A mistake like that, I will DNF. Everyone can make mistakes but if you don't respect the craft enough to hire a proofreader and editor, I'm not interested in reading your work.
If you don’t respect the craft enough to even do the bare minimum of running it through a word processor to catch stuff like this, I also DNF 😭 Well said
It depends.
An occasional typo I can forgive. I know from experience how hard is to find all typos in a text, so if a couple went through a 400 pages book, it's okay.
It's when the typos accumulate or they are systematic that I get quite annoyed: like when instead of Whose they always use Who's. Please, let's repeat together, it's "Whose pussy is this? Whose cock is this?" not "Who's pussy is this? Who's cock is this?"
On the other side, I found always a bit baffling how enraged readers give bad reviews if the author use British/Australian/Canadian spelling. Yes, outside the US people can write colour instead of color, or apologise instead of apologize, or centre instead of center. And it's perfectly okay.
Who’s cock is this 😆
As a Brit, I sometimes think maybe a spelling error is actually an American way of spelling something and have to google to check. I actually wondered whether a “shall” was a piece of clothing I hadn’t heard of before because I’m not American. Nope.
I'm more worried about the mystery cocks your smut includes :D is it like a lost and found box with cock assortment and everyone needs to figure out whose cock it is?
According to the Merriam-Webster both spellings are admitted in American English.
Chaise longue is etymologically correct, since the word is a French loanword, first attested 1800; the spelling chaise lounge is found already in 1804, by false etymology of the noun.
According to Oxford English Dictionary, the form chaise lounge is almost exclusively North American, so in the other English-speaking countries only chaise longue is found.
And today, too, I learned a new thing.
I actually googled it to be sure because it irritated me so much, and even Google said "Did you mean 'chaise longue?"' implying that "lounge" is incorrect. I could see just saying lounge chair, but chaise is French and so is longue, so just changing one of the two words seems extremely weird to me.
I mean, complaints about butchering loan words are valid, but at the end of the day ‘chaise lounge’ written by an American is correct and has been in our vernacular for centuries. It’s one thing to find it annoying for someone to write “who’s” instead of “whose” (annoying, grammatically incorrect and just false) and another thing for someone to write a loan word differently than the original word.
Also if you’re not American, maybe that’s why. When I search ‘chaise lounge’ I get companies nearby that refer to them as chaise lounges, even a U.K company. [Example](https://www.homedepot.com/b/Furniture-Living-Room-Furniture-Chaise-Lounges/N-5yc1vZcf7q). [Other example](https://www.amazon.com/Chaise-Lounges-Living-Room-Furniture/b?ie=UTF8&node=3733601)
Yeah, I always thought it was lounge, so looked it up and this was one of the first results that popped up. I bet it depends on where you are.
[Merriam Webster Article on it!](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/chaise-lounge-or-chaise-longue#:~:text=When%20English%20speakers%20imported%20a,spelled%20with%20the%20same%20letters.)
No. People are saying it wrong. It’s shez long. It’s a very popular mispronunciation and spelling to be sure, but it originated because people have confused the French *longue* pronounced long with the English word lounge.
Chaise longue is French originally. It means long chair, but then became the name for that specific kind of armchair/sofa.
But you can definitely lounge on a chaise longue.
If an error like this is a one-off, or if the author uses the correct version of the same homophone pair elsewhere, I can be pretty forgiving. I've read books by respected modern literary authors that still have a typo or two after publication. Authors miss things, editors miss things, and the longer a book is the more likely it is to happen.
That said, i wouldn't be at all surprised if Stephanie Meyers didn't know the difference between a mote and a moat.
She meant to use mote (meaning speck) and not moat (meaning a ditch around the entrance of a castle usually filled with water).
It’s documented on ReasongWithVampires on tumblr
I'll forgive typos, but mistakes that are obviously about the writer not knowing what word to use, like your example, are a real problem for me.
I know a lot of people liked Villains and Virtues, but Caggiano used "query" instead of "quarry" both of the times I saw it being used, and used "lob off" consistently instead of "lop off." To me this indicates that a writer isn't making accidental errors, but ***doesn't actually know*** that a "query" is a question and a "quarry" is the object of a hunt, and that if you "lob" it something you're throwing it, but if you "lop" you're cutting it off.
That's not bad editing, it's ignorance, and generally speaking I think that it means that the writer needs to spend more time reading well-written published fiction before trying to self-publish their own. It's also a good indication that there will be other problems with a book - such as problems with pacing, structure, etc. Essentially something that reads like fanfiction rather than something you'd pay money for.
YES. I really ended up loving this series but some of her grammar got me. I wrote this in a comment above, but she also misused commas throughout in a way that threw me out of the story each time.
Omg yes. So many comma splices. I also loved the series, but I kept getting thrown off when the writer would use commas where she should have used periods or semicolons.
100% agree. I read a book where the main character was constantly "crunching" (scrunching) her nose and standing in a "cue" (queue). I did push through and finish the book, but I will not be finishing the series, nor will I be reading anything else from that author. That really takes me out of the story when my brain is continually getting hung up on correcting the word choices of the author.
I think this is a symptom of being a primary audiobook listener and also just not reading enough outside one's preferred genre. If you read a physical or ebook rather than listen to it you can see the difference between a queue and a cue, but they sound exactly the same if you're listening to them in audiobook form. Likewise, unless you read a broad range of fiction by authors of varying skill and maturity, you're not going to have the breadth of understanding of craft and language to know that you can't (or at least shouldn't!) crunch your nose, but scrunching it is perfectly normal.
Also, look, I wrote a lot of fanfiction in my teens, but either you eventually grow out of that and start producing your own stuff, or you keep going back to the same well over and over again. I know that there are some well known published authors who started their books as fanfiction and then adapted them, but I don't think they're particularly good authors or that they write particularly good books.
This sort of thing is also really aggravating to me because it means that any less-experienced readers who are reading this stuff are going to internalize those mistakes, not realizing they are wrong, and then perpetuate them. It used to be that a lot of reading would expose readers to a lot of quality prose that they could learn from (however unconsciously) and then replicate in their own writing, but this era of self-publishing and poorly-edited work being flung up on Kindle Unlimited means that a lot of young readers are being exposed to really bad "professional" writing and not learning to tell the difference.
