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Re: History 101 Fail
Personally I think one should stick to have one or two friends (interested in the subject) but not necessarily experts in the topic itself
I have written a couple of books myself and had great help from my wife, checking spelling, syntax grammar and such things. That way you get a much more readable book/booklet.
Loads of books, especially written by individuals, who like me, doesn't have English as their first language often end up in trouble using "Google translate" or something similar.
A case in point is Aeronaut Books, who in their ever increasing number of WW 1 aviation topics now also have invited both German and French writers.
No proof reading seems to take place at all, by anyone.
An extremely interesting book (for me) is David Méchain's Oriental Adventures of the French Air Force.
I can excuse the title, since France did not have any Air Force as such (their Army did), but we all usually refer to all aviation activities in WW 1 as done by an Air Force.
However on page 4 I find the following sentence (partly quoted) "which was which will find itself embedded on the roof of a house"
On the same page the author (or perhaps Google) calls Lohner for Löhner.
A couple of friends of mine have used me for check reading their manuscripts when their English primary options declined for various reasons.
Not ideal, but I think it has worked out quite well.
To find editors/proof readers who are as knowledgeable as the authors is not going to happen. There will still be errors in every book we read.
I agree with Andy, who is razor sharp when it comes to serial numbers, that it would be ideal to have someone checking those digits we both love, but it is an extremely tiring job and in the end not 100% foolproof either.
However I applaud all those writers not born in UK or USA doing their best without the support they deserve. Not everyone is like my friend Lennart Andersson both excellent researchers but also very linguistically talented.
Cheers
Stig
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