I read a lot of fiction, averaging about 65 books a year. (I keep a diary.) I don’t know if it’s because I read so much or if it’s because editing is just getting so bad, but I seldom read a book that doesn’t have continuity or plot errors. I tend to think editing has just gotten so bad, as I see it on online new sites, too. Kindle used to have a way to report content errors that the publishers were supposed to then fix. I used to do that but then realized someone is getting paid to edit and I was doing it for free. Oh well, another of life’s little aggregations.
I hear you, Jan. I used to read about 100 books a year, now it's more like 30. I keep going to sleep! Still it's enough to notice the bad editing. It's the anachronisms in historical novels that irritate me, slang words that didn't exist until 1980 out of the mouths of Victorian ladies. I'm tiring of all the new novels having so many time jumps I can't keep track of all the characters in all the periods. I just finished Kate Morton's latest "Homecoming." Now I love her writing, but this one was 800 pages (large print) jumping back and forth between a fascinating story set in Australia 1959 and a boring story in 2018. I would loved to have taken a scissors to all the 2018 bits.
I have Kindle Unlimited, so I am always reading books, both for education and for entertainment. I do not like it when they make stupid mistakes, either. Sometimes, it is grammar, sometimes historical, and a lot of the time it is just incorrect usage of words or spelling of them. One that is often used wrong is reign/rein , but there are many others. (Like saying that someone should “rein in” some behavior) If the story line is well developed, and the people are interesting, then I am happy to overlook editing errors; but if it is a technical book, then I have higher expectations. We have threads about what books people are reading, but it seems like since I am just reading novels for entertainment, it does not fit with people who are reading more classical or well-known books or authors. I LOVE time-travel books, and legal (attorney) mysteries so I read a lot of those, and most of those are free with the Kindle Unlimited, so I usually go through 1-2 books each week, more in the cold winter months. John Heldt is one of my favorite time-travel authors, and I have read and re-read all of his books.
Don't be THAT guy! THOSE guys are all over the internet. When I'm on a site where I can read all of their past posts, it takes all of four seconds to find their errors, errors like this, that are obviously unintentional. Find something better to do with your time.
Apparently you ladies are reading the same books I am. At least they seem to have the same problems. I try to come up with excuses for the authors and editors. I say they are young but then I realize that I wasn’t alive in 1880 either but I still know that they weren’t using the slang of today back then. I say that things have changed and books that are selling so cheaply can’t afford a good editor so it’s auto correct. Whatever the reason I seem to keep reading. It’s still better than most TV.
lol - you gotta admit that it's funny to find an editing error in a post decrying poor editing. I didn't mean any offense, and I apologize if you were offended.
I agree about poor editing and other glaring mistakes. It's probably due to the pervasive trend of people not taking pride in their work. Just doing the minimum to get by instead of caring about the end product.
When I get paid a $500,000 advance to write comments on the internet or $100,00 a year to edit, I’ll care what I write. Tired of internet Karen’s.
Again - lol - sorry that you can't see the humor in this. YOU started a thread criticizing poor editing, not me, and then you get all thin skinned when your error is pointed out. So, who is the Karen? I'm done here. Have a better day.
Paid $500,000 to write comments on the internet or $100,000 a year to edit? Either your joking with us, or.........for real???
My one finger hunt and peck typing added to my very poor spelling often comes up with some very interesting output which even my reliance on spell check either replaces the error with the wrong word or simply cant find anything close! There were 5 corrections of the previous paragraph for instance. In reading a fictional novel whilst I do like it to be broadly correct it is more the writing style, the story line and the flow of the story that is important to my enjoyment of the novel. A 'speed reader' I probably would not even notice errors in spelling etc unless they impacted the story line, if I find myself reading - word - for - word I may as well put the book down for the story line would be lost to me. Technical material is a slightly different story in that once at the section that relates to the material I want I slow down and do read each word carefully, but there I am not reading for pleasure but seeking an answer to a problem. (at least 6 or 8 more 'errors' fixed, non escaped …..I hope LOL)