Why do so many books that you read have mistakes in them?

Question

Sorry thinkabou........Why do so many books that I read have mistakes in them?

Answer 1

I echo the "bad editing" answer. Books by major publishers have fewer errors, but all publishers do. Here's why:
(1) Self-publishing: there are many publishers who will publish anything an author pays them to (AuthorHouse, for example). Many good books that otherwise won't get into print get published this way... but these folks don't even have editors or proofreaders, so errors are common.
(2) Small publishers/Bookstore Imprint publishers: smaller publishing houses have smaller staff doing more work so more mistakes get through. This is also true of some of the "print a lot of books quickly and cheaply on a popular topic" publishers like major bookstores' own publishing houses.
(3) Human error. Even good authors with top-notch editors paying them lots of attention occasionally let a mistake slip through. This sometimes happens when something is proofread too soon or too often and the reader reads what they know it should say instead of what it actually says. Have you ever worked on a paper up to the last minute, then were surprised at some goofs that were in it when it was returned? It's usually the same sort of thing.

Answer 2

Are you thinking about errors of time and place, situation - like a character having a yellow labrador, and then then later on he has a collie?
I wonder how authors keep all the details straight, like what college one character graduated from, and how many siblings they have. Perhaps authors make large wall charts and write down details that they will need later.
I was chagrined to find that I changed one character's name in a short story that I wrote. He started out as Norris and by the end of the story I was writing James.

OOne writing teacher said you should know your characters so well that ththey couldn't possibly be driving a different car then you gave them in ththe first draft.

Answer 3

More often than not you probably find small errors in the more common words. Leaving out a letter of a common word doesn't always get recognized by editors and such because you're so used to seeing the words you just skip over it not even noticing it's wrong. Now, you'd think there would be spell-check and stuff, and there is. Why they don't use it is beyond me...

Answer 4

People rely on spell check to proofread them. That way they miss the usage errors. Sometimes, the book is proofed, and corrected, and then someone else makes other corrections, and the old saying, "Too many cooks spoil the broth" comes in to play.

Answer 5

What books are you referring to? I haven't noticed any mistakes in the books I read.

Answer 6

If you mean typos, it's because they have brought word processors to the task of proof-reading. They think the machine will do the job for them, but it won't.

Answer 7

Poor editing.