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Funniest Editing Fails

by

One of my biggest nightmares as an author is…typos. 😟

Grammaticos. 😨

Formatting errors. 😱

In order for a story to shine, I’m a firm believer that the mechanics need to be strong. I reread my manuscripts SO MANY TIMES before they’re finalized. However, despite my best efforts, little things almost always slip through.

A few months ago, I sent the first chapter of my upcoming release from Love Inspired to my critique group. One of the lovely ladies in the group flagged this sentence: Martin’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly, doubt and hesitation flashing across his flesh face.

Her comment? “I’m not sure what a flesh face is.” 🙃

When I read it, I burst out laughing. I’m not sure what a flesh face is, either, and I have no idea what I was thinking when that phrase tripped off my fingertips and onto the page.

But at least we caught that one before the editing process even began!

Can You Spot the Missing Word?

In my debut book, Falling for the Innkeeper, this little gem slipped past me, my line editor and my copyeditor. Fortunately, the proofreader had eagle eyes and corrected it before the book hit bookstore shelves!

Chloe gave a long-suffering sigh. “Fine.” She narrowed her eyes and shook her finger at Laura. “But don’t think I’m going to drop the subject forever. You’re too young to give up on love. And Emma needs a good male model in her life.”

(Emma is the heroine’s four-year-old daughter. I doubt she needed a good male model in her life, although Chloe and Laura might not have minded if a male model had poked his head into this book. 😅)

What’s in a Name?

It can be hard for authors to keep track of all the names in their books. Just ask my author friend Milla Holt, who was writing about Pastor Albert’s wife, Ingrid, in Into the Flood when she wrote that “Pastor Ingrid’s wife” was making coffee.

She explains, “That line made it past my editor and volunteer proofreaders and all the way into the files I’d uploaded to the retailers! Thankfully, I caught it in the preorder period, made the correction and swapped out the files.”

Valerie Comer wasn’t fortunate enough to catch her naming snafu before publication. She explains, “In Berry on Top, the heroine, Liz, is dreaming about kissing Zach. The problem is that Zach is her brother, and Mason is the guy she’s actually dreaming about!”

That mistake stood for months before a reader contacted her about it. Fortunately, Valerie is able to laugh about it now. “Big oops, LOL.” 😆

Jaycee Weaver also has some trouble with names in her books—and one name in particular!

“Every time I use my recurring character Jaydon, my muscle memory types Jaydon’t. It’s never slipped through, thank heavens, but it’s so weird!”

Seeing Double

When it comes to mistakes that made it through the editing process, poor Emily Conrad takes the cake. 🎂

She says, “My debut, Justice, was traditionally published, so it went through all the editing phases and was still published with two chapter 6’s. As one of my friends said, at least it wasn’t three of them!”

Something similar happened to another author friend, whose novel somehow got mixed up with another book during the printing process…and had 30 pages from that other book randomly inserted in the middle of hers!

Laughing Out Tears 😂

All of this is to say that we authors try hard to make our books perfect for our readers, but despite our best efforts, sometimes mistakes happen.

So, if you see something strange in one of our books, say something! We authors truly appreciate it when readers point out errors that can be fixed. 💕

For a chance to win one of the back-to-school prize packs, tell me the funniest editing fail you’ve come across, either in your own reading or in this post!

Meghann Whistler (24 Posts)

Meghann Whistler is a wife, mom, and Christian romance novelist who loves writing sweet, happy stories that WON'T make your grandmother blush! When she's not writing, reading, or jamming out to Christian rock music, you can find her enjoying a relaxing evening with her rocket scientist husband (seriously—he's a real, live rocket scientist!) or playing with her three kids.


Comments

  1. I can’t think of anything funny at the moment but I have seen lost if misspelled words and missing words.

  2. I am so glad that you don’t mind corrections. As an ARC reader, I always feel bad correcting an author’s work. Not so much the spelling and punctuation, but the times that I have to read the sentence over three or four times to make sense of it. I end up wondering if I’m just thick or if there really is a problem. Fortunately the authors have always been gracious enough not to verify the fact that the problem is mine but not theirs!

