Editing Errors

My first post in a long time and I've decided to post something small about an issue that has been concerning me for some time now.

Editing mistakes.

Now I know I've made quite a few mistakes of my own with my work. I tend to throw in a comma when you least expect it which I've been told throws off the meaning of my sentence. Go figure, right? But they are very pushy about commas when it comes to thesis work so I've since learned my lesson. Or I hope I have, anyway, so it's the thought that counts.

However, the mistakes I'm speaking of involve grammar. I tend to read and re-read, and on and on, etc. for months on end making sure I have the right words in my work. Unfortunately, this just doesn't seem to be the case with the latest books I've been snatching up each release day for the last month or so.

Not that the writing isn't superb (I've read 7 different books so far this month and each has me itching for their proposed sequels). I've just come to notice that in a book with an average page number of say 400 pages tends to end up with some grammatical errors in the last 100 pages or so. I noticed this with a release that I picked up last week .

So imagine the situation. I'm cruising along, reading my book, engrossed in the story, when I read a sentence that has an extra word in it. I screech to a halt. Wait, a minute, I think. Did I read that right? So I read it again. Nope, still wrong. So then I continue to read the sentence until it clicks in my brain. That extra word (lets call it x) would work if the sentence deleted another word (y). Except that (y) is there so (x) should be eliminated. But, lo and behold, (x) and (y) are both there, making the sentence one warbled mess in what was otherwise a very precisely edited novel.

And that wasn't the last of it. Today I'm reading my next new release, the one I almost begged my dear hubby to pick up for me after he got out of work, and I find it again. The word would be fine but my eagle eyes see that it's the wrong spelling. Right sounding word but the wrong spelling. An error which I've researched and come to find is defined as a homophone. It's a small error, really it is, and it in no way reflects badly on the author or the editors or anyone else involved. I just read the line and paused. Then I sent a text to my sister asking her if she agreed, gave her the line in question, then waited for a response.

She said, "Hmmm, yeah, that doesn't look right."

Which led me here. To rant and rave (not really) or at least vent my frustration at finding such miniscule errors so close to the home stretch of these books. So I resolved to start sticking index cards in my books. If I find an error I'll write it down, put in the correction, mark down the page and leave it in the book. It's the only solution I can come up with.

Because there's no way in hell I'll ever take a writing instrument and mark up my pretty books. Blasphemy!!