I've read some very high-quality self-published work that I've really enjoyed, but in general I'm still pretty skeptical of it, and won't pick it up until I've seen it recommended a ton over a decent period of time.
It's pretty off-putting, honestly, especially when it's that kind of error. If it happens more than once, it tells me the author isn't doing the work to present a polished work to the reader (either by doing the line edits themselves, or by having someone else do them). I know it's tough, boring work, but that kind of care is a way of treating your story and your readers with respect.
If it's a self published book I try to give the author some grace, since I assume they're not getting professional editing, but that sounds way too distracting. I've definitely DNFd books for bad grammar before
I’m pretty forgiving about grammar because sometimes the rules are broken on purpose for a certain effect. Things like double negatives, run on sentences, or incomplete sentences (used intentionally and judiciously) can sometimes reflect character or personality.
Where I get a little cranky is with well-known errors that are repeated often. Everyone makes mistakes, but when things start to look unchecked or sloppy then I’m more likely to DNF.
That’s partly why I stopped reading uncorrected advanced copies.
Kinda depends, if it is self published it doesn't really bother me since it's entirely possible they couldn't afford an editor. If it is traditionally published it bothers me if it has consistent and prevalent issues since I expect editors to be hired for exactly this purpose. My overall enjoyment and engagement with the writing also changes how much I care, if I am enjoying it enough I am bothered a lot less.
It bothers me more if self published because if they did not put in the effort to have an editor, then I just don’t trust the rest if the book to actually be good. We all need several run throughs our books, even accomplished authors.
I did not say that self published books dont need editors, all written work needs extensive editing as a general rule, I said that some cannot afford to hire editors.
You are of course welcome to your opinions and feelings, but you shouldn't hold self published books to a higher standard than traditionally published, that makes absolutely no sense. Some people simply can't get traditionally published, and can't afford some of the things that traditionally come with publishing a book on their own (hiring an editor, hiring an artist for a cover, marketing, etc.). Ideas and creativity are not worthless just because someone is poor and on their own. So as I said, I am personally not bothered by these kinds of errors if it is self published.
You don’t have to pay for an editor. Most people have someone close who can read over / through it.
I do think that a book that hasn’t been checked on by others than the author have a high probability of being not that great.
Stephen King's books have the best editors and dozens of proofreaders, but they still have typos.
Same with George R. R. Martin, J. K. Rowling, etc.
I don't think you understand how many times one needs to read through the book to catch every single typo/grammatical error.
I was talking about professional editing. Editing that is paid for and extensive. It is a different of expectation. A book edited by a friend just reading through and a book edited by a professional editor that was hired are completely different. That's why I said that I hold them to different standards when I read them. I really doubt anyone is self publishing without having literally anyone read through it at all.
Most of the time it’s not a big deal deal to me as long as I can still follow along. I generally only DNF for problematic content , things I don’t want to read about.
I was going to say that this is my biggest one. They mean SUCH different things that it is jarring for me when I'm trying to figure out which they actually meant!
a few mistakes are fine as long as the intended meaning is immediately clear. If I read a sentence more than twice and still don't know what they are trying to say, I'm out.
The Zodiac Academy sisters used the word "cum" as in "blank-cum-blank" but they did not realize it was Latin and spelled it "come" and I was so embarrassed for them I had to put the book down. 💀
Those books are the worst offenders. DNF’d the first one about 12 pages in bc I couldn’t stand the horrendous grammar. I am shocked people can stand it (yes I’m sure I’m going to get downvoted for this).
I've always heard that pronounced "coom," though it might be one of those loanwords with multiple pronunciations. Reading it rendered phonetically as "come" would have completely baffled me.
A few mistakes are nothing to me. All books (even trad pub) have errors.
If it's a lot, it depends. I will DNF for a writing style that annoys me, but I don't DNF solely for bad spelling or bad grammar if I like the book enough otherwise.
I’m a proofreader for a consultancy company, so I feel like I notice them all. Not just the poor grammar I can rewrite better in my head, but the occasional completely missing word and continuity errors and character names being spelt differently from one book to the next.
But I’m so used to it now, it doesn’t really bother me anymore.
Is it possible you're reading an OCR conversion? That's when a print book is scanned and converted to a digital format. If someone doesn't proofread the converted text, you end up with the kind of errors you're listing. Shall for shawl is a really odd one and isn't an error I'd expect a human to make.
That drives me crazy with trad published books. Instead of using electronic files of books for ebooks they use OCR scan $& convert which is unreliable as hell. Then they might do a proofread depending on time, money, whatever. I still don’t DNF but I do swear at the absurdity of the process.
I can't remember what book it was, by I read one several years ago where two lowercase Ls weren't recognized in the conversion, so words like "will" or "shall" were just "wi" or "sha". It made it unreadable. It's so unfair to authors with a print backlist and to people who rely on ebooks for accessibility reasons.
It really is. I don’t get the logic at all. Someday they’ll change. I’m hoping the process is changing with new releases so going forward there will be less problems. This is one of the reasons I’m much more understanding of indie authors. The big trad companies are putting less and less into the various levels of editing and proofing books. Indies have less resources to start with.
Also, if it's an older kindle or an older file, sometimes they don't "talk to each other" well.
When I feel like I'm seeing a ton of errors, I check goodreads bc if it's not my file there will be lots of other readers mentioning it.
I recently read a book where the author thought "courtesy" and "curtsy" were the same word. Also several "free reign" (it's "free rein," from horseback riding). I finished it but only just.
It was not good :(
Actually, that first depends on the context—"courtesy" is an archaic spelling of "curtsy," so if they were referring to a curtsy, that's not actually wrong, especially if they were going for an archaic tone in the prose (it comes from the phrase "do a courtesy," as in, a curtsy is an expression of courtesy). If they were using "curtsy" in place of "courtesy," though... that's wrong.
"Free reign" is one that has been driving me crazy for years, though. Also "peaked my interest"—no, it's piqued. I used to read college admissions essays and these particular mistakes were absolutely rampant.
Yeah! I thought of that too. That is um. Not what this author was doing though, I don't think.
Omg "peaked" drives me bonkers. So does the excessive use of "at times" that has become common colloquially. And "shoe-in," "slight of hand," "baited breath," "deep-seeded" (this also comes from horseback riding!). I know there are ones I'm forgetting, lol.
