McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

"Grave" Misspellings

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theotherharry:
What can we do about well-meaning editors (or editorial assistants) who cannot spell and who, in performing their duties, "correct" the spelling of a word we have already spelled correctly?  Whew!  That was a mouthful.  Let me illustrate the problem.  I do not for a minute believe Jim Butcher does not know the correct spelling of "dais," a word he uses several times in his third Harry Dresden novel, GRAVE PERIL.  However, in the paperback release of this novel the word is misspelled EVERY time as "dias."  I can only conclude that someone "corrected" his spelling of the word after he reviewed the galley proofs.  I see this kind of thing so often, I wonder that it has not already come up for discussion.  How do we writers protect ourselves from these well-meaning, but poorly educated idiots?   

BTW, both of these words pass the Word spellchecker test, so it I do not believe it is a matter of having a tool that provides the incorrect spelling to the publishing house employee.

LizW65:
l've heard that a good portion of galley proofs are now "outsourced" to other countries such as India -- it's cheaper, but the drawback is that the people transcribing the work learned English as a second language and may have a rather shaky grasp of it.  A published author of my acquaintance said that she really had to go through hers with a fine tooth comb, as there were signifignat errors on every page.

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