Shift Happens

aadams73 · Jan 13, 2012

I know a lot of you worry about accidental typos in queries--you know, the funny kind. In the paper query days, I once sent out a batch that included "pubic" instead of "public."

But we're not alone. Agents do it, too. And they're just as mortified as we are when we err. Behold, from Sara Megibow's Twitter feed:

SaraMegibow Sara Megibow

typed to an editor... I MEANT to say, "thanks for being fast" instead I wrote, "thanks for being fat" #facepalm #Ishouldquitnow

So relax. We're all human.

(For the record, Sara is made of awesome-sauce. And I love that she shared this.)

Puma · Jan 13, 2012

Cute. I bet there may be more goofs like this showing up these days. My daughter likes to look at a website, think it's called damn you autocorrect - it's amazing the goofs that technology can create for unsuspecting texters. Puma

seun · Jan 13, 2012

I once came VERY close to sending an important email which contained the word busy...with a t added to it.

crunchyblanket · Jan 13, 2012

I once sent an email that ended in 'kind retards'. Oh, and another, that ended in 'manly thanks', but I rather liked that one.

seun · Jan 13, 2012

crunchyblanket said:
I once sent an email that ended in 'kind retards'. Oh, and another, that ended in 'manly thanks', but I rather liked that one.

Manly thanks? :roll:

The Lonely One · Jan 13, 2012

Hopefully you at least get an editor to laugh with one of these. Maybe if the pitch itself is good it will put them in the right frame of mind to read it

LindaJeanne · Jan 13, 2012

A product manager once sent me an e-mail asking if I could dig up our scholastic stopword list (that is, the list of all the words that the databases we sell to K-12 schools should disallow kids from searching.)

After sending it, I told someone that I had just sent a product manager an obscenity-laced e-mail, but it was OK, because he had really asked for it this time.

Edited to add: I was just amused that I was sending a work-related e-mail that contained at least twenty words one should never, ever use in a work-related e-mail.

swvaughn · Jan 13, 2012

crunchyblanket said:
I once sent an email that ended in 'kind retards'. Oh, and another, that ended in 'manly thanks', but I rather liked that one.

I now intend to close out all of my correspondence with "manly thanks."

Oh, and the site mentioned a few posts up:

www.damnyouautocorrect.com

If you've never been, do not go until you have a few hours to roll around on the floor...

Phaeal · Jan 13, 2012

I applaud Megibow for standing up to our thin-obsessed culture! You go, girl, just not too fat, please.

smoothseas · Jan 13, 2012

swvaughn said:
www.damnyouautocorrect.com
If you've never been, do not go until you have a few hours to roll around on the floor...

The Invisable Cats was a real hoot.

I just wasted the past 40 minutes surfing this site.

Thanks for the link.

Jersey Chick · Jan 13, 2012

Manly thanks. <--awesomest closing evah!

Becky Black · Jan 13, 2012

Puma said:
Cute. I bet there may be more goofs like this showing up these days. My daughter likes to look at a website, think it's called damn you autocorrect - it's amazing the goofs that technology can create for unsuspecting texters. Puma

I have the RSS feed for that site in Google Reader. Because there's nothing like starting the day helplessly crying with laughter.

heyjude · Jan 13, 2012

I always wonder if the Damn You Autocorrects are real. They can't be, not all of them, right? I'm looking at the 2nd one down right now ("Dad"). Please God tell me that "Dad" did not scar his daughter for life like that...

crunchyblanket said:
Oh, and another, that ended in 'manly thanks', but I rather liked that one.

Al Stevens · Jan 13, 2012

I lectured at a computer programmer's conference in the 1980s. I got tongue-tied and referred to "floppy dicks." It took a while to get the room back.

Ken · Jan 14, 2012

... I give you an "A" on the pun in your thread title ;-)

In regards to typos, authors and agents have no excuse. Correspondences should be proofread before being sent out. There's never any excuse not to do that.

aadams73 · Jan 14, 2012

Ken said:
In regards to typos, authors and agents have no excuse. Correspondences should be proofread before being sent out. There's never any excuse not to do that.

It doesn't matter how many times you proofread something, the eye still sees what it wants to see.

Case in point: I just finished my second-pass pages.

