I’ve picked up this four part (at least so far) series of books based off the seven deadly sins. The story itself is alright, all four books take place with different main characters but all come from the same background, but anyways. I’ve read a lot of books in my lifetime which I’m very proud of since I’m younger, almost 300 books not counting children’s stories. So I’ve read and seen all kinds of books. But these books are just bad quality, and I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve read so many books or I’m being picky or too critical or what but I wanted some fellow book lovers opinions on it. And before you start reading a reminder these are brand new, fresh out the plastic wrapping, books I got.
I bought the series as a pack, so they all have the same gorgeous cover art (which honestly was the reason it stood out to me but reading the back of the first book convinced me) but it also made it more expensive. Now as a customer if I’m buying a set of books not only for the story but also the cover art I feel like it’s fair to expect a certain level of quality to it. The first book had about 35 pages of print that was lighter colored than the rest of the book, I’m not sure if the printer they used was just running out of ink and they replaced it midway or if it is just that book out of like thousands but I noticed that. It also had (at least imo) a significant amount of writing errors, again this is just in the first book, like 12 I caught which means whoever the editor was didn’t do a good job of looking over the manuscript for any mistakes and while the book isn’t short it isn’t long either so 12 mistakes in a 330 word book is a lot. I’ll give an example from the book, “She tromped through the snow, of cold next was drifting around her.” If you’re thinking to yourself “That sentence doesn’t make sense, OP must have typed it wrong” nope. That is an actual printed sentence in the book, I’m not even sure what it was originally trying to say. 12 errors like that in the book.
The second book I’m only halfway through and I’ve already found 5 writing errors that made it through to being printed. The author also added a symbol for the series (I’m assuming) that they print above the chapter titles but she didn’t add it in the first book only the second and on. And I want to say too, everyone makes mistakes writing. Everyone has written essays in school or projects at work that accidentally let a misspelled word or an accidental extra letter through , I’m not an ass I get it. But also you’re selling this as a product. I’d notice it but pass it off it was 1 or 2 mistakes, or even if it was more than that but it was just like an extra letter or a word misspelled or something. But whole sentences are worded wrong or mixed up or just plain don’t make any sense. And I feel like it’s fair to say that the expectation for most books that are published, especially a SERIES of books shouldn’t have that many mistakes ESPECIALLY in multiple books!!! I guess I’m just irritated that I spent extra money for nice cover art and the inside isn’t even spot checked well.
I’ve read a lot of books but never with this many mistakes of any kind. What do you guys think? Am I being too picky about this? I mean I’m not gunna throw the series away because of this but since the series isn’t fully released yet I don’t feel very strongly about buying the next couple books. That and the stories are only okay. Let me know what you guys think, thanks!
by hereforthestories03
2 Comments
I’ve found errors like you’ve described in multiple books, some of which were purchased 20+ years ago when I was a teenager. Printing errors are not the fault of the author, they’re the fault of the printer not doing adequate quality control.
I *am* noticing more errors in editing these days though. It makes me wonder if publishers are hiring good editors or just pumping things out as quickly as they can because they know an author is popular.
A lot of writers are not using editors. It has become a widespread problem.
Print on demand has always been low quality as well as children’s books and group sets.
However I would argue that we are actually seeing a return to high quality books after decades of quality decline in an effort to push costs lower. When I recently went to a bookstore 50% were special or collector editions with sewn binding, high quality paper, and good print quality. Most had commissioned artwork, which hasn’t been standard since the 80s.