Writing is really hard! It’s fun. It’s cathartic. There’s literally nothing I would rather do. But still, it’s hard.
And no matter how many times I read, re-read, and re-re-read a book, no matter how many developmental editors, copy editors, and proofreaders go through the book, there will still be typos and mistakes. Plus, with each round of edits, new mistakes can be introduced, which can slip through the cracks.
Some typos are embarrassing. Some are downright funny. Spoiler alert: I’m not perfect! There are a few mistakes that have made it through multiple rounds with professional editors, but the real doozies are the ones that are caught before they make it into the reader’s hands. Those are the ones I’ll share with you now for a little peek behind the curtain:
Let’s start with one that makes me giggle. The copy editor found this gem. Copy editors are the unsung heroes of publishing. Not only can they make a moderately educated English-as-a-first-language writer question everything they ever learned about grammar and punctuation, but they also catch those itty-bitty gotchas that everyone else has missed. Maybe the next time I order coffee, I should ask for oak milk (instead of oat milk) and see if anyone notices.
Spell check is awesome, and it’s getting better every day. On top of obvious misspellings, most word processing programs can catch commonly misused words. But sometimes, a writer is thinking “concrete” and “cement” simultaneously (I mean, seriously, I have to look up the difference every time) and what comes out is “cerement.” Which would be great if it wasn’t an actual word that the spell checker recognized and didn’t flag. Luckily, it was caught by an editor, and I learned a new word!
Here’s another case where spell check isn’t going to flag legitimate words even if they make zero sense. This one, thankfully, I caught before it went to the editor. I must have read this line a dozen times. Each time, I stumbled over it without ever figuring out what was wrong with it. For the record, the not-boyfriend was interrogating her. Not integrating her.
Don’t you just absolutely hate bug bits? I mean, sure, they’re annoying. All those legs and wings just lying around and … oooh. I think I meant bug bites. I have some of the best, most amazing editors and beta readers. This one was caught at the last proofreading.
This one will always have a special place in my heart. I believe this was a copy editor catch. They were very nice about it too. “Perhaps there was a stuffed parrot on his shoulder?” Next time I have occasion to dress up like a pirate, you better believe there will be a stuffed pirate on my shoulder.
But seriously, this is the perfect example of how a dozen people can read something and never notice that anything is wrong. Our minds automatically smooth out the rough spots. It takes a very special person to catch mistakes like this. The next time you’re reading a book that has typos or errors, enjoy a chuckle knowing you found something that slipped through the cracks but please don’t assume that the author, critique partners, and multiple editors that worked on this book didn’t care. They just missed it.
I can make all sorts of excuses for this one. In the first version, it was a 1964 1/2 Mustang. Later, it was changed to a 1965 and I forgot to delete the 1/2. Luckily, an eagle-eyed editor looked this up and pointed out that Ford made a 1964 1/2 and a 1965, but there was no such thing as a 1965 1/2. The absolute worst part of this mistake? I drive a 1965 Mustang. I know better.
There are many, many eyes on a book long before it goes to print. Books go through multiple rounds of revisions and edits. There’s the developmental editor who focuses on content – does the story flow? Does it make sense? There’s the copy editor who finds consistency errors, checks grammar, and catches all of the your/you’re their/there mistakes. There’s pass pages to review and a proof reader, not to mention critique partners, early readers/reviewers, and of course the author themself. And still, sometimes, wacky errors slip into print. And that’s when your group chat of besties (*waves to the Little Screaming Eels*) blows up in the middle of the night because your main character just buckled herself into the passenger seat and drove off, alone in the car.
I rest my case.
