Errors, Errors, and More Errors!

I was working on an about-to-be published history book a few months ago, and as I was going through I noticed that many of the dates were either:

1. incorrect

OR

2. inconsistent (a certain war was said to have started in, say, 1756 in one place, 1757 in another, and 1759 near the end of the book). Which is it people? Pick ONE.

There was a time when publishing was far more about quality and accuracy than about profit and schedules. Now it's "You've got 1-2 weeks to edit this 1,000-page book. IT CANNOT SLIP OUT OF SCHEDULE!!!" Editors used to spend 6-8-10 weeks making sentences perfect and facts accurate. I remember literally studying each and every sentence in a manuscript for phrasing and accuracy. But that was so long ago. Now everything is "Hurry up! We need it NOW!" Bye-bye correct phrasing and overall accuracy.

It's so sad that an industry that was for so many years consumed by the issue of quality is now run by financial guys interested only in the bottom line. Change is not always a good thing.

Yep, definitely sad.