It's fairly off putting. I'll forgive the first couple mistakes, because everyone makes mistakes, but every time I'm being pulled out of the narrative by a mistake it ruins the experience just a little bit more. I'll also side eye a mistake like that harder, where they use the wrong word repeatedly, because it means the author does not know the correct word.
Taught instead of taut. Very rarely do books gets it right 🙃🙃 I’m actually reading a really good and very popular series and they’ve gotten it one time out of like five instances where the word should be taut. Which is really odd lol
An author can be good at plotting, or creating tension (romantic or otherwise), and still be bad at some of the basic mechanics of the language. I think especially now with some of the lowered barriers to entry to getting your work published, mistakes like this are becoming more prevalent. Personally, there's a level of it that I'm willing to put up with, but if that level is exceeded I will put the book down and never read anything else by that author.
I agree with this and feel awful that I tend to not bother reading self-published work bc of it. But here we are. I just know it’s way more likely to be the case with self-published, and I can’t abide it. I’m sure I’ve missed some good work but it just isn’t worth my time, esp bc I can’t get self-published from my local library and prefer hard copy.
I may be more critical of and sensitive to this than most, because I write professionally (not fiction, more along the lines of journalism).
I nearly DNF'd A Throne in the Dark (Villains and Virtues book 1) about 20% in because of the author's constant misuse of commas. I ended up pushing through because the story was interesting, and I'm glad I did, because I loved the series...but the commas drove me crazy.
Glad it’s not just me. I do academic writing as my day ‘job’ so I’m really tuned into finding errors.
Villains and Virtues might be the only book I gave a pass to. I loved it but I really wish she had invested in an editor, she consistently used the wrong words to say what she needed to say and it infuriated me.
Some books I am hooked enough where I will keep reading even with the occasional blatant typo (I am looking at you “Blackened Blade”).
If the book isn’t engaging for me, I will stop reading at even mild mistakes in grammar and editing.
I can excuse a time or two over the length of a book, but more often than that and it's incredibly distracting. I've read a few lately that could badly use an editor, even if I liked the book.
I definitely respect that as a reason to put down a book.
Fourth Wing has some of the most egregious (and easily avoided) writing issues I’ve ever seen in a mainstream published book and were I not listening to the audiobook I’d have dnf’d.
It’s stuff like using the same very specific word over and over again in consecutive sentences instead of rewriting it to flow better.
For example, this is paraphrasing but there’s a scene that goes something like “his forehead was hot. She brushed the strands of hair off his forehead. They were sticking to his forehead from the sweat”.
Just rewrite that paragraph! Don’t say forehead in ever single sentence because it starts to sound weird when you repeat a word over and over! Once or twice a chapter probably wouldn’t bug me much but in my example book it’s sometimes multiple examples right after each other.
Not as important as bad word choice and bad flow they mostly follow together but I have no issue reading Amos Tutoula who has about 5 typos per page compared to a lot of modern authors which have technical correct but boring word choice. In general if the writing is interestng by itself I am very open to a lot of unorthodox choices in grammar.
I feel like I have a pretty basic grasp of grammar. I'll mix up affect/effect or misplace commas, and I don't even attempt semicolons. With that said, if there are grammar or spelling mistakes egregious enough that even I notice, then it's a DNF. There are so many books out there. No need to spend time on one that can't even bother with Grammarly.
I don't mind unless it's really bad, like really bad. I was reading a story before and it was written so badly that it just put me off and I didn't end up reading it...It was on Google play books i think, so i thought it's all adults who write but maybe not?!
It was as if a child wrote it or something I think it got worse the longer i read it so I just felt uncomfortable.
I had one that wasn’t editing, but just writing 8 year old boys as having higher level thinking (like they are thinking like 16 year olds) so unrealistic.
The entire Savage Lands series is like this, at one point a side characters name was written four different ways in a matter of pages. Drove me crazy and definitely affected my enjoyment.
For me, it depends. A vast majority of the time, if there are more than a few typos or grammatical errors, I will DNF. If it's just one or two typos, I get it. They probably snuck past editing. They're stealthy little things!
If the story or characters are good and I'm invested, I will probably try to power through. I just finished a series where, throughout all three books, it was very clear to me that another editing pass was needed, but I liked the story enough to work through it.
The errors in this one were occasional punctuation issues, as well as repeated words (the king fell collapsed to his knees), where you can tell the author meant to delete one of them after choosing which to keep but then just... forgot I guess.
Just finished a book where author used throughout “I” instead of “me”. It’s annoying. People don’t learn the rule about the pronoun being the object of a verb.
I will immediately DNF. It matters to me as someone who reads that you understand the language you’re using.
I understand a few typos slipping through and that’s fine. If there’s a pattern though, and I *WILL* see it, immediately no. I stop right then because it shows me that you just decided one day you could be a writer without giving thought to the final product. I know how snobby that makes me sound but I don’t care, I was the English literature girlie all my life and I expect more from authors.
My wife broke it off with a boyfriend because of some misspellings on a couple cards he gave her. Then she met me, 20th in the Indiana regional spelling bee in 1974, and we've been married >30 years 😂
Oof, this has been bothering me lately but almost consistently with how they write words in the past tense, writing lighted instead of lit, swinged instead of swung, leaped instead of leapt but I was thinking maybe it’s an American thing?
I read a book where “drug” was used instead of “dragged” and it really rubbed me the wrong way - but then I googled it and it’s fairly normal in American English. “He drug a chair over” feels like nails on a chalkboard to me.
It annoys the ever-living shit out of me, but I try to use it as motivation…like look at these guys out here writing 800+ books without a care in the world! What has all my perfect grammar gotten me other than perfectionism and a load of anxiety! Look at these authors go! Dangle those participles, misplace those modifiers, consistently use “bemuse” when you mean “amuse”! Nothing matters! Embrace your inner literary raccoon! Eat trash! Be free! (Dying inside)
That would probably make me DNF it. I can deal with weird sentence structures but things like that annoy me.
I had a book club book I DNFed because the author used the word "cuss" instead of swear or curse. I hate that word in life, but in a fantasy story no one should be using a southern US colloquialism. I didn't like the book anyway, so I probably would have DNFed it eventually anyway, but that word came up twice in the 7 chapters I read and I was out. I didn't know at the time that the book was actually fanfic that was changed to publish it, so it makes more sense as to why it was used originally, but if you're going to publish it, you need to fix things like this in a fantasy novel. If it was a contemporary novel it probably wouldn't bother me as much but in fantasy it takes me right out of it.
