Using my powers of OCD for good
Jan. 26th, 2009 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerI don't really have OCD in a clinical sense, of course. I just tend towards anal-retentiveness.
As far back as I can remember, I have always been a good speller. (Until I screwed myself up by going to France for a year and thinking/writing in a different language, anyway.) Typos generally leap out of text at me and grab me by the throat.
When my ARC of Mortal Coils arrived and I spotted a typo, I e-mailed the author asking if he wanted a list - or if it was too late and it would just be annoying. He said, yeah sure, send 'em along.
I sent him an annotated list of the 25 or so typos I found in the 600-page book, with page references and my assumed corrections. I'm fairly certain it was considerably more complete than he was expecting.
His response: "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this! I remember catching some of these in the final edit pass...but some look new. I don't have the final version in front of me, so I just sent them all along to my editor at TOR to double check. Again--this was a great help as I especially hate letting any typos get into the finished product.
"Shoot me an email early next year and, if you want, I'll get an ARC of the sequel out to you for all the assistance."
A free, signed, advance copy of the next book for noting down the things I'd notice anyway? Don't throw me in that briar patch!
As far back as I can remember, I have always been a good speller. (Until I screwed myself up by going to France for a year and thinking/writing in a different language, anyway.) Typos generally leap out of text at me and grab me by the throat.
When my ARC of Mortal Coils arrived and I spotted a typo, I e-mailed the author asking if he wanted a list - or if it was too late and it would just be annoying. He said, yeah sure, send 'em along.
I sent him an annotated list of the 25 or so typos I found in the 600-page book, with page references and my assumed corrections. I'm fairly certain it was considerably more complete than he was expecting.
His response: "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this! I remember catching some of these in the final edit pass...but some look new. I don't have the final version in front of me, so I just sent them all along to my editor at TOR to double check. Again--this was a great help as I especially hate letting any typos get into the finished product.
"Shoot me an email early next year and, if you want, I'll get an ARC of the sequel out to you for all the assistance."
A free, signed, advance copy of the next book for noting down the things I'd notice anyway? Don't throw me in that briar patch!
