Observation on published works

Some erotica houses are better than others when it comes to editing. I've worked with several:whereas with one I barely got a line edit, with a couple of others my story was as shredded as any of my mainstream things. It really depends on the publisher that you're buying these books from.

Samhaim, Ellora's Cave, Aspen Mountain Press, Loose ID--just off the top of my head, these houses have a reputation for strict editing guidelines. There are more, I know.

I've noticed it, too. In horror, sci-fi, everywhere, both online and in print. I've got the same question as you do. While I'm no grammatical expert by any means, I do cringe when I see work that's published with "their" instead of "there" and other similar errors.

I'm also trying to learn the business and doing a lot of market research. If an editor can't edit any better than I can, is this really where I want to be submitting my work? Also, not a criticism, just a question.

This happens more than you'd think, even from major publishers. Publishers these days actually invest very little money in actual editing. "Editors" these days spend a lot more time in board meetings and doing marketing than they do actual editing. Case in point---I just read my author's copy of my latest novel in print (pubbed by Virgin Books, a division of Random House) and found several errors, none of which were in the galley. I suppose those errors made it in by accident during the copyedit. Made me cringe, but having worked as a copyeditor myself in the past I know it's hard to catch everything.