Question about finding mistakes in published books?

I *hate* finding grammatical errors in published books! I mean, how the hell does a trained professional editor who has gone through years of school to get where they are in the editing world not catch a simple spelling or grammatical error that I, a fifteen-year-old tenth grader, was able to spot on the first read-through? What the hell are we paying these people for?!

If and when I ever publish one of my novels, I'm getting the best damn editor out there and I'll read every book he's ever edited just to make sure he's worthy of the title "The Best Damn Editor Out There!" Truman Capote said that even the most simple of grammatical or spelling errors could completely ruin an entire novel. I agree one hundred percent.

However to answer your question, I haven't a clue. I think it depends on the publishing company. One that actually cares about the books they're publishing and isn't just all about the money and media would probably take the liberty of reading your email or one like it and fixing every error you handed to them.

So in the name of proper English: Give it a shot!

I read a book that is now one of the most popular tv shows today. It got reprinted covers and everything and I was shocked to see about 27 spelling mistakes...the book was only 238 pages which is really pathetic to think you get such simple mistakes and so much. I would write if I had the time. Don't really know how to contact, with out seeming rude. I feel sorry for the author because they probably trusted the lazy editor. I guess the people don't care since it's a teen fantasy novella.

I'm sure they'd want to hear about it at some point. What if they published another edition of the book and it had the same grammatical mistakes as the first?

I'm sure you could either email or write a letter to the publishing house. If they care enough, they'll read it. Unfortunately I don't really know any logistics.

I know that they have them for movies, though. Apparently this one woman spends like all day just watching movies and she finds dozens of mistakes. And if the the movie company people care about them -- especially seeing as you can't really remake a movie -- then I'm sure the publisher will care.

PS: Why's life a downer? :(

There was a series I believed called "Great American Classics" or something - it had the words "Great" and "Classic", anyway. It was a simpler, shorter version of several classics for kids, including Huckleberry Fin and Robin Hood. Anyway it had mistakes every few pages... missing quotation marks, commas, and other punctuation, misspelled words... I couldn't figure out if the whole series was self-published and unedited or something. But yes it was annoying, some of the time I don't notice but when I do I suddenly backtrack, check to make sure that it's really wrong, feel slightly annoyed, and move on :P Doesn't annoy me that much, but still, you'd think the author read it over many times and should've had an editor.

Haha. It's ok, I'm the same. I think it's amazing that mistakes still get through after many edits and proof reads. It just doesn't seem to make sense.

I'm not sure how it works though. I'm not sure how to let the publisher or author know.

You would *think* that before selling it to the public, the publishers would have a number of people read the books, and if they found any mistakes they would fix them from there.

But I think it's worth letting them know, I just don't know how.

depends on the publisher.

grammar and spelling mistakes give us the pip too and sometimes we write to the publisher about them and have occasionally even had a reply.

seek work as a proof-reader

and you will be drowned in real crap for life....

normally i watch a great deal of tv but i really do love a good e book if i get into the book i wont said down and i love that i reach use my creativity so much more than with a tv