No, this isn’t a cookbook for cannibals. This is an example of a major proofreading error:
Pasta Cookbook pulped over ‘freshly ground black people’ misprint
An Australian publisher is reprinting 7,000 cookbooks over a recipe for pasta with ‘salt and freshly ground black people.’
Penguin Australia’s head of publishing, Bob Sessions, acknowledged the proofreader for the Pasta Bible should have picked up the error, but called it nothing more than a ‘silly mistake’.
And how much will this boo-boo set the publisher back?
The reprint will cost Penguin 20,000 Australian dollars ($18,500), but books already in stores will not be recalled because doing so would be ‘extremely hard,’ Sessions said.
Ouch. I wonder how many books this publisher will have to sell to recoup that loss. And I wonder if there’s a proofreader looking for a new job today.
Errors like that shouldn’t happen, but we humans often make silly mistakes. The difficult thing about proofreading is the tendency to see what you want to see — what you expect to see — and not what’s really there. If you’re tired and reading the same material for the umpteenth time, it can be difficult to recognize an error that you’ve obviously overlooked many times before.
My own background in technical communication taught me some valuable tips, which you may find of help in your own writing and self-editing:
- Always ensure you are well rested before you begin proofreading.
- Make sure you’ve set aside time when you’re free from distractions and interruptions.
- Print out the material to be edited — optional (I find it easier than reading off a screen).
- Read the material SLOWLY and OUT LOUD — You need to hear how your writing sounds.
- Repeat the above point enough times to ensure all corrections are made.
- Take a break from your proofreading for a day or so — maybe a week. Do something else, then return to it with fresh eyes.
- Get a second opinion — or a third, or a fourth…
- Do NOT rush the editing process.
I can’t stress enough the point about reading your work slowly and out loud. Carefully pronounce each word you’ve written. This one point has improved my writing immensely. Never rely on spell-check alone. You can see that spelling was not an issue with the cookbook example above. And I still feel that two heads are better than one, and three are better than two… Printing costs are expensive, and mistakes can mean financial disaster. Take your time; never rush the editing process, especially with traditional print publishing.
A large company located where I live printed a yearly calendar for their own self-promotion. One year, after printing several thousand full-color calendars, a mistake was discovered: September had 31 days. Nobody caught the error, and because the company had given the go-ahead to the printer, they ended up with a very expensive blunder. A few calendars had already gone out, but the rest had to be trashed and the job done again.
While mistakes made in an eBook are easier both financially and timewise to correct, remember it’s also your reputation as a writer that’s on the line. If your eBook is riddled with errors, your readers may turn away from your work as inferior and unworthy. People want value for their money — even with eBooks. A multitude of silly mistakes will leave the impression that you are a lazy and careless writer. If ideas are your strong point but good grammar eludes you, then please hire a professional to add the necessary polish. If the cost of a professional editor is not in your budget, then enlist the help of qualified friends and family members — people who are sticklers for proper writing and sentence structure.
No human alive is perfect, and even the best authors make the occasional gaffe. Sometimes the slip-ups are missed by the people you rely upon to catch such oversights before the reader can see them. No one is infallible. The key is to try to minimize the number of misprints. You really want to avoid the truly unforgivable faux pas experienced by the pasta cookbook publisher. With an error like “freshly ground black people” there’s no other option than an expensive reprint job.
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