Comments on: Kindle "find" function unearths poor editing

By: Brenda Shero

Brenda Shero — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:45:37 +0000

I found my way to this site while trying to find out if Kindle has a Ctrl Find-type option to eneble the reader to check what the author said much earlier about a character who crops up again later in the book; very handy when reading a long, complex novel.

What do I find? Drop-kicks who read just to say to the author, ‘Ha ha you were wrong.’ By the way, it’s ‘smoothes’ not ‘smooths’ – perhaps you need an editor yourself.

By: Logan Kennelly

Logan Kennelly — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:54:30 +0000

I wouldn’t call it poor editing, either, and 17 instances in a book of that size isn’t extreme. The phrase wasn’t a blip on my radar when I read it, but I used to read a lot of 19th century literature when such phrases were more common. (The earliest instance I could with a quick search was from an 1890 book.) When you consider that Pillars is meant to be historical and full of out-dated terminology.

By: Rich Adin

Rich Adin — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:33:13 +0000

On behalf of editors: The repetition doesn’t necessarily indicate no or bad editing; it just as readily indicates that the author likes this turn of words and demanded that the phrase remain. I can’t tell you how many times over my years as an editor I have suggested changes and was told by the author to leave the author’s words as they were (and the publisher saying do as the author wants). This is especially problematic with a highly successful author, whose writing will bring in big dollars even if it is dribble.

In the scheme of things, most editors are quite low on the influence pole and are often unfairly blamed for errors insisted on by authors or publishers or introduced by others after the manuscript has left the editor’s realm.

By: Chris Meadows

Chris Meadows — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:21:48 +0000

Yeah. And to note, the only thing that the Kindle’s find function does is make it easy to count the number of times the phrase was used. You could certainly notice that the phrase was used a lot, and flip back and forth among the pages to see a number of uses, in a print book.

By: Franko

Franko — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:11:47 +0000

it’s a vivid phrase, and when used sparingly would have better effect, which i think is the point: there are other ways to say this, too, and even using two or three different ways, alternating, wouldn’t stick out so badly.

By: Rocky Raccoon

Rocky Raccoon — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:24:29 +0000

Well, you certainly miss the point that it simply does not matter. This is nerd crap. What’s important is that you enjoyed the book. And that’s the end of that.