Any thoughts expressed within this post are MY opinions, and are based on my experiences/observations. I am not generalizing, attacking, or singling out any reviewer, blogger, reader, author, or publisher. My intent is to have open and respectful dialogue regarding this topic.
Now that that is out of the way, let’s chat!
THE EDITING ERROR EPIDEMIC
One of the benefits of being a book blogger is having early access to books in the form of ARCs (Advance Reader Copy). It’s not uncommon to find typos, formatting issues, or other miscellaneous editing errors within the pages of an ARC; as a reviewer, I’ve even come to expect them. I never down-rate my overall rating of an ARC if there were editing issues. I will however, give feedback within my review if I noticed there are inconsistencies with the plot, or excessive typos.
However, when I purchase a book whether it be self-pub or traditionally published, I’m not lenient in my criticisms pertaining to editing. This is what I want to talk about today.
My thoughts are if I am PAYING for a product, I am assuming that the product has passed all the quality assurance steps prior to hitting shelves. This also applies to books. When I purchase a kindle book from Amazon, I am assuming that the edition being made available for purchase is the finished version; that it’s edited, polished, and complete. If I find that there are significant editing issues, I tend to get pretty rage-y.
Don’t get me wrong, typos are bound to happen. A couple words in the sea of thousands don’t typically offset the balance of quality. However, if I’m constantly having to pause in my reading to decipher a misspelled/misplaced word, it distracts me from what could’ve been a more enjoyable reading experience.
But above all else, you know what really burns my buttons? When I come upon a good book with horrid editing.
Recently, I’ve come upon some books that had amazing writing/plot/characters, but due to excessive editing issues/errors, I had to down-rate when I was done.
Here, let me show you a few examples from a recent read that would’ve easily been a 4-4.5 Star rating if it weren’t for the editing:
EXHIBIT A:
EXHIBIT B:
EXHIBIT C:
Fun fact: the screenshots above are from the 3rd book in the series. And yes, the editing in the first two books were just as bad.
What’s worse? This book was littered with copious typos. So many, that I started counting them. I lost count after 37, BTW.
Cue book rage.
Then, when I go to look up the reviews/ratings for this book/series on Goodreads, I see that not only is it highly rated, but not one reviewer (that I saw) mentioned the editing issues.
Cue curious rage.
Am I the only one who had issues with the editing/errors?
When I raged about this via text with my BFF Kelly (who actually was the one to recommend this series to me), she told me that the author had publicly mentioned that she had recently had the books re-edited.
WHERE WERE THESE EDITORS, AND WHY DIDN’T THEY DO THEIR JOB BETTER?
When you find these editors, tell them that they ruined my reading experience.
But seriously, tho.
What makes me most upset about all of the above is that I actually LOVED the book. I loved it!
But I couldn’t in good conscience, overlook the editing flaws. I took into consideration how glaring/distracting the mistakes were, and ended up deducting 1-1.5 stars each.
**Note, when I read book 1, the editing issues were so bad, I switched over to the audiobook, which was pretty great. I then chose to continue with audio for book 2; unfortunately, there was no audio available for book 3, so I had to endure all the things.
I keep finding issues like these within final/finished versions of books, and honestly, I’m at a loss for what to do, or say.
I know that authors don’t like to constantly receive messages talking about typos in their books. And I get it, it’s annoying to hear. I’m sure that no matter how many times I proofread my posts/reviews, the likelihood of a typo/error being present within them are high. ‘Tis the nature of the beast when working in print.
However, I think that we as readers/reviewers should definitely make note of it within our reviews at the very least, amirite? Or amiwrong?
Do typos/editing errors bother you? Do you down-rate for these issues? How do you deal with them? Would you prefer to be made aware possible editing issues before reading a book (that is not an ARC)?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
If you’d like another example of a book that I’ve recently read, loved, but had to down-rate due to editing, go here.
Oh, yes. One or maybe 2 errors, I can forgive, especially if the book is very long/complicated and it doesn’t actually affect the information or plot in any way. But some books are so bad that I just want to dig out my old red grading pencils, you know?
And it isn’t just new books, either! Right now I’m reading an edition of Middlemarch that is just riddled with errors. The dang thing was published almost a century and a half ago, you’d think the editors would have figured things out by now. And worse — it’s out of copyright so I *could* have gotten a free ebook version, but I chose to spend money on this print version! UGH.
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UGH! That blows (about Middlemarch). But yes, I usually forgive one or two, or hey, even three errors. But holy moly, the aforementioned books were just out of control with the typos and issues.
I have deducted stars from my rating on books that had a distracting amount of errors. I’m usually pretty lenient, but I have come across a couple indie books that were so full of mistakes that I couldn’t even finish the book. I think if someone has to warn readers about grammatical errors or spelling mistakes they should probably get the book edited professionally. I don’t know why they would want to knowingly put out unfinished work. A couple mistakes are easy to overlook, especially when I’m enjoying the book, but too many definitely distract me from the story.
I agree–a disclaimer on a FINISHED product is no bueno. I wouldn’t buy something from the grocery store with a disclaimer of being faulty, so why would I do that with books? I know that editing services can be really expensive, but I think that it’s vital to the craft.
I am right there with you on this. What gets me the most is what you mentioned about other reviewers not saying a word about excessive errors. Worse is when someone actually says the writing was outstanding, error-free, or had no issues at all. I am going to keep fighting the good fight. I always let authors know the errors I find (right down to page numbers), and they have all been extremely gracious and appreciative. Especially in this day and age of eBooks, they can fix their goofs immediately and do it. Thanks for this post — I am glad I’m not alone!
Copious errors in published books really bother me. Anything more than 1-2 error will drive me nuts if it’s in a book I spent money on! Books are edited so many times before publication so it always amazes me that SOMEONE didn’t catch the errors. The worst is when a sentence is so riddled with mistakes that you can’t even try to decipher what they were trying to say!
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Thank you for this. Copious editing errors annoy the dickens out of me, especially when there was a paid editor involved. I completely agree with you!
Thanks, Jenny! I’m so glad to see I’m not the only one. Drives me NUTS!
Yes I so agree with this! It is so frustrating for a book to not be edited. I even get annoyed with ARCs but final versions are even worse — I’ve even seen this in final versions from publisher’s lately, which prompted me to draft the post regarding whether authors are rushing to publish too quickly.
Great post!!
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Let’s say an author/publisher is rushing–why not go back through it *one more time*? Oy vey. I like to keep reading ARCs so that I’m oblivious to the mistakes in the finished copy. LOL