Black Library Rant

[Bloodhowl]

Are the editors at the Black Library getting extremely lazy at their job, or did they switch to Finecast editing software? I'm plugging away at Nocturne right now, and I swear my 6 year old daughter could do a much better job at proofreading the damn thing.

I'm not talking about differences between English and American English in spellings of gray, honor and color. I'm talking about numerous double words, sentences missing words , and wrong words used.

One or two errors in a book, ok. I get it. It got by the editor. But it seems every chapter so far has multiple problems and for the price of a book, I beleive we deserve better.

/endrant

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Did you write to the people at Black Library about it? Send them a printed letter addressed to the head honcho and tell him it reeks of incompetence and unprofessionalism as politely and concisely as you can. Embarass them with examples. Demand a refund even. I saw a guy on TV famous for complaining today, good advice on how to go about things properly. He even wrote a letter of complaint to the pope for a matter concerning land owned by the church causing him a problem lol, a Cardinal sorted it out for him though.

dfb

 

[marjedi]

How hard can it be to proffread a book? Come on...

Seems like the quality control department in gw has been laid off.

 

[RuneBrush]

Just seems like a dud book. To be honest they do have quite a good track record and this is the first major issue I've heard of. That said, it's still not on and worth a polite letter pointing out that you're "disappointed" with the book's editing.

 

[DannyVasquez]

I actually got a double print of the second Nagash book, Imagine having to read three chapters then reading the same three chapters again to get the the chapter you are actually up to....it really wasnt worth it...

 

[Bloodhowl]

Did you write to the people at Black Library about it? Send them a printed letter addressed to the head honcho and tell him it reeks of incompetence and unprofessionalism as politely and concisely as you can. Embarass them with examples. Demand a refund even. I saw a guy on TV famous for complaining today, good advice on how to go about things properly. He even wrote a letter of complaint to the pope for a matter concerning land owned by the church causing him a problem lol, a Cardinal sorted it out for him though.

dfb

OR I could print off the whole thing (I bought the eBook) highlight all the errors and send it back to them along with a bill for services rendered as an editor. What does an editor make these days?

 

[Einion]

How hard can it be to proffread a book? Come on...

You'd be surprised. The main issues practically are one of will and then find someone with sufficient language chops... which these days would not be easy!

Given the poor standard of English amongst graduates and that real nitty-gritty proofreading is a two-person job - two people working simultaneously - easily seen why the quality of proofreading has fallen steeply over the last few decades.

Einion

 

[10 ball]

I've worked as an artist in the printing world for 19 years and
as Einion says proof reading is indeed a two person job.
The reason the standards are dropping are because the
employers expect the artist / typesetters to check their
own work, so saving on wage. The way of the world in business
get less to do more :-(

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Well I'd still send a letter demanding a refund. That complainer guy I mentioned in my first post was quite successful at it. He started when an American chap held up in the same delayed flight as himself managed to get in to see the man in charge of the airport and got himself a free slap up meal while he waited, so this guy followed him in after and got the same for himself. Its worth a try, you may not get a freebie or your money back but the satisfaction of telling them they are incompetent may be enough.....

dfb

 

[kathrynloch]

Better yet, instead of paying someone to do it - throw it at the intern.

After all, he/she is still in college; never mind that they'll hit their senior year and come crying to the department chair that they still need Comp 101. (4 years Department Secretary English & Foreign Languages at a local university - I can't tell you how many times that happened!)

 

[supervike]

I've got a lot of the Black Library books, and they are mostly all plagued with this sort of thing.

 

[Dragonsreach]

And you expect something different from GW or a subsiduary?
Look how many errors occur in their rulebooks and the errata which are needed.

 

[Torn blue sky]

By and by i've had a double print issue in one book, i've had some pixelated (yes pixelated) graphical flourishes on the chapter headers of one of the Darkblade omnibus'. Only major things. The missing words, jacked punctuation making it harder to read, and misspellings/wrong words/double words (IE; The the) have appeared in every publication i've bought at least once, now you mention it. I was pondering if it was just shitty luck.

It doesn't happen often enough to bother me outright though.
As previously mentioned, it wouldn't surprise me if they *did* actually expect the author to proof read his own book...

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

i personally would find it unacceptable in a novel to have significant errors, and if it runs throughout the Black Library series then that definately demonstrates incompetence. In the books I have read I dont recall many errors, at least that I saw, at all. One being in the Times newspaper as well. disgraceful, what!!!! If you are in the business of publishing, I think proof reading is critical.

dfb

 

[Torn blue sky]

Maybe it is my shit luck then lmao!

 

[Einion]

i personally would find it unacceptable in a novel to have significant errors...

Agreed. One person's significant errors someone else won't notice though :glasses-nerdy:

As surprising as it might seem, widespread spelling mistakes and poor punctuation are actually becoming the norm in publishing, rather than the exception. As an example, I picked up a handful of books at random from one of the tables in Waterstones to show this to my better half and every single one of them had errors of one kind or another that you could find in just a minute or two (didn't have to go past the first page in some cases). And to come at it another way, I don't recall reading a book in maybe ten years that didn't have a typo in it of some kind.

Einion

 

[dogfacedboy uk1]

Well by significant errors I mean spelling mistakes and duplicated words. I can forgive a forgotten comma, so long as it doesn't recurr throughout the book, but basically it's the job of the author to write a damn good story and the job of the publisher to make sure it arrives on the shelves in its perfect state. If they are going to stop proof reading then maybe I'll stop buying their books.

Standards appear to be dropping and it's not a good thing. Off with their heads.

dfb

 

[Bloodhowl]

It gets better. From the back of the book "Nick Kyme is a writer and editor." No excuses. Mega - Epic Fail!

 

[Avelorn]

Agreed. One person's significant errors someone else won't notice though :glasses-nerdy:

As surprising as it might seem, widespread spelling mistakes and poor punctuation are actually becoming the norm in publishing, rather than the exception. As an example, I picked up a handful of books at random from one of the tables in Waterstones to show this to my better half and every single one of them had errors of one kind or another that you could find in just a minute or two (didn't have to go past the first page in some cases). And to come at it another way, I don't recall reading a book in maybe ten years that didn't have a typo in it of some kind.

Einion

I'll have you proof-read any novel I release in english then!

 

[Dragonsreach]

IF they (publishers) are expecting the writers to proof read their own work, then perhaps writers need to utilise the helpful little tools called Spellcheck and Grammar check. If the ordinary Joe Public, ie me, isn't too proud to hit F7 now and again why shouldn't they?

I do read a lot of books, and despite the variation between the UK and American versions of English, I can not recall having found anything like some of the issues reported here for a very long time. In point of fact the only one I can recall with duplicated chapters (a production fault) was Loius L'Amour's Alaska (a paperback) some 40 years ago. Everything else from Jim Butcher, Donna Leon, C.J.Sansom, Cherie Priest, Chris Wooding and even reprinted Dorothy L Sayers have not attracted my attention to faults.