For all my fans and supporters, I wanted to share a real quick post reminding you about my next book’s KickStarter campaign. It’s a great way to help support my publisher, play a part in the release of The Dragonswarm, and get your pre-order placed for the book.
We only have two days left on the campaign, so if you were thinking about participating, now’s the time!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/consortiumokc/the-dragonswarm-the-dragonprince-trilogy-2
I enjoyed Taming Fire however one of my pet peeves are books that are not rigorously edited for errors. It leaves the impression that if an author does not care enough to read the story, why should we. In this case on page 35 you use the word “lesson” instead of “lessen” most likely due to the reliance on a spell-checker. Regardless, I look forward to the next book.
You make a good point, and one I like to stress to new writers.
Unfortunately, Taming Fire really doesn’t make a good application of that point.
I do appreciate your bringing this typo to my attention. I’ve fixed it in the source, and we’ll replace digital copies of the book with the correction within the next week.
But, that said, one typo on page 35 doesn’t qualify as “not rigorously edited for errors.” It especially doesn’t indicate an author does not care.
Now, before I back that up, I want to point out that I don’t mean this response as a bitter argument or valiant refutation of your claim. I’m responding in detail because I do vehemently support the point you’re making, and I know a lot of my readers feel the same way, but to practice that opinion effectively you’ve got to calibrate your sensitivity a bit. That’s easy enough to do with a little glimpse into some of the nitty-gritty details of the writing and publishing world.
I’ve spent ten years working a day job as technical writer, and tech writers like rules. In this case, our general rule is that a professional writer who is doing his job well should be expected to make approximately one typo per 1,000 words. That’s after spellcheck, after careful review, after doing everything he can to fix his document.
Incidentally, 1,000 words comes to 3-4 pages. An author who consistently manages to go more than 3-4 pages without an error has done about as much as he possibly can, just because of the way the human brain works.
And that’s why respectable publishers employ copyeditors. It’s a copyeditor’s job to catch and fix those errors. And that’s half the reason I wanted to reply to your comment: Taming Fire received a thorough concept and copy edit from the incredibly talented Jessie Sanders, and she deserves credit for the work she did.
In this case, the error you caught was word number 11,388 in the novel. That means that even if I’d done absolutely as much as I possibly could to make the novel perfectly error free, Jessie probably caught and fixed at least 11 errors before she missed this one.
In fact, I know she fixed a lot more than that because (until I received her editorial feedback) I had a poor grasp on a particular aspect of comma-use. And I abused that error pretty heavily. She probably fixed at least one comma error per page. The woman’s good at what she does.
I promise you that any publisher in the world would be happy to have just one error per 10,000 words. Of course, there are probably more than that. It’s quite possible you missed a couple or didn’t make note of them.
(It’s also possible you spotted dozens and this was just the one you read before posting this comment. If that’s the case, please let me know and we’ll look into it. That’s not the impression I got from your comment, though.)
But books are made by people. They’re edited by people. There will always be some amount of error in any manmade product, and anyone who actually wants to produce something has to come to terms with that.
If I demanded 100% absolute perfection before any book was released, we would never release a book. Ever. But one error in 10,000 words comes out to 99.99% perfect.
As an author with a deep concern for the quality of my craft, as an artist, and as the head publisher of Consortium Books, I am entirely satisfied with 99.99% perfect.
Jessie really deserves a raise.
Thanks for your reply. I have a hard time rebutting because I do understand that we are all human and make mistakes (as I did in my first post). Regardless, I do not agree that we should be satisfied with almost perfect. Would you accept 99% correct accounting from your bank? What if every fourth page of a technical manual wrote 12 instead of 120 when discussing voltage? As a professional, published author, as well as an educator and mentor, you have the responsibility of providing a “teachable moment” with every word you use. It is not just a wrong word used once but the potential perpetuation of that mistaken usage by thousands of others who read your writing. We are facing an epidemic of incorrect language. Two of the first three books I downloaded had errors. It is near impossible to read a newspaper, magazine, or blog without finding errors. Perhaps we are unable to produce a perfect manuscript because we removed the expectation of perfection.
Let me reiterate that “Taming Fire” was extremely well written. I enjoyed the story and your style. As mentioned, I look forward to the next book in the series.
Wow anonymous, you must be like God. Are you that perfect in all that you do. Or do you have nothing in your life except to find one misspelled word in a book. It’s a novel for pity sake meant to entertain and give enjoyment, not a technical manual of instruction. (unless of course your off to fight a dragonswarm).