It Wasn’t Me – It Was Them, Honest!

There’s another disturbance in the Force lately – a rending of garments and gnashing of teeth about typos in books. Comments on the blogs and websites generally point the finger of blame toward editors and publishers.

I’d like to respectfully suggest something else is at play here.

First of all, I hate typos. They drive me nuts, so this is not an excuse for any typos in my books. Quite the contrary, as a matter of fact.

It used to be that you would send a manuscript to your editor via FedEx or UPS. I, personally, have kept Fed Ex drivers coming to my house for years. It had nothing to do with the fact that my particular driver looked damn cute in his shorts and his name was Lars. Really.

Nowadays, most publishers use digital delivery. I email my manuscript to my editor.

It used to be that the physical manuscript would go to the copy editor. She would mark it up and send it back to the writer with questions.  Regrettably, this still happens.

It used to be that the physical manuscript – after changes from the author and after being reviewed by the managing editor – went to the typesetter.  The typesetter was a human. After typesetting, the galley proofs were sent to the author, who then checked all the typesetting to ensure things were copacetic.  The writer was a human.  Most mistakes happened at this stage.

Nowadays, after the author reviews the physical manuscript, s/he delivers a digital copy to the editor. (Seeing a trend here?) The digital copy takes the place of typesetting.  After the printing company receives the digital copy, they format it, print out page proofs, and send it to the editor who sends it to the author.

So, when a writer looks over her page proofs, she’s looking at the same manuscript she’s already seen two thousand times.  That’s how typos slip by.  Because the author is the final judge, the final say, the absolute buck-stop location. I’d be willing to bet that most of the typos began in the original manuscript and just carried on throughout the process.  That includes malapropisms, repetitive words, etc.

In the last three months, I’ve judged a couple of writing contests. I always warn the judges that I’m tough. I really expect to see perfect manuscripts if you’re sending out your work to be judged.  I suspect that I won’t be asked to judge two of the three contests again. Ahem.  I scored low for typos, bad formatting, things a careful author should have caught.

I suspect that, sometimes, a similar manuscript will find its way to an editor’s desk. But, really, there’s no excuse for sloppiness – from anyone.

EDITED TO ADD: Just in case you think I’m perfect (Ahem), check out the post on Crutch Words.