  3. Hi Meghann from SW Michigan. Fall is in the air. As a retired high school English, German, and Journalism teacher I have had many an editing fail. As the 1990s advisor for the high school newspaper the Drifter, I remember getting ready to take the paper to the printer. As I looked at the front page I gasped. The lead headline had a typo, which got passed me, my editors, the high school principal and assistant principal (both excellent at catching our missed mistakes). So I had to boot up the computer and was able to change the headline.

    As a teacher, many a time after printing a class set of handouts, did I catch the typos. As a German and school paper advisor, I always double & triple checked dates. Now in retirement I work with a handful of authors doing ARC reads. For a cozy mystery writer, I have found typos in her recipes at the end of the story. I like to cook and have taken cooking classes. Plus for historical fiction, I have pointed out conflicts in the timeline. YES, I also have found wrong chapter headings and duplicates. Definitely takes many eyes to catch them. Now with autocorrect – not sure whether it is a help or makes more typos, especially when writing in another language. Best wishes. Thanks for sharing.

  4. Hi Andrea — me, too. It really bothers me to read a book where it’s clear that there really wasn’t any proofreading. That’s why I work so hard at catching my mistakes!!!

  5. Hi Jeanette — I always appreciate it when ARC readers point out a mistake, especially for my indie books, which I can actually update and correct! For my Love Inspired titles, by the time they go to ARC readers, it’s too late to make changes, so for those ones, I just have to apologize and move on. 💕

  6. Wow — good catch on the headline, Renate! It’s funny how easy it can be to overlook a typo. Our eyes see what we expect to see instead of what’s actually there!

    I seriously dislike autocorrect. Microsoft Word has a feature that highlights *possible* grammar problems in a document, and the suggestions it makes are almost always way off base!

  7. I had an author laugh when I found a sentence that was funny as it was written. She told me no one on her end found that mistake and she was correcting it immediately. It was an ARC copy. She was very appreciative.

  8. One of the funniest I’ve seen as an editor/proofreader is a sentence that’s supposed to have “window” has “widow”! That’s happened a few times with one particular author and we both laugh at it each time I catch it. This week, it turns out the Lynnette Eason posted on her FB page that she’d done the same thing! So, I told my author she’s in really good company with that particular error!

  9. When I find an error, I instantly check the publisher and think, if they had an error, I’m okay! An error or few in a book doesn’t bother me; we are all human. That said, it is hands down my worst fear as an author. I have a glaring error near the front of my paper version of The Counting Tree, which still feels horrifying. Only one reader (the one who noticed it) has pointed it out, though, whew! I fear, however, that others have seen it and are just too darn kind to point it out;)

  10. I bought a CF romantic suspense novel awhile ago, and when I was reading it, I found out that the pages in the second half of the book were upside down. So, I had to flip the book over to finish reading it! :D
    Another book I read had the present-day storyline in first person, but in one chapter the POV changed from 1st to 3rd and back again.

  15. LOL a few months ago (I was on the launch team), Virginia Vaughan had a book where a guy died and he came to life a few pages later.

  17. I have read books with double of the same chapter ,mixed up character names to a different character in the book I usually don’t have an eye to notice misspelled words.

  18. Example of autocorrect? “lost if misspelled words”
    Not judging!! I wouldn’t normally point this out, but in the context I thought it was funny!

  19. Between teaching some literature and/or writing classes and homeschooling my children, I had to develop a critical eye for mistakes. Though “retired” from those activities, I now do some ARC reading and, when time permits, I share mistakes I find with the authors.
    There are three typos that came to mind in response to this post:
    1) A book title in an author’s email newsletter. In the text of the newsletter, the word “altar” (as in “left at the altar”) was spelled correctly, but the book cover had it spelled “alter”.
    2) A promotion of books relating to “Spring”. I think it was probably because a fancy cursive font was used that it got overlooked, but either the “p” or “r” was missing. I can’t recall right now which one.
    3) This last one I found particularly surprising. There was a recurring ad on my Kindle Fire tablet for the IMDb trailer for the movie version of the classic book, “The Litle Prince” (sic)!

  20. The double chapters seems pretty crazy to me! It must be a problem at the printing press, because I can’t imagine anyone would miss that in the actual book file!

