There is a growing trend of relying on spell check to proof read our work for us. Spell check is, however, not a proof reader and without using one, or re-reading our work word by word, some unintentionally hilarious errors get by.
For example, I was reading the first chapter offered as a sample to see if I would buy the book. It was a dark, grim story and the POV character's best mate was about to do graphic violence to a woman who'd tried to kill him. A great opener, gripping, horrific, tense....and totally spoiled when the author described the character as wearing a black vendetta around his neck. I cracked up laughing. I didn't buy the book. I didn't even finish the preview. Spell check missed this because vendetta was spelled correctly. And in this case, the author lost a sale because of it. A friend of mine reported a professionally published steampunk work where the winches were consistently referred to as wenches. Which does present a unique engineering picture, but probably not one the author intended. The takeaway for today is, spell check is nice but a proof reader is invaluable.
3 Comments
Silent G
3/2/2015 02:30:03 am
Yes, I can see that, winches and wenches are two very "discrete" things ;)
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Syd
3/8/2015 12:18:52 pm
I don't name and shame, that's heart enough. Even the one book I hated so bad I joined Goodreads just for the sole purpose of condemning it, I will not name here. I will never recommend it, because it wasn't just bad writing, it was bad science, bad history, bad pretty much everything.
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