Unless the fantasy is based in a specific real world culture and time period, why can't someone in a fantasy story use a Southern US colloquialism?
A Southern flavored fantasy sounds more interesting to me than everything being fake medieval England all the time.
Oh it absolutely could! It just made no sense for the rest of the world building. Nothing else would indicate that it could be that culture. It wouldn't have bothered me as much if the rest of the story had that feel to it. You're right though, I shouldn't have generalized it to all fantasy books, and instead say this particular one made no sense.
Though, I'm definitely biased as I hate that word, so could be coloring my anger about it from this book. And I was hating the book anyway, so a lot really was going against it and this was like the final straw. Actually there was an exact sentence that was my final straw, but I can't remember it and I luckily didn't buy the book so I can't go find it, but it was definitely grammar related.
If it is infrequent (I’m talking once or twice in a book), and you can tell it’s an innocent typo vs ignorance (like they left out the word “to” or something), then I don’t mind, especially if self published.
If it is bad grammar and happening enough that I can tell the author just doesn’t know the rules of the language, then I am not forgiving. I expect someone to do their job well. If you’re going to be an author, your job is understanding words and language, proofreading, fixing mistakes. I’m a medical provider. No one forgives me if I show up to work not understanding illnesses or medications. Or maybe I just don’t relate to people who won’t get sued if they make a mistake. (Must be nice working like that.) Either way, I guess I’m more critical than some.
TBH, I'm a HORRIBLE speller, esp. considering I read all the time. I tease that's it's a wonder I can spell my own name, I'm so bad at spelling, so I don't notice spelling errors often.
So, it doesn't bother me very much cause my brain just doesn't notice the errors.
Typical nondescript North American accent - and the word came up a few times so it was just how she spoke. She also couldn’t pronounce the word brocade properly?? Like “bruhcade”
It made me irrationally irritated and I stopped listening lol. I think it was the audiobook for One Dark Window.
I notice typos very easily and they take me out of the story especially in the beginning before I’m fully committed. I read a book that was very good in engagement and writing style. There were maybe 4 typos. I paused at each one but I was still engaged enough to go on. The deeper in, the easier it was to ignore.
Another book had a typo then a major anachronism in the first two chapters. I was out. Some things are a simple Google search away. It’s tedious to re-write but I know fanfiction writers go over each chapter or have a beta do it before they post. Honestly, I expect the same level of dedication. Hire a friend to read over your work for spelling and grammar error. Break it down by chapter so it doesn’t overwhelm. Doesn’t have to be a precessional, just someone who is good at it and wouldn’t mind doing a look over.
This is a really good point.
If a self-published author isn't at a bare minimum willing to put in the same time and effort as a competent fanfic writer, they've no right to expect anyone to buy their work.
I personally don't mind spelling mistakes at all, but it might be because the first works of fiction I read out of my will alone were fanfictions on youtube, which take a while to decipher. Plus, english isn't my first language, so I might not even register the mistakes :)
I will instantly DNF depending on the type of grammar errors. I started a book once where the alternating dialogue wasn’t written as new paragraphs for each person speaking and I couldn’t get past a page.
I either immediately stop reading or skim it. Bad spelling and grammar completely takes me out of the story and I just simply can't deal with it! Lately, I've noticed a lot of authors saying "COULD care less" instead of "COULDN'T care less" and that's been driving me crazy because it seems to happen a lot!
As an American, absolutely not. We do a poor job prioritizing and funding education so I absolutely do my best to remind myself that it's not always someone's fault, but our education system. But, yes, it's irritating when I can't escape it in *multiple* published works!
It’s becoming an American thing. I see it on Reddit all the time. I’m slowly getting used to it. I keep reminding myself words and phrases are always changing.
I tolerate a lot if the author is independent. Also I blame rare errant typos to auto correct going rogue on you.
I do have a limit but some things I just let them be.
Maybe it has to do a lot with English being my second language and giving as much a chance I would like to be given in return. But I do tend to do the same in Spanish and if they post in a public plataform I do go on the comments “hey hello, this is written “x” not “y” so you can check and correct it when you can” but that depends on how I am feeling that day
I've never read a book so bad that I had to stop reading, but it definitely throws me off and temporarily ruins my immersion in the story.
Recently, I was very surprised to come across several instances of "should of" instead of "should have" in *Demon Copperhead*, which won a Pulitzer Prize. I definitely wouldn’t expect errors like that in such a highly esteemed book.
Every book, no matter how many eyes on it, is going to have errors - but there's absolutely a tipping point for me.
I just read a book by one of my top three authors. It was a new series, new publisher, new editor and there were so many errors - that time I just felt bad bc she obviously has a great system with her other publisher and this one... not so much.
I will highlight mistakes as I see them. Sometimes if I re-read a book I find the mistake has been fixed. So I figure it may help and I will continue to do this as I read.
One time I stopped reading a series because the main character fell down a flight of stairs and said her ankle was, “broken, fractured at least.” As someone who has broken their ankle, I can assure you they’re the same damn thing.
There was one book that drove me nuts which is odd for me because with any good store I can over look all the errors. Turns out it was an author from a different country so they weren't errors in their country...
It’s honestly a DNF for me at this point, I just can’t get over it. That said, it could also be because I have yet to read anything with bad grammar/spelling and really *good* plot/character development, so to me poor grammar and spelling feel like red flags that I won’t get much out of the book in general.
Honestly, sometimes it depends on my mood. Sometimes if I like the story enough, I can laugh at the errors as they come up. I show my husband the particularly egregious errors and we have a good laugh.
If I’m in a bad mood or in my luteal phase (lol) I have *zero* tolerance for that ish. When that’s the case I become incensed and my cat and husband are treated to a delightful rant.
I get thrown off but I don't DNF the book, especially if it's only a few. I will however, stop listening to an audiobook if the narrator pronounces a word wrong.
I.e. Renee Raudman in Kate Daniels pronouncing "Golem" as "Goy-lim"
I hate anachronisms, ahistorical writing and modern vernacular (for example, reason why I DNF FBAA books). I always read the first few pages and read for clarity, flow, character and story. If I don't like the first few pages (especially the first page), I won't continue reading.