  22. I think I have mostly only found small typos like if/of, in/on, is/it/if, an/and or maybe a letter getting left out or switched around in a word. I do think one of the funniest would be dreaming of kissing the wrong guy’s name especially when said guy is your brother.

  23. It must be so difficult when you’re writing a whole book, I find it hard enough not to have errors in a text message or a short post here.

    I find it hard to pick up on written typos and errors (I could never be a proof reader lol) but I have noticed sometimes in audio books the wrong name is used for a character and other errors, I think it’s easier when you’re listening!

  25. I actually find that reading the book to myself out loud helps me catch typos and awkward sentences, Ruthie, so I definitely think you’re onto something with the audio!!!

  26. One of the books I recently read called the main male character the wrong name a couple of times. I kept going back and reading the previous pages thinking I had missed something 😂. It made me wonder why no one caught that.

  27. I remember being on an ARC team, and someone else pointed out that the author had used the word “lightening” instead of “lightning”. The (funny) thing is, she not only posted the screenshot of the typo but also the screenshot of her Google search of lightening, which mentioned that it’s related to pregnancy, so the author was like, nope, I didn’t mean that, lol. It definitely taught me to keep in mind the differences between lightening, lightning, and lighting.

  28. I was reading an ARC. The author had killed off the guilty party. In the Epilogue, she mentioned him again as standing trial and being found guilty. I instant messaged her right away. The books had already been printed. She could not change it for the books, but she could change the Kindle edition. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.

  30. Ha ha ha — I changed the name of a character partway through my last manuscript, and I thought I caught and changed all instances of the name, but right before I sent it to my editor, I did a “find all” search just in case, and lo and behold! I had not caught all the instances of the old name, so I can definitely understand how this might happen. But so confusing for readers!!!

  34. I have seen quite a few over the years some are funny just cant remember them right now.
    I have heard some errors authors share that they found before the book was released that were quite funny.
    If I am reading an ARC I will let an author know if I pick up an error (spelling normally I don’t notice unless its glaring). I have also picked up a few errors to do with a place. Like an author mentioned I city I had visited and using an attraction as a free day out when in fact there was a cost. She was thankful as she hadn’t been there.

  36. I can’t think of any big issues right now, but I guess that’s good because it means they didn’t impact my ability to read the book so greatly that they stood out after I was done.

  40. I read a book recently where the male main character’s best friend’s name changed in the middle of the book. I thought he just ditched his old friend & I missed it, untill his dog had the same name & some other details matched. 😂😂 Mostly I find errors like that more funny than annoying. Actual grammar errors are a whole different story though! 😵‍💫

  42. I remember going to a Romance Writers meeting and a book cover had the hero with 3 hands. It stayed that way and was hard to see unless somebody pointed it out. We had a good laugh over it. Attending a monthly Creative Writing workshop for 5 years, we made manuscripts more readable. Belonging to poetry workshops for many years, we made the poems tighter and more concise by losing a few words and keeping intact the emotion and intent of the author. I learned how to line edit and do it automatically when reading anything.

  43. I read a book where the names of the brother and the main male character were switched which would have been a little inappropriate for the scene but other than switching it up on that page the rest was correct. Funny story is I married my step brother only he wasn’t my step brother until we were married 11 years, When my first baby was born they (my widowed mother and his divorced father) were both around a lot and fell in love and I didn’t think anything about it but my sister’s husband told her that he couldn’t wait to tease me about being married to my brother!😂

  44. Well, I don’t know if I really have a funny post. But I remember posting something in my stories on instagram with a spelling mistake and not realizing it until I saw that the author had reshaped it already. It was so embarrassing.

  50. Oh I thought of an error. it was a cosy mystery and a character was Mabel. I wouldn’t notice an error except it was Mum’s name and she told how a sadistic teacher use to torment her cos she would spell table, tabel. She would go up the front spelling table. t-a-b-l-e in her head but the teacher would say spell Mabel. so she would then spell table and she would get it wrong so she would get hit across the hands and laughed at.
    So in the book the name was spelt Mabel and then a couple times Mable. others wouldn’t notice but I did and then went back to check. the next would be Mabel again.

  52. I have a hard time keeping track of people so I pay close attention to names and relationships. When an author makes a mistake I sometimes correct it right there myself!