That means I've read it a zillion times, my beta readers have read it once, my alpha reader (and boyfriend) has read it at least twice, my agent's read it several times, my editor--and her assistant--have read it God knows how many times, the copy-editor has done their part, and I pored over my first-pass pages until I wanted to puke.

And guess what? It took someone who read one of my ARCs to spot two mistakes ALL of us had missed.

The eye will often see what's supposed to be there, not what is.

During the querying process, one agent, in her correspondence with me, misspelled her own name. *Shrug* It happens to us all. It's not like they didn't know (or care to know) the difference between to/too/two or you're/your. It was just a silly--very human--typo.

Ken · Jan 14, 2012

... don't know what second pass pages are. I'm guessing they're on the long side. That's not the case with one-page or half-page queries. One should be able to read through one, once, and spot any typos, especially of the sort mentioned here. It's just a matter of paying strict attention and reading carefully, rather than just skimming over something. There's always a tendency to do the later. That's mostly the cause for why errors get overlooked.

aadams73 · Jan 14, 2012

Ken said:
... don't know what second pass pages are. I'm guessing they're on the long side. That's not the case with one-page or half-page queries. One should be able to read through one, once, and spot any typos, especially of the sort mentioned here. It's just a matter of paying strict attention and reading carefully, rather than just skimming over something. There's always a tendency to do the later. That's mostly the cause for why errors get overlooked.

Second-pass (and first) pages are also known as galleys or page proofs. It's when the book is typeset, but unbound.

And I still maintain that people occasionally miss things, no matter how diligent they are. It must be lovely to be perfect, but most of us are regular human beings who sometimes screw up.

Puma · Jan 14, 2012

I'd agree that people are going to miss things regardless. Years ago when I was working we had a very important technical proposal that needed to be sent out. I'd read it until I was blue in the face and had the typos corrected. Other people had read it. Before it was sent out I read it one last time and found a mistake in the next to last paragraph of the last page (over 100 pages) in a simple four letter word - can't remember what it was but something like wree instead of were. It happens. Puma

jjdebenedictis · Jan 14, 2012

This isn't writing-related, but I had a student once who didn't know why his physics experiment had failed and was pulling any explanation he could think of out of the aether.

In his lab report's conclusion, he said, "The experiment may have failed due to an error in the data or maybe some fiction."

He meant friction, but that was a lovely little Freudian slip from someone who was clearly trying to bullshit me.

Jersey Chick · Jan 14, 2012

aadams73 said:
Second-pass (and first) pages are also known as galleys or page proofs. It's when the book is typeset, but unbound.

And I still maintain that people occasionally miss things, no matter how diligent they are. It must be lovely to be perfect, but most of us are regular human beings who sometimes screw up.

In one of my books, I proofed, my editor proofed, the FLE proofed and then, just because I had the time, I aked my husband (heretofore known as Ol' Eagle Eyes) to look over the galleys.

He found mistakes that three different sets of eyes missed.

I s'pose all of us (with the exception of Ol' Eagle Eyes) should hang our heads in shame at our obvious stupidity.

Al Stevens · Jan 14, 2012

Ken said:
... don't know what second pass pages are. I'm guessing they're on the long side. That's not the case with one-page or half-page queries. One should be able to read through one, once, and spot any typos, especially of the sort mentioned here. It's just a matter of paying strict attention and reading carefully, rather than just skimming over something. There's always a tendency to do the later. That's mostly the cause for why errors get overlooked.

You mean like what I bolded for you? See? Shift can happen to anyone.

bearilou · Jan 14, 2012

Al Stevens said:
I lectured at a computer programmer's conference in the 1980s. I got tongue-tied and referred to "floppy dicks." It took a while to get the room back.

I didn't need to go to the site linked above. I was rolling for a while with this one.

Thanks for the laugh.

Ken · Jan 14, 2012

Al Stevens said:
You mean like what I bolded for you? See? Shift can happen to anyone.

... not in this instance, though I wish it had been a typo. I never knew there was such a word as "latter." I've been using "later" from day one, when referencing back to a previous sentence or to a previous part of sentence. I just looked "latter" up and am now informed.

aadams73 · Jan 14, 2012

Jersey Chick said:
He found mistakes that three different sets of eyes missed.

I s'pose all of us (with the exception of Ol' Eagle Eyes) should hang our heads in shame at our obvious stupidity.

You should rent him out!

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