Monday, June 27, 2005

Wince-Worthy

Bill Crider's Blog has some horrifying examples of either sloppy or non-existent copyediting:
From Robert B. Parker's Appaloosa, p. 266: 'The room was quiet and noisy.'

p. 238: 'Bragg took a tan leather case out of his inside coat pocket. He offered a cigar to Bragg and me.'


Ouch. What's going on here? Has Parker gotten so big that no one dares copyedit him, even with obvious brain-farts like this? (I mean, I do stuff like this a lot, but I usually manage to catch myself, or someone does it for me). Does the publisher just not care, figuring, "Ah, WTF, it's Robert B. Parker, the rubes'll buy it anyway?" Was the copyeditor just badly hungover that day? Can anyone explain this? Anyone?

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