Jennifer Hillier

Typo’s

Jun 24, 2010 | Uncategorized

I just finished reading a very funny book by Christopher Moore called BLOODSUCKING FIENDS.  The book’s been out since 1995, but of course you know me… always late to the party.

I loved this book.  It’s a humorous look at a young woman who turns into a vampire.  It has none of the angst or broodiness that I’ve come to expect from a vampire story;  on the contrary, it doesn’t take itself seriously at all.  The subject matter’s a little dark, but the voice is light-hearted and the characters are quirky.  There’s only one thing I didn’t like.

It has typos.

And nothing pulls me out of a story faster than a typo.  You know why?  Because I notice.  And that makes me stop reading.  So I can make sure it really was a typo.  And once I confirm that that Yes indeed, this is a typo I’m looking at and not an ink splotch, the following thoughts run through my mind in this exact order:

How can there be a typo?
Wasn’t this proofread by a whole bunch of people?
Why didn’t the author catch it?
Why didn’t his beta readers catch it?
Why didn’t the agent catch it?
Why didn’t the editor catch it?
Why didn’t the copy editor catch it?
Nobody noticed this in the ARC (advance release copy)?
But this book was originally published in 1995.  There have been multiple printings since then… couldn’t someone have fixed it?
Does the author know about this?
Does it bother him?
It would bother me.
I wonder how many more I’ll spot.
How can there be a typo?

Yep.  Nothing like a laundry list of pointless questions to pull you right out of the story.
Look, I get it, typos happen.  Nobody’s perfect, least of all me.  But six?  In a skinny book?  A skinny published book?  With three of them on the same page?

Tsk tsk.  Or, should I say, tks tks.

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