So…I’m on page 44 of Rachel Gibson’s True Love & Other Disasters. On page 5, the hero’s father is described as being in his late fifties. By page 43, he’s 65 years old. WTF? HarperCollins is one of the largest publishers in the US. Do they not have copyeditors & proofreaders at their disposal?
I realise that mistakes can happen. I’m not blaming Rachel Gibson. I have to proofread my own short texts several times before weeding out all the mistakes, and even then I’m sure a few slip through. I can’t imagine writing an error-free 400-page book. But that’s why novels are proofread by professionals employed to look out for typos and other inaccuracies.
When there is such a glaring inconsistency in a novel, it jerks me right out of the story. I find it really difficult to suspend disbelief and allow myself to enjoy the rest of the book. To be fair to Ms Gibson, I think I’m going to have to put TLOD to the side and come back to it when I can judge it on its own merits.
Am I the only reader who is seriously disturbed by such glitches?
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I’m usually so bad about noticing that kind of thing. I skim quite a bit and probably a lot of bad editing just escapes my notice. But if I DID notice such things – it would bug me a lot
Unfortunately, I do tend to notice these errors and I find them irritating, especially when there are several in the same novel. I’ve noticed that Avon books are particularly poorly proofread. I saw in ‘Publishers Weekly’ that HarperCollins are having financial difficulties and have let staff go. Perhaps this has something to do with it.
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