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  #31  
Old 24th March 2020, 17:52
edwest2 edwest2 is offline
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

Regarding 'too much' white space. It takes years to learn or to train someone to do good page layout, which involves a number of factors. Most publishers cannot afford to hire book designers. I understand how it's done, and I have very bad examples in my collection. I want the information before anything else, including photos that are not too small. After that, it's hit or miss and I'm thankful there are more hits than misses.

I also know what it's like to turn in a manuscript and photos and having the publisher put the book together and not being satisfied with the end result. One hopes to have a publisher that is understanding and who is willing to listen, but that is sometimes not going to be the case.
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  #32  
Old 20th February 2021, 10:26
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

Another plea from me. Authors do not set the price at which books sell and should there be a typo on the back cover, don’t blame the author as invariably the words are written by the publisher!
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  #33  
Old 20th February 2021, 16:56
John Manrho John Manrho is offline
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

Well....and what about if the printer in last minute makes a mistake with the text....although it was delivered 100% after proof reading a couple of times.....probably still my fault....anyway....it is what it is...
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  #34  
Old 20th February 2021, 20:43
edwest2 edwest2 is offline
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

Printers are requiring electronic files in the US. We used to do keylines but they stopped making the board on which they were pasted on.

As far as price, the publisher has the final say but the factors are finite.

1) What is the average price for a similar book?
2) What is the anticipated press run? At the company where I work, guesswork is replaced by a pre-order system which shows trends that influence the final decision regarding how many copies to print.
3) Production costs. After the total of what everyone involved gets paid is defined, then this is factored into the cover price.

Contracts. It should all be in the contract, or work agreement, for writers as far as payment, royalties and rights. Since I am not an attorney, I can only encourage everyone to have a contract reviewed by one before signing.
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  #35  
Old 23rd February 2021, 00:18
MW Giles MW Giles is offline
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

Who should I blame for texts littered with poor spelling and grammar.

This seems to have become so much worse in the last decade. Some of the major UK publishers are particularly blameworthy.

Is it that the original manuscript is being accepted and handled electronically without any proof reading, beyond the author? Writers can be quite bad at proof reading as they have read the text so often that they know what they have written before they read it.

£25 for a book with a typo every five pages is not worth it. It makes you begin to doubt the opinions and content

Martin
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  #36  
Old 23rd February 2021, 00:36
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

Agree Martin. To err is human but more proof reading the better and yes, the author does become word blind. I have heard of some publishers accepting the MS as is. However, for my recent book, the editor proof read it, I re-read it after it was a pdf, my great friend in Germany proof read it as did two aviators....
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  #37  
Old 23rd February 2021, 15:03
AndyMa AndyMa is offline
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

And who should I blame for texts where the "numbers" information has clearly not been checked at all? I am finding that this is really common.
I've just read a book covering an esoteric eastern European type (I won't name it). It authoritatively lists loads of strike dates in the text (c 80 of the type served in that particular Air Force). However, if the author had bothered to write them all down he would have seen that aircraft X has been listed with three different strike dates, one in 1943, one in 1944, and one in 1945. Out of the (c 80) aircraft, no less than 9 are listed with more than one strike date, without any explanatory comment at all (and two have three different strike dates).
It almost seems as if some authors don't care about such "trivia".
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  #38  
Old 23rd February 2021, 18:15
edwest2 edwest2 is offline
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

The big 4 publishers in the US make sure a book goes through four edits. At the company I work for, there are three editors and a proofreader. Since good people cost money, dropping one or two is a cost savings. Anyway, if sales go down, publishers may have to hire more people.

One solution, which I offer only as a suggestion, is to post errata for a given book. Some may find this unfair but it may be the best or only answer for some publications. There is also the long-term problem of someone copying from a book with errors in the future.

I also suspect that there are a few people who think incorrectly about the present. That is, they think that for whatever reason, that things have changed. I can't be more specific. The bottom line is that nothing has changed when it comes to proofreading a book and having a certain level of skill.
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  #39  
Old 23rd February 2021, 18:18
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

Quote:
he would have seen that aircraft X has been listed with three different strike dates
It's certainly annoying to the reader and understandably so. I would feel the same as you do.

From the writer's point of view, it's not always easy to recognise the cross-references between things at different points in your text, e.g. to remember that Hans Schmidt's name or Werk Nummer 111999 also came up 100 pages ago. Being able to keep a sense of the whole thing in your head while writing individual sections is no trivial matter. It's much easier now that text is fully searchable but you still have to realise that this name/place/number might have come up elsewhere. The answer, I suppose is "check everything".
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  #40  
Old 23rd February 2021, 18:27
edwest2 edwest2 is offline
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Re: A plea from me and no doubt other writers

Even though my company publishes fiction, a good portion contains references to existing weapons, aircraft and other things. It is not uncommon for a writer to give one value on page 20 and a different one on page 100. There are other examples. However, before computers, books were successfully kept (mostly) error free. So there are fewer reasons for things to be different now. For more errors.

I would add that work is still work. This is all I do for a living. And it takes time. With computers, some time has been shaved off but there has to be an understanding of capabilities. The computer cannot do everything. It is limited.
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