There is a mysterious condition that occurs in manuscripts of all lengths. They can be plagued by what is called — ninja typos. They’re called ninja typos, because, no matter how many times you and trained editing professionals edit and proof your book, these ninja typos will hide. In fact, they will not reveal themselves until the editing staff has put away their red pens and readers are allowed to take a look at the final — printed — piece.
Then, like Cato in an old Pink Panther movie, they jump out and scare the life out of you.
It’s happened to me, so I know. As the daughter of an English teacher, I’ll recover any day now.
At RWA (Romance Writers Association) in NYC this past week, I met Susan Andersen, a lovely person and NY Times Bestselling author who has also had an encounter with ninja typos.
My editor sent me this article about a ninja typo Susan experienced, after I bemoaned the presence of several typos in my final piece. http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/sep/12/shift-typo-romantic-novel-susan-andersen
Here’s a snippet of the article:
Author Susan Andersen was horrified to discover an unfortunate typo in the ebook edition of her new novel Baby, I’m Yours, which takes the novel out of the romance category and into something rather darker.
“I apologise to anyone who bought my on-sale ebook of Baby, I’m Yours and read on pg 293: ‘He stiffened for a moment but then she felt his muscles loosen as he shitted on the ground’,” says Andersen. “Shifted – he SHIFTED! I just cringe when I think of the readers who have read this.
***
When I met Susan, I told her I’d read this article, how I could relate, and she and I shared a laugh. “These things happen,” she said.
And they do. She handled the whole thing so gracefully. And I can breathe now about the errors I found in my own book, because I’ve since had the chance to correct them.
I guess we’ve all read a book and wondered why the proofreader didn’t do their job, or even if the publisher/author bothered to hire a proofreader. But sometimes, despite best efforts, ninja typos happen.
So, if you’re someone who is apt to fly into an eyeball-rolling fit of huffiness when you come across a typo, or make accusations of sloppy editing, you may want to take a cleansing breath and think of extending the benefit of the doubt instead.
Because shift happens.
By the way, Susan gave me an autographed copy of her newest book, No Strings Attached. I can’t wait to read it!
You can read an excerpt of it here.
Enjoy!
Alyssa xx
Kim Handysides says
Priceless!