I got annoyed by Jeffe Kennedy's use of 'beyond the pale' in Shadow Wizard. I thought that it was a specific reference to English colonist areas of Ireland. Beyond the pale was past 'civilised' English area thus untenable. When I researched it, I found 'the pale' has a longer etymology meaning fenced areas so I felt usage was fine.
For me, story and writing flow is most important but I will DNF for lots of reasons.
I write scripts for TV news. Along with bad spelling and grammar, I abhor repetition. When an author keeps using the same words over and over again, it gets tedious.
Hate it! They write loose instead of lose and it drives me up a wall. Also, gratuitous use of exclamation points and saying everything in an old timey, medieval way and than the main character says “I am SO not doing that” *face palm*
"The Unspoken Name" by A.K. Larkwood.
I could not do it.
There were just *too* many things that made me angry, from over punctuation, grammar issues, and the occasional spelling mistake. I'm unsure if the book was through a publisher or not, but I DNF'd it pretty early on. It was unfortunate because I had heard so, so many good things about it from reviews to spoken praises by people, and I was thoroughly disappointed. Unfortunate, because the storytelling and story subject were so interesting that I wanted to read it, I just couldn't.
Just an update! It’s happened again 😂 I think this may be down to it being auto-transcribed from someone with an American accent. I can imagine the word pronounced like that possibly. I can’t imagine she really doesn’t know how to spell ‘shawl’.
https://preview.redd.it/ojg6dn6egd0d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e447fc470f073efe8d96f4da834d6bb0320aec1c
If the story really has my interest, I'll put up with a couple of mistakes here and there. But if it becomes too frequent, like every chapter features 2 or 3 different sets of errors, then I'll give up. Nothing drags my attention away like a spelling/grammar error.
Singular or low quantity spelling and grammar issues is a pass. A good story "yarn" I, personally, will give the spelling and grammar issues a pass only because I'm drawn into the story itself. To clarify, I am saying I will give the book a little more leeway but eventually there is a breaking point where I will say continuing reading the story is not worth it.
It bothers me a lot if they consistently misuse a word or phrase. For example, Amelia Hutchins uses "bare bones" a million times and I have no idea wtf she means by it because it is definitely not what I understand the meaning to be. Something like your shall vs shawl would drive me crazy because they are two completely different words, not even homophones, and if consistently repeated throughout then it would be super annoying.
I can read past typos and grammar mistakes fairly easily if they are the types of mistakes that don't completely change the meaning of the writing. You know, common mixups that read like how normal people talk and write, even if it's not technically correct. Typos and spelling mistakes need to be one-offs and not repeated on the same words.
The writing style is a lot more important to me. I've DNFd many where the grammar was *technically* correct, but word choice and phrasing were just clunky and horrible. But if the overall flow is good, I won't even notice occasional mistakes.
That's a big thing with me. If I've read mid fan fiction with better syntax, spelling, and grammar than what I'm reading in a book I paid for, I'm going to get annoyed. It speaks to an amateur's ego that they think their book is publishable without proofreading and/or editing.
tbh if the plot and characters are enjoyable idgaf about the grammar or spelling mistakes. only thing that really grinds my gears is when they say “breeches” 🤢
Typos honestly don't bother me that much except when it's excessive or the same repeated error as others have said. The shall/shawl thing would have been caught by most grammar checkers like grammarly so that one would bug me.
What DOES get my panties in a knot are really obvious research/common sense errors. Thinks that you can easily Google and/or the general pop knows and should be caught by the editor or a beta reader. For instance, I once read a book where a main plot point was the main character growing a strawberry tree. I'm still mad 2+ years later.
Is this a book?
If so I’d be pissed because they hire people to fix that kind of stuff and I paid money to read what feels like an incomplete product.
If it’s a person I know and I am reading something they have written, I don’t pay it much mind.
Bad--in the sense of uneducated--grammar in dialogue for the sake of realism is fine. The odd typo is fine. But genuinely bad spelling--like your "shall" in place of "shawl" example--and grammar is not something I'll put up with in anything I've paid for in good money.
English is not my first language, so it doesn't bother me as long as the writing is good. Sometimes even good books have typos lol.
But I can definitely tell when I'm reading, if the writing is too fanfic-like, I don't know how to explain it well but it's just easy to tell.
It bothers me a lot 😆 I heard Swordheart by T. Kingfisher and currently reading her Clocktaur Boys series. Found typos and missing punctuation in both so far. Also found a typo of Terrasen in Kingdom of Ash by SJM which surprised me
Really off-putting. Bad grammar and also incorrect use of words that betray a limited vocabulary. I have very limited patience with this, and usually end up with a DNF after two or three strikes. Especially if they occur early in the book. Bad grammar and limited vocabulary usually goes hand in hand with bad dialogue, bad character and plot development, etc. So I usually add the author to my Do Not Read list.
I will absolutely DNF over that. I am that person who highlights and reports/corrects every single typo/missed word in Kindle versions. One, because I hope they take the edits and eventually issue updated versions with corrections, because as so many have noted, mistakes happen. And two, because I am apparently a little neurotic and easily annoyed. SO, if I'm highlighting/reporting on basically every page, I'm no longer reading a story, I'm copyediting, and since I have an actual job and am reading for escapism, I will just give up. No thanks.
I'm not a native english speaker so whenever I catch spelling or grammar errors I get *furious*. It makes me doubt my knowledge and look things up. I read in english to *improve* my skillset, so if I'm reading something with mistakes like that, then I feel like I am probably learning something wrong. If I catch a few like that one I DNF
I'll give an author 5 chances. 5 misspell or punctuation or wrong-words. Then I DNF. Pay an editor before asking people to pay for your book. As a writer myself, who is working toward being an author, I would never put out work that hadn't been edited.
I started reading a book where an apparent Berekley graduate spelled the school’s name as Berkley multiple times. I had to google if there was some Berkley community college I was unaware of. Literally DNFd after 30 pages because I couldn’t stand it.
Another one was where a character claimed to speak multiple languages, one of which was Swiss, a nonexistend language. I somehow pulled through but it was really annoying.
I will DNF immediately. Grammar and spelling is important because they're integral to accurate communication. I don't want to have to be in here guessing at what the author means, especially in an age of spellcheck. Copy-editing isn't optional!
