New York”. Spell check doesn’t pick things like this up. Yet another glaring example of why everyone who writes needs a proofreader!

Wall Street Journal quote typo

Two To Too Many Misteaks Mistakes Spoil the Story

I wrote a guest blog post about why it’s so important for authors to have at least one “outsider” proofread their work, whether they’re indie or mainstream writers. I started the article with a simple illustrative statement:

“Errers can be distracting.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been pulled out of a story because of spelling or grammatical errors. Any time the reader surfaces from the depths of your writing because of mistakes, you’ve created a weak link in the chain of your story. You may even get some negative reviews because of it.

If you think you can count on spell check or grammar check, you’re very optimistic. They can’t pick up on wrong word usage (effect vs. affect, online vs. on line – there are a million of them) and many times their suggested changes are absolutely incorrect.

Spell check once insisted I change “it’s in the living room” to “its in the living room” and “you’re a good distance away” to “your a good distance away”. And grammar check has missed incorrect tense usage and suggested pluralizing words in singular situations. Go figure.

And take a look at this crazy message spell check gave me when I was proofreading a client’s manuscript:

Too many errors

 

It says, “There are too many spelling or grammatical errors in…to continue displaying them.” Imagine if that manuscript hadn’t been professionally proofread and was self published!

A friend sent me an email that also illustrates this; it’s funny, yes, but unfortunately all too true:

Eye halve a spelling chequer; it came with my pea sea.
It plainly marques four my revue miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word and weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write.  It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid, it nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite. Its rarely ever wrong.

Eye ran this poem threw it, I’m shore your pleased two no;
Its letter perfect in it’s weigh. My chequer tolled me sew.

So yes, pay attention to the suggestions made by grammar and spell check, but don’t automatically trust them to be correct. Nothing beats a good knowledge of language and word use – or the trained eye of a professional proofreader/editor!

Seinfeld DVD Proofreading Mistake

Check out this Seinfeld DVD cover which has a major proofreading mistake:

There's an extra "s" on Season!

There’s an extra “s” on Season!

Do you see the extra “s” on the word “Season”? How could they miss that?

Many people may have checked this cover before it was published, but it takes a trained eye to catch tiny but crucial errors like this.

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