A Reader's Rant

I first noticed it a few years back; errors popping up in novels. It is a pet peeve of mine. In published books, I expect correct spelling and grammar, at least where it isn't a deliberate use by the author. When the publisher is a company that's been in the business for at least 25 years, I expect they know what they're doing and how to do it right. Surely, they know how to edit a book, especially for something as simple as spelling or grammar.

Or not.

Take this sentence from “Flirt” by Laurell K Hamilton as an example. “He smiled flashed that brilliant white smile in his tan and left me to my menu.” Say what? My first thought on reading it was, well, that's some crappy writing. But that's the thing, it isn't really. It is really lousy editing.

I've little doubt she meant to use one or the other – smiled/flashed – for that sentence. I suspect when she wrote it, she couldn't decide and simply put both in. It's logical, something I've done myself when writing a piece. That's where good editing comes in.

You could say, Ms Hamilton should have caught it. Perhaps. As an author, you can read something over and you'd swear that word simply wasn't there. You know what you want it to say, and your brain just reads it that way for you. Been there, done that. The difference? I had it pointed out to me by ... someone editing the piece for me.

Another example is “The Shimmer” by David Morrell. In the book, Morrell switches between various characters in different chapters. His main character is named Page, but he also tells the story from the perspective of a number of other characters.

In one such chapter, he is relating the conversation between two men, neither of them the hero of the piece. But suddenly, there on page 88, one of those characters is now Page. But wait! No, it is not Page. It's just another example of poor editing.

Now, I truly doubt Ms Hamilton was the only one to edit her book. I am certain Mr Morrell's book was looked at by others, most of them in the publishing industry. So why, with the possible number of readers who looked at these manuscripts before publication, does not one of them catch the error? Too much reliance on spell/grammar checker? Was it only ever looked at in digital form and somehow this affects the editing process? I don't know.

What I do know is this: every time I read one of these errors in a published work, it bothers me. Often, it ruins a perfectly good scene, throws off the flow of the story. And that really is unfortunate. It does a disservice to the reader, but equally, it fails to properly present the work or the author. Bad editing makes the author seem like a poor writer.

It should not be too much to ask for a publishing house to, at a minimum, provide adequate editing services. After all, isn't that what they get paid for? They are telling us it is. In the last two weeks, they've published articles stating that the cost of ebooks is largely determined by the cost of editing. If that's the case, they need better editors.

Given the costs of books or ebooks, the least we as readers, and frankly authors as well, should expect is a decent job of editing. Surely it is not too much to ask that they, as publishers, provide an error-free product. The pleasure of reading a good book should not be compromised by lousy editing.