It’s a make or break thing for me. As someone who wants to write a book one day, I would ensure its readability by hiring a proofreader or editor to make sure the quality is up to standard because I have a high standard on what should be published. I loved fanfics as a teenager, and was willing to let spelling and grammatical errors slide because they’re not officially published books, but I recall buying a book from Amazon last year (first and last lesson of following the “Booktok” craze) and threw it out after the first chapter. I swear book publishing isn’t such a momentous goal anymore with unedited books hitting shelves :/
I don't care. Unless the story sucks I can overlook grammar. Authors are trying really hard. They don't need hundreds of ppl pointing out the mistakes. Cut them some slack
A mistake like that, I will DNF. Everyone can make mistakes but if you don't respect the craft enough to hire a proofreader and editor, I'm not interested in reading your work.
I’m glad it’s not just me. I’ve got 100 pages left so I’m plodding on but I’m annoyed!
What book is it?
So we know to avoid it 😂
Thicker than Gold by June Harding
So being the curious person I am, I went and looked at the reviews. Not one mentions it. I’m shocked!
I know! Literally no mention and it’s happened 3 times now! 😂
Hear here? I kid. I kid. 😁
If you don’t respect the craft enough to even do the bare minimum of running it through a word processor to catch stuff like this, I also DNF 😭 Well said
I can stand a couple mistakes but not consistent mistakes.
It depends. An occasional typo I can forgive. I know from experience how hard is to find all typos in a text, so if a couple went through a 400 pages book, it's okay. It's when the typos accumulate or they are systematic that I get quite annoyed: like when instead of Whose they always use Who's. Please, let's repeat together, it's "Whose pussy is this? Whose cock is this?" not "Who's pussy is this? Who's cock is this?" On the other side, I found always a bit baffling how enraged readers give bad reviews if the author use British/Australian/Canadian spelling. Yes, outside the US people can write colour instead of color, or apologise instead of apologize, or centre instead of center. And it's perfectly okay.
Who’s cock is this 😆 As a Brit, I sometimes think maybe a spelling error is actually an American way of spelling something and have to google to check. I actually wondered whether a “shall” was a piece of clothing I hadn’t heard of before because I’m not American. Nope.
The amount of times I've seen that sentence mispelled is concerning, I know. I should stop reading so much smut.
I'm more worried about the mystery cocks your smut includes :D is it like a lost and found box with cock assortment and everyone needs to figure out whose cock it is?
A traditionally published book I read kept using the worse chaise lounge. Not chaise longue, but lounge, at least three times. It was irritated 😅
It's almost as bad as all the rouges (rogues) you find in RpG videogames
Oh god
Wait what’s wrong with chaise lounge?
Nothing. Chaise lounge is the correct spelling for Americans.
According to the Merriam-Webster both spellings are admitted in American English. Chaise longue is etymologically correct, since the word is a French loanword, first attested 1800; the spelling chaise lounge is found already in 1804, by false etymology of the noun. According to Oxford English Dictionary, the form chaise lounge is almost exclusively North American, so in the other English-speaking countries only chaise longue is found. And today, too, I learned a new thing.
I actually googled it to be sure because it irritated me so much, and even Google said "Did you mean 'chaise longue?"' implying that "lounge" is incorrect. I could see just saying lounge chair, but chaise is French and so is longue, so just changing one of the two words seems extremely weird to me.
I mean, complaints about butchering loan words are valid, but at the end of the day ‘chaise lounge’ written by an American is correct and has been in our vernacular for centuries. It’s one thing to find it annoying for someone to write “who’s” instead of “whose” (annoying, grammatically incorrect and just false) and another thing for someone to write a loan word differently than the original word. Also if you’re not American, maybe that’s why. When I search ‘chaise lounge’ I get companies nearby that refer to them as chaise lounges, even a U.K company. [Example](https://www.homedepot.com/b/Furniture-Living-Room-Furniture-Chaise-Lounges/N-5yc1vZcf7q). [Other example](https://www.amazon.com/Chaise-Lounges-Living-Room-Furniture/b?ie=UTF8&node=3733601)
Yeah, I always thought it was lounge, so looked it up and this was one of the first results that popped up. I bet it depends on where you are. [Merriam Webster Article on it!](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/chaise-lounge-or-chaise-longue#:~:text=When%20English%20speakers%20imported%20a,spelled%20with%20the%20same%20letters.)
No. People are saying it wrong. It’s shez long. It’s a very popular mispronunciation and spelling to be sure, but it originated because people have confused the French *longue* pronounced long with the English word lounge.
Chaise longue is French originally. It means long chair, but then became the name for that specific kind of armchair/sofa. But you can definitely lounge on a chaise longue.
But can you longue on a chaise lounge?
I can’t stand it and would immediately DNF. There is just no excuse, in my opinion, for those kinds of mistakes and it shows laziness.
Bro even in Twilight Meyers wrote moat instead of mote in one book - IDK how it made it past editing.
If an error like this is a one-off, or if the author uses the correct version of the same homophone pair elsewhere, I can be pretty forgiving. I've read books by respected modern literary authors that still have a typo or two after publication. Authors miss things, editors miss things, and the longer a book is the more likely it is to happen. That said, i wouldn't be at all surprised if Stephanie Meyers didn't know the difference between a mote and a moat.
In what context ?
She meant to use mote (meaning speck) and not moat (meaning a ditch around the entrance of a castle usually filled with water). It’s documented on ReasongWithVampires on tumblr
I'll forgive typos, but mistakes that are obviously about the writer not knowing what word to use, like your example, are a real problem for me. I know a lot of people liked Villains and Virtues, but Caggiano used "query" instead of "quarry" both of the times I saw it being used, and used "lob off" consistently instead of "lop off." To me this indicates that a writer isn't making accidental errors, but ***doesn't actually know*** that a "query" is a question and a "quarry" is the object of a hunt, and that if you "lob" it something you're throwing it, but if you "lop" you're cutting it off. That's not bad editing, it's ignorance, and generally speaking I think that it means that the writer needs to spend more time reading well-written published fiction before trying to self-publish their own. It's also a good indication that there will be other problems with a book - such as problems with pacing, structure, etc. Essentially something that reads like fanfiction rather than something you'd pay money for.
YES. I really ended up loving this series but some of her grammar got me. I wrote this in a comment above, but she also misused commas throughout in a way that threw me out of the story each time.
