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I can say from experience of righting a few books that nothing is more stomach wrenching than to open my book straight from print and seeing grammar or spelling errors.
I believe the these types of errors are a shared responsibility. I write the words- type type type. I go over them a few times to try to catch errors- check, check check. After I am satisfied I submit the manuscript. I am a firm believer that you cannot proof your work alone, as your brain will play tricks on you. You will miss things because your brain will fill in errors and not alert you that there is a problem. The universe was nice enough to provide editors for this purpose.
That does not mean that I should not do my level best to try to fix and all all errors in a manuscript it is just that it is a shared responsibility of the editor to find and pick out what I might have missed.
When I am writing a book, an editor will go over my manuscript with a fine toothed comb and many times there there will be a senior editor that will look over as well. Once this is done and everyone is satisfied it is sent to the printer who then sends back a proof. This proof is then reviewed once again and approved for print.
So how can errors make it through so many reviews and still make it to print? Well as an author you have to be proactive. Edit as much as you can and hand it to someone you trust and has a close eye for details to look it over before you submit it. Ultimately, if an error reaches the page in print, it is the author’s fault. try to get a hold of the proof before it makes it to the printer to give it another good looking over. Once it is in print it is permanent, at until the second edition comes out.
Every time that a new book that I have written comes to the house in that cool brown box I say the same thing, “THE PHONE BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED.”
