John Williams noted he:
> Recently had an uncorrected proof of
> Crais' Hostage - obviously not a finished book as it
was clearly
> photocopied form the author's manuscript - including
a chapter in which
> incautious use of the old 'find and replace'
function - presumably to
change
> a character's name from Don to Larry - resulted in
people saying to each
> other things like 'I larry't believe
you.'
As a copyeditor, I see this a lot and try not to commit it
myself. [Note to authors: Do not double space between
sentences. Somebody's got to go through the manuscript and
delete all those extra spaces and may, in the process, make a
mess.]
Al Guthrie wrote:
>Depends, as John says. When I first started
>working in the book trade six
>years ago, proofs were very popular, and >very
badly constructed. There
was
>no cover art, poor quality paper, etc. You >could
tell there were going to
>be errors. And, my goodness, there were.
>Nowadays, proofs tend to look
>more like the final book version, with
>"uncorrected proof copy" written in
>place of a barcode, and, in my experience, >there
are fewer errors. ARCs
>these days tend to be the finished product >with
an indelible sticker
planted
>on the barcode to stop it being sold. Some
>publishers (Headline, I think)
>write "advanced reading copy" in place of >the
barcode instead of
>"uncorrected proof copy", because it >sounds
better. Having said all that,
>errors in proof copies are usually spotted >before
final print. If you
have
>an ARC with a sticker covering the barcode, >it's
probably too late.
No, there's no bar code on it. The exterior looks like a
trade paperback, although it's to be published as a hardback,
and printed on the front is
"Advance reading copy. Not for sale." It's supposed to go on
sale in March, so it's too late for me to stop the presses,
but from what you're saying some proofreader has seen the
same copy I have and will have changed "sight" to "site" and
so on. (I used to love working with those huge galley proofs,
but they're pretty rare these days.)
And then Bill Crider reassured:
>The ARC is usually printed from the uncorrected
proof
>copy. So it should all be cleaned up before the
book
>appears.
Good. Then I'll just try to ignore all the misspellings and
infelicities and concentrate on the plot and the characters.
And vow never again to try to review an ARC.
Thanks, guys, Joy
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