I think it's a common plague of technical books. I saw the same thing as a grad student TAing stat classes: the answers in the back of the books were full of errors. I knew a guy who worked in legal publishing and he said he saw the same problem there.
Chess Publishers answer me this...
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It is probably common in all types of specialty publishing. I am in the Audio/Video business and about two weeks ago we were emailed a preview of a new amplifier and the word watt (as in watts per channel) was written as "what" about ten times in the document.
It seems the spell checker did it's job but nobody proof read the copy before it was sent out.
ERRATA SHEET FOR SILMAN'S COMPLETE ENDGAME COURSE
http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess_news/endgame_eratta.html
victhestick wrote:
It is probably common in all types of specialty publishing. I am in the Audio/Video business and about two weeks ago we were emailed a preview of a new amplifier and the word watt (as in watts per channel) was written as "what" about ten times in the document.
It seems the spell checker did it's job but nobody proof read the copy before it was sent out.
Lol. I got my degree in RTVF and found many similar type-o's in a lot of my study materials through the years.
Seems weird, but many times the publishers have nothing to do with the subject matter - they are out to make a buck. Therefore, they don't have anyone 'qualified' to review the manuscript and just send it out as-is.
Unacceptable to me, but that's the way it is.
I wonder if anyone proof-reads and makes "corrections" with no idea that they are actually making errors. For example, someone might think that "watt" is a typo of "what" and painstakingly messes up the whole thing. Sounds crazy, but I've seen it happen.
Its more likely that they are too lazy in the first place though.
What is funny is that I am a performing musician and also teach at a few colleges and I have not found as much errors in music texts. There are some to be sure but not as many as I see in chess books.
I do believe that the Silman Endgame Book errors have been corrected. The edition I have seems clean.
It seems ridiculous that there has to be an independent website to bring the Pandolfini Endgame course errors to light. The publisher should have corrected them by now.
It isn't so much the mistakes that bothers me-they do happen-it is the alarming rate at which they occur in chess publishing and the rather cavalier attitude the publishers seem to have towards them.
Having said that I will still by the latest book on the Leftside Scrambled Egg variation of Ruy Lopez!! :)
ivandh wrote:
I wonder if anyone proof-reads and makes "corrections" with no idea that they are actually making errors. For example, someone might think that "watt" is a typo of "what" and painstakingly messes up the whole thing. Sounds crazy, but I've seen it happen.
Its more likely that they are too lazy in the first place though.
Watt exactly are you trying to say?
victhestick wrote:
ivandh wrote:
I wonder if anyone proof-reads and makes "corrections" with no idea that they are actually making errors. For example, someone might think that "watt" is a typo of "what" and painstakingly messes up the whole thing. Sounds crazy, but I've seen it happen.
Its more likely that they are too lazy in the first place though.
Watt exactly are you trying to say?
LOL!
Having said that I will still by the latest book on the Leftside Scrambled Egg variation of Ruy Lopez!! :)
... buy ...
i can understand why chess books have a more frequent occurance of errors than other books. chess is a specialized field of knowledge, and book editors should not be expected to understand or be experts in this field. instead of complaining about the mistakes in some of the "chessic tomes" that we come across. we should appreciate the ideas the authors offer. i believe if any one is to be held responsible for these mistakes. it is the author. i'm sure he is given the oppurtunity to review the final work before it goes to press. we cannot expect proof readers or editors to have the knowledge necessary to ensure flawless works. just by perusing the comments on this topic i've come to the conclusion that many of you shouldn't complain. aloha,...ppeets
Bur_Oak wrote:
Having said that I will still by the latest book on the Leftside Scrambled Egg variation of Ruy Lopez!! :)
... buy ...
WOW! Reading all of those error laden chess books has even influenced my own grasp and use of the English language!
ppeets wrote:
i can understand why chess books have a more frequent occurance of errors than other books. chess is a specialized field of knowledge, and book editors should not be expected to understand or be experts in this field. instead of complaining about the mistakes in some of the "chessic tomes" that we come across. we should appreciate the ideas the authors offer. i believe if any one is to be held responsible for these mistakes. it is the author. i'm sure he is given the oppurtunity to review the final work before it goes to press. we cannot expect proof readers or editors to have the knowledge necessary to ensure flawless works. just by perusing the comments on this topic i've come to the conclusion that many of you shouldn't complain. aloha,...ppeets
Music is a specialized field of knowledge and I don't see as many mistakes in the text books I or my students make use of.
My main complaint is that quite often the errors are never corrected. That IS inexcusable.
And yes there have been some typos and errors in this thread (I am guilty), BUT no one is charging $16 or more for the privilige of reading their thoughts on this subject.
Bur_Oak wrote:
Having said that I will still by the latest book on the Leftside Scrambled Egg variation of Ruy Lopez!! :)
... buy ...
Hmmm, sounds interesting, who's that bye?
Hopefully medical manuals do not carry a similar amount of errors...
Proof reading a chess book is quite tedious and a very long process. Also when proofing many times the diagrams are not included so you are just proofing text.
Also there are many terms in chess that can cause confusion in basic spell check application so words either get missed or changed (similar to the What/Watt mentioned above)
Now many books in English are a translation of a book written in another language and sometimes the translator is not a native English speaker so words and idioms are mis used.
Based on my experience these are some of the main reasons that chess books have errors. Also book sales are relatively low so from a cost/reward basis they do not want to spent too much money in producing the book.
Aug 15, 2009
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#18
streetfighter wrote:
I recently offered my proof-reading services to a chess publisher here in the UK. A normal hourly rate for such services might be anything upwards of £20 per hour ($30+).
I was offered £50 per book, or the option of being paid in books! I would have been happy to drop my rates a little as the subject matter is one I love, but this offer was verging on the offensive! I was informed that there were actually people willing to proof-read the books for free.
In any event, you get what you pay for so it's no surprise to me at all that the majority of chess books are rife with errors: firstly, it's a difficult subject matter, and secondly, if you pay peanuts you'll get monkeys dong the work
streetfighter
Agreed. If I was publishing a book I would be looking to pay a lot more than £50 for a proof-reader.
Why are there SO MANY typos and errors in chess books. As a rule chess books seem to have more errors then any other type of book I have ever seen.
Why is that? Cany anyone who works in the chess publishing business answer this?
The errors in Pandolfini's Endgame Course have NEVER been fixed.
And I am not talking about errors of analysis. Of course those can happen or they can become errors retroactively as accumulated knowledge refutes them.
I am talking about typos and diagram errors.