Penguin Australia's typo flub

woopsie.

Having consulted an inside source--there was no hardcopy proofing.

All of the production, even galleys, was digital.

Cathy C said:

Read those galleys, authors! Someone should have caught this.

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Truest words ever. Oh. Em. Gee.



I can't imagine!

ETA: And this is why you should always print a hard copy of your digital galleys and proof them!

Oopsie! I can't comprehend that SOMEBODY didn't take a close look at this book before it went to print.

Whoopsie.

That's the kind of typo that's very easy to miss. I'd say no problem, as long as no one tries to follow the recipe.

Yeah, more people are at risk than you might imagine, because substituting white pepper in a recipe could easily happen.

Imagine the possible scope of the carnage.

I'd bet money that this was someone's idea of a joke. How would you spell check from "pepper" to "people?" Peopper? Pepple? Why not "popper," or "peeper" or "pebble?"

Brilliant. Slapdash editing and authors who apparently don't care enough about their own books to actually check them.

ChristineR said:

I'd bet money that this was someone's idea of a joke. How would you spell check from "pepper" to "people?" Peopper? Pepple? Why not "popper," or "peeper" or "pebble?"

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I tried a few mangled spellings of "pepper" in Word and couldn't get it to suggest "people" in the spell check. Possibly it's just a "my attention wandered and my fingers typed something different than my brain intended" type of error. But no excuse for a proof reader not to spot it.

junkfoodmonkey said:

I tried a few mangled spellings of "pepper" in Word and couldn't get it to suggest "people" in the spell check. Possibly it's just a "my attention wandered and my fingers typed something different than my brain intended" type of error. But no excuse for a proof reader not to spot it.

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I did the same thing in Open Office. Didn't get a single suggestion of "people," even though I was trying for one. The closest I could get was "peoppel." "Peopper" gave "pepper" first and "people" way down on number five. And if it's true that almost every recipe called for pepper, you'd think there would be copy and pasting going on, and it couldn't be a copy and paste error either.

I suppose it could have been "peopper" and someone clicked on the wrong word in the list, but, you know, I'm still thinking tasteless joke is more likely.

ChristineR said:

I'd bet money that this was someone's idea of a joke. How would you spell check from "pepper" to "people?" Peopper? Pepple? Why not "popper," or "peeper" or "pebble?"

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I doubt spellceheck had anything to do with it. My guess is the writer thought "pepper", but typed "people".

I can't be the only writer who sometimes thinks one word but types another?

shaldna said:

Brilliant. Slapdash editing and authors who apparently don't care enough about their own books to actually check them.

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How many books have you proofread? It's an art, a talent, and a skill. Very few do it well, no one does it perfectly.

I'm very good at proofreading, but I've gone over a book three times, had two other editors go through it as well, and we all missed a couple of obvious typos.

It isn't about slapdash editing, and it sure isn't about caring, it's about not being perfect. Sometimes the mind reads what supposed to be on a page, rather than what actually is on the page. You do the very best you can, but perfection is usually off the table.

Jamesaritchie said:

Sometimes the mind reads what supposed to be on a page, rather than what actually is on the page.

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This is so painfully, annoyingly, and frustratingly true.

As an interesting side note, it also proves that the physical printing of books really is only between $2 and $3. As a cookbook, one could safely assume that it had lots of full-colour pages, and at $20,000 for 7,000, that's just under $3 per book.

CACTUSWENDY said:

'Mr Sessions could not understand why some readers had found the slip offensive.'

And it sounds like Mr. Sessions needs to find another line of work. Preferably one that does not deal with the public. IMHO

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I know.. he came off as snobby, eletist and rude. I can't believe that an error like that occred

Little1 said:

I know.. he came off as snobby, eletist and rude. I can't believe that an error like that occred

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I don't see why anyone finds it offensive, either. It was a mistake, a typo, something to laugh at. Something to correct, yes, but too many people take offense at anything, even a silly mistake, and that's stupid.

But why would you want to call people who bought your book stupid? If he had to fix it anyway, he didn't have to be so snooty about it.

What if the pepper had been white?

Personally, I don't sink to racial discrimination when I grind people. It's irrelevant. However, age does matter. Babies are too tender and turn into an unpalatable mush, whereas old people are too stringy.

junkfoodmonkey said:

I tried a few mangled spellings of "pepper" in Word and couldn't get it to suggest "people" in the spell check. Possibly it's just a "my attention wandered and my fingers typed something different than my brain intended" type of error. But no excuse for a proof reader not to spot it.

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I get "people" as the first suggestion when I write "peooer". This is quite possible, since the "o" is right next to the "p" on a keyboard. Ten-finger typing, little finger to the right.

Jamesaritchie said:

My guess is the writer thought "pepper", but typed "people".

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This is quite possible, too.

However it happened, I can easily believe it's nothing but a mistake. These things happen.

ChristineR said:

I'd bet money that this was someone's idea of a joke. How would you spell check from "pepper" to "people?" Peopper? Pepple? Why not "popper," or "peeper" or "pebble?"

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I think it was a publicity stunt. Otherwise, most of us would never have heard of this book.

Jamesaritchie said:

I don't see why anyone finds it offensive, either. It was a mistake, a typo, something to laugh at. Something to correct, yes, but too many people take offense at anything, even a silly mistake, and that's stupid.

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Did anyone say they took offense to the TYPO? I certainly did not. What I took offense to is him coming off as "oh, who cares about the typo? There stupid if they want a good ERROR FREE copy." Sorry hun, but I like my books without typos thank you vary much.

No one is perfect at proofreading, but having cannibalism in your cookbook is probably not a good idea in general.

Nicole