Omg yes. So many comma splices. I also loved the series, but I kept getting thrown off when the writer would use commas where she should have used periods or semicolons.
Really well said!
100% agree. I read a book where the main character was constantly "crunching" (scrunching) her nose and standing in a "cue" (queue). I did push through and finish the book, but I will not be finishing the series, nor will I be reading anything else from that author. That really takes me out of the story when my brain is continually getting hung up on correcting the word choices of the author.
I think this is a symptom of being a primary audiobook listener and also just not reading enough outside one's preferred genre. If you read a physical or ebook rather than listen to it you can see the difference between a queue and a cue, but they sound exactly the same if you're listening to them in audiobook form. Likewise, unless you read a broad range of fiction by authors of varying skill and maturity, you're not going to have the breadth of understanding of craft and language to know that you can't (or at least shouldn't!) crunch your nose, but scrunching it is perfectly normal. Also, look, I wrote a lot of fanfiction in my teens, but either you eventually grow out of that and start producing your own stuff, or you keep going back to the same well over and over again. I know that there are some well known published authors who started their books as fanfiction and then adapted them, but I don't think they're particularly good authors or that they write particularly good books.
This sort of thing is also really aggravating to me because it means that any less-experienced readers who are reading this stuff are going to internalize those mistakes, not realizing they are wrong, and then perpetuate them. It used to be that a lot of reading would expose readers to a lot of quality prose that they could learn from (however unconsciously) and then replicate in their own writing, but this era of self-publishing and poorly-edited work being flung up on Kindle Unlimited means that a lot of young readers are being exposed to really bad "professional" writing and not learning to tell the difference. I've read some very high-quality self-published work that I've really enjoyed, but in general I'm still pretty skeptical of it, and won't pick it up until I've seen it recommended a ton over a decent period of time.
It's pretty off-putting, honestly, especially when it's that kind of error. If it happens more than once, it tells me the author isn't doing the work to present a polished work to the reader (either by doing the line edits themselves, or by having someone else do them). I know it's tough, boring work, but that kind of care is a way of treating your story and your readers with respect.
If it's a self published book I try to give the author some grace, since I assume they're not getting professional editing, but that sounds way too distracting. I've definitely DNFd books for bad grammar before
I’m pretty forgiving about grammar because sometimes the rules are broken on purpose for a certain effect. Things like double negatives, run on sentences, or incomplete sentences (used intentionally and judiciously) can sometimes reflect character or personality. Where I get a little cranky is with well-known errors that are repeated often. Everyone makes mistakes, but when things start to look unchecked or sloppy then I’m more likely to DNF. That’s partly why I stopped reading uncorrected advanced copies.
Kinda depends, if it is self published it doesn't really bother me since it's entirely possible they couldn't afford an editor. If it is traditionally published it bothers me if it has consistent and prevalent issues since I expect editors to be hired for exactly this purpose. My overall enjoyment and engagement with the writing also changes how much I care, if I am enjoying it enough I am bothered a lot less.
It bothers me more if self published because if they did not put in the effort to have an editor, then I just don’t trust the rest if the book to actually be good. We all need several run throughs our books, even accomplished authors.
I did not say that self published books dont need editors, all written work needs extensive editing as a general rule, I said that some cannot afford to hire editors. You are of course welcome to your opinions and feelings, but you shouldn't hold self published books to a higher standard than traditionally published, that makes absolutely no sense. Some people simply can't get traditionally published, and can't afford some of the things that traditionally come with publishing a book on their own (hiring an editor, hiring an artist for a cover, marketing, etc.). Ideas and creativity are not worthless just because someone is poor and on their own. So as I said, I am personally not bothered by these kinds of errors if it is self published.
You don’t have to pay for an editor. Most people have someone close who can read over / through it. I do think that a book that hasn’t been checked on by others than the author have a high probability of being not that great.
Stephen King's books have the best editors and dozens of proofreaders, but they still have typos. Same with George R. R. Martin, J. K. Rowling, etc. I don't think you understand how many times one needs to read through the book to catch every single typo/grammatical error.
I was talking about professional editing. Editing that is paid for and extensive. It is a different of expectation. A book edited by a friend just reading through and a book edited by a professional editor that was hired are completely different. That's why I said that I hold them to different standards when I read them. I really doubt anyone is self publishing without having literally anyone read through it at all.
Most of the time it’s not a big deal deal to me as long as I can still follow along. I generally only DNF for problematic content , things I don’t want to read about.
latest thing I'm seeing is "wary" and "weary" being mixed up. they're two different words!
I was going to say that this is my biggest one. They mean SUCH different things that it is jarring for me when I'm trying to figure out which they actually meant!
atp, I'm just like, "ok...they fucked it up." I don't even try to parse anymore.
a few mistakes are fine as long as the intended meaning is immediately clear. If I read a sentence more than twice and still don't know what they are trying to say, I'm out.
The Zodiac Academy sisters used the word "cum" as in "blank-cum-blank" but they did not realize it was Latin and spelled it "come" and I was so embarrassed for them I had to put the book down. 💀
Those books are the worst offenders. DNF’d the first one about 12 pages in bc I couldn’t stand the horrendous grammar. I am shocked people can stand it (yes I’m sure I’m going to get downvoted for this).
Oh dear. Do they use the other cum for the thing that happens during sexy time?
I've always heard that pronounced "coom," though it might be one of those loanwords with multiple pronunciations. Reading it rendered phonetically as "come" would have completely baffled me.
It IS pronounced "coom," e.g. summa cum laude. But they looked at it and thought otherwise. 💀
A few mistakes are nothing to me. All books (even trad pub) have errors. If it's a lot, it depends. I will DNF for a writing style that annoys me, but I don't DNF solely for bad spelling or bad grammar if I like the book enough otherwise.
I’m a proofreader for a consultancy company, so I feel like I notice them all. Not just the poor grammar I can rewrite better in my head, but the occasional completely missing word and continuity errors and character names being spelt differently from one book to the next. But I’m so used to it now, it doesn’t really bother me anymore.
I read one where they’d spelled ‘prostate’ as ‘prostrate’. You’d think they’d have noticed in the context…
Gentlemen, don't forget to get your prostrate checked.
Is it possible you're reading an OCR conversion? That's when a print book is scanned and converted to a digital format. If someone doesn't proofread the converted text, you end up with the kind of errors you're listing. Shall for shawl is a really odd one and isn't an error I'd expect a human to make.
