Some readers are indulgent about typos and production errors they find in books, and stolidly tolerate them as yet another confirmation of the truth that authors, editors and proofreaders are fallible.

Other readers freak out over them and feel that the introduction of even a single typo is as disruptive of the reading experience as if a moth landed on the page.

We tend to be more surprised to find errors in printed books than in e-books.  The longer lead-time and high editorial standards of the old publishing business make clean texts an achievable goal, whereas e-books are often produced and released in haste.

A number of publishers including E-Reads specialize in previously published books, and the temptation to be slapdash is high. One publisher confessed that “In the rush to get these older books back into print and capitalize on this otherwise moribund intellectual capital, it appears that expediency has often been prioritized over accuracy. When a book may only sell a modest number of digital copies and ‘good enough’ will do, proofing likely seems like an unnecessary step.”

It would be easy to say the hell with it and just publish the book unproofread, or formatted with minimal attention to such issues as placement of line breaks. For one thing, we would save a lot of time. For another, we would save a lot of money. We don’t stint on either and though I’m sure our books are not 100% error free, zero defects is definitely our goal.

We agree with our colleagues at Open Road, who recognize that: “this is a challenge and therefore has a stringent process in place and puts in a lot of resources to produce quality e-books. The books go through a thorough proofread and at least two subsequent levels of quality assurance before being finalized. While the technology is certainly new and there will always be some mistakes when you publish hundreds to thousands of e-books a year, we are proud of our track record and will continue to invest in and improve our already thorough process.”

Olivia Snaije, writing for Publishing Perspectives, interviewed a number of colleagues in the e-book business, asking the question “Why are there so damn many typos in e-books?”  The epithet in her question implies that she does not suffer typos gladly, and we equate it with the damned spot in Lady Macbeth’s imprecation.

An executive at Aptara explained how mistakes creep into e-books to begin with. When a book is scanned as the first step in the e-book conversion process, the software “is very good for handling structured information, but not very good at identifying and processing information that varies and is inconsistent. Software will get you 90 percent of the way, but the rest needs to be controlled manually. To ensure top quality you need quality control editors to look at every line and every page…the challenge is when you are converting a large number of books and you’re not willing to spend the hours of quality control.”

A publishing colleague described E-Reads as “the artisanal bakery of the e-book world.” After reading Snaije’s article you’ll understand why we took it as a compliment.

Error-Free E-books Will Come “When Cars Can Drive Themselves” by Olivia Snaije

Richard Curtis

Can a single typo or grammatical error spoil a book? Ann Patty, a distinguished editor for several big publishers and now a freelance editor, says absolutely. The latest offense is what professionals call a howler. Patty cites an incorrect use in the runaway bestseller Go the F*ck to Sleep.

The offensive line is: “The lambs have laid down with the sheep.”

It should of course be “lain”. Given the fact that confusion about the use of the verbs lie and lay is one of the commonest in the English-speaking world, the goof comes as no surprise. But what appalls Patty is that the editor didn’t catch it, an oversight eliciting this outburst: “The written word, when printed and bound, must be held to the highest standards. Editors, copy editors, and proofreaders, please clean up your act, do your job, and learn the f**king rules!”

It is dangerous to be too high-minded about such things, however, as was exemplified not long ago in the “Metropolitan Diary” feature of the New York Times:

Visiting an editor at Random House, I stepped into a crowded elevator and found myself pressed close to the control panel.

”Has everybody got their floors?” I asked.

After a moment’s silence, a young female voice from the rear said, ”His or her.”

”I beg your pardon?” I said.

”His or her. It’s ‘Has everybody got his or her floors?’ Your pronouns don’t agree.”

”And shouldn’t it be ‘his or her floor’, not ‘floors’?” a young man piped up. ”Each of us gets off at only one floor.”

”And wouldn’t it be better to say ‘Does everybody have?’ rather than ‘Has everybody got?’ ” a third voice chimed in.

I stood corrected — and red faced. But I was glad to know that good grammar is alive and well.

The unfortunate perpetrator of those gaffes was… yours truly.

Read Ann Patty’s rant in full: Learn the F**king Rules!

Richard Curtis