  53. I bought a paperback of an indie published book last fall that was missing a chapter in the middle. She fixed the ebook 🙃

  54. One time I read an ebook that I won from an author and the letter r was missing in all words. It was very difficult to read but I finished it. I do always wonder if I should let an author know when I find something.

  55. Right now, I can’t think of any but I have a tendency to read and not really notice the errors unless a word is misspelled. I enjoyed reading your article. I will have to really start paying more attention. Thank you for sharing.

  56. I notice spelling and grammar errors but I always forget that bookmaking is different now than it was when I did it some 50 years ago when you did full runs of books at once and shipped them out to stores. Now, I guess, you can correct mistakes on the spot and they will be corrected from then on. Maybe it is time I start mentioning them. None of them are big enough to affect the story though.

    I loved the male model error.

  57. I can’t think of any funny fail that I have read, but I can tell you a funny fail of my own that I did in our church bulletin … we were throwing our new pastor and his brand new wife a pantry party to stock their pantry. The announcement in the bulletin was fine, it was in the pastor’s thank you where I made the error, I typed “Thank you for the beautiful panty party. Abigail is using everything in the kitchen and Pastor Ryan is just thrilled!” 🤦🏻‍♀️

  58. I have read books before where I found typos or the wrong name associated with the wrong person. Of course, once the book is in print I think it’s probably too late to do much about it.

  59. Typos don’t bother me as much as the poor grammar in some of the books I read. I don’t think they teach it in schools anymore. Also the punctuation is not used correctly

  60. Yes, I have done lots of editing at my job in preparing class materials and handouts, etc. It’s often crazy after so much proof reading that there are still errors that sneak in. It’s funny I catch things in other’s writings quickly, but not my own.

  61. I loved reading those. I think I have had spellcheck correct and they didn’t correct it to what I was saying. I have posted hood instead of good.

  63. I read a book that had the same chapter in it twice. I’ve read a lot of books and this is the first time that has ever happened.

  64. One of the funniest fails I have come across was when I was doing a BETA read and the Author introduced the main character ‘s brother. She made a big deal of him coming to live with her and she left him out completely, even stating that she was all alone in the world. What a difference a few chapters make. LOL

  65. I already posted but the other day when I was reading a book said my little girl fell in the water and is drowning then a few pages later when they got them out it was a boy they rescued.

  66. I read what was written and it sounded funny. The word that was missing was role. She needed a good male role model in her life.

  67. Not really anything funny but sometimes there’s a word missing completely and I catch myself rereading the sentence or paragraph and then chuckling to myself before moving on with the story🤭

  68. I’m a professional editor, so I’m cursed with the ability to find typos in books, on TV, and elsewhere all the time! I even found a typo on a bottle of Snapple. Recently, I read a book with a big error on the very first page! I often have a hard time getting through otherwise good books if I’m distracted by poor editing. It’s amazing what slips through multiple eyes, as your examples demonstrated.

  73. Ha ha, Linda — I was so glad they caught that one! It’s much easier to correct mistakes in indie books. Trad publishers (like Love Inspired) still do a huge print run upfront.

  76. It depends, Diana — if it’s a traditionally published book, it likely won’t get fixed. But indie books can be updated at any time, so the author might be happy to hear about it. :)

  78. It’s so much easier to catch mistakes for other people, Sunnie! With your own words, you know what you meant to say, so your eyes are more likely to gloss over mistakes.

  85. the preacher’s wife guff is so funny. haven’t seen many goofs but lots of misspelled words

  87. I just finished The Ghost Illusion by Kat Martin and the heroine’s name is Eve St. Clair and at one point in the book she was Eve Sinclair!!!! Made me look to make sure my memory was right about the former…..

  94. I went to an online high school & meant to email my teacher a question about my lesson PLAN & somehow it got corrected to ” can you plow my land?” Lol he was like ummm I cant help you with that

  98. LOL, “Something similar happened to another author friend, whose novel somehow got mixed up with another book during the printing process…and had 30 pages from that other book randomly inserted in the middle of hers!”

  99. I can’t think of any books in particular that have had errors but I have read several that have had spelling mistakes in them. I think she needed a male role model, lol.

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