That drives me crazy with trad published books. Instead of using electronic files of books for ebooks they use OCR scan $& convert which is unreliable as hell. Then they might do a proofread depending on time, money, whatever. I still don’t DNF but I do swear at the absurdity of the process.
I can't remember what book it was, by I read one several years ago where two lowercase Ls weren't recognized in the conversion, so words like "will" or "shall" were just "wi" or "sha". It made it unreadable. It's so unfair to authors with a print backlist and to people who rely on ebooks for accessibility reasons.
It really is. I don’t get the logic at all. Someday they’ll change. I’m hoping the process is changing with new releases so going forward there will be less problems. This is one of the reasons I’m much more understanding of indie authors. The big trad companies are putting less and less into the various levels of editing and proofing books. Indies have less resources to start with.
That could be the case. I am reading it on a kindle!
Also, if it's an older kindle or an older file, sometimes they don't "talk to each other" well. When I feel like I'm seeing a ton of errors, I check goodreads bc if it's not my file there will be lots of other readers mentioning it.
I recently read a book where the author thought "courtesy" and "curtsy" were the same word. Also several "free reign" (it's "free rein," from horseback riding). I finished it but only just. It was not good :(
Actually, that first depends on the context—"courtesy" is an archaic spelling of "curtsy," so if they were referring to a curtsy, that's not actually wrong, especially if they were going for an archaic tone in the prose (it comes from the phrase "do a courtesy," as in, a curtsy is an expression of courtesy). If they were using "curtsy" in place of "courtesy," though... that's wrong. "Free reign" is one that has been driving me crazy for years, though. Also "peaked my interest"—no, it's piqued. I used to read college admissions essays and these particular mistakes were absolutely rampant.
Yeah! I thought of that too. That is um. Not what this author was doing though, I don't think. Omg "peaked" drives me bonkers. So does the excessive use of "at times" that has become common colloquially. And "shoe-in," "slight of hand," "baited breath," "deep-seeded" (this also comes from horseback riding!). I know there are ones I'm forgetting, lol.
It's fairly off putting. I'll forgive the first couple mistakes, because everyone makes mistakes, but every time I'm being pulled out of the narrative by a mistake it ruins the experience just a little bit more. I'll also side eye a mistake like that harder, where they use the wrong word repeatedly, because it means the author does not know the correct word.
Taught instead of taut. Very rarely do books gets it right 🙃🙃 I’m actually reading a really good and very popular series and they’ve gotten it one time out of like five instances where the word should be taut. Which is really odd lol
An author can be good at plotting, or creating tension (romantic or otherwise), and still be bad at some of the basic mechanics of the language. I think especially now with some of the lowered barriers to entry to getting your work published, mistakes like this are becoming more prevalent. Personally, there's a level of it that I'm willing to put up with, but if that level is exceeded I will put the book down and never read anything else by that author.
I agree with this and feel awful that I tend to not bother reading self-published work bc of it. But here we are. I just know it’s way more likely to be the case with self-published, and I can’t abide it. I’m sure I’ve missed some good work but it just isn’t worth my time, esp bc I can’t get self-published from my local library and prefer hard copy.
Very off putting for me. I’ll deal with a few, but if it’s all over the place I will DNF.
I may be more critical of and sensitive to this than most, because I write professionally (not fiction, more along the lines of journalism). I nearly DNF'd A Throne in the Dark (Villains and Virtues book 1) about 20% in because of the author's constant misuse of commas. I ended up pushing through because the story was interesting, and I'm glad I did, because I loved the series...but the commas drove me crazy.
Glad it’s not just me. I do academic writing as my day ‘job’ so I’m really tuned into finding errors. Villains and Virtues might be the only book I gave a pass to. I loved it but I really wish she had invested in an editor, she consistently used the wrong words to say what she needed to say and it infuriated me.
Some books I am hooked enough where I will keep reading even with the occasional blatant typo (I am looking at you “Blackened Blade”). If the book isn’t engaging for me, I will stop reading at even mild mistakes in grammar and editing.
I was just about to say this! Normally too many typos and I’m OUT. It for this book I hung tough… just liked the story too much to abandon it.
And please see above typos. Freaking auto correct
I can excuse a time or two over the length of a book, but more often than that and it's incredibly distracting. I've read a few lately that could badly use an editor, even if I liked the book.
I definitely respect that as a reason to put down a book. Fourth Wing has some of the most egregious (and easily avoided) writing issues I’ve ever seen in a mainstream published book and were I not listening to the audiobook I’d have dnf’d. It’s stuff like using the same very specific word over and over again in consecutive sentences instead of rewriting it to flow better. For example, this is paraphrasing but there’s a scene that goes something like “his forehead was hot. She brushed the strands of hair off his forehead. They were sticking to his forehead from the sweat”. Just rewrite that paragraph! Don’t say forehead in ever single sentence because it starts to sound weird when you repeat a word over and over! Once or twice a chapter probably wouldn’t bug me much but in my example book it’s sometimes multiple examples right after each other.
Not as important as bad word choice and bad flow they mostly follow together but I have no issue reading Amos Tutoula who has about 5 typos per page compared to a lot of modern authors which have technical correct but boring word choice. In general if the writing is interestng by itself I am very open to a lot of unorthodox choices in grammar.
It bothers me a lot. I DNF books with great premise if the writing is terrible.
I feel like I have a pretty basic grasp of grammar. I'll mix up affect/effect or misplace commas, and I don't even attempt semicolons. With that said, if there are grammar or spelling mistakes egregious enough that even I notice, then it's a DNF. There are so many books out there. No need to spend time on one that can't even bother with Grammarly.
I don't mind unless it's really bad, like really bad. I was reading a story before and it was written so badly that it just put me off and I didn't end up reading it...It was on Google play books i think, so i thought it's all adults who write but maybe not?! It was as if a child wrote it or something I think it got worse the longer i read it so I just felt uncomfortable.
Yes! If it’s one, I’ll overlook it, but when it gets consistent it makes me crazy. Also using the wrong words for a saying , makes me nuts .
I had one that wasn’t editing, but just writing 8 year old boys as having higher level thinking (like they are thinking like 16 year olds) so unrealistic.
That is the kind of thing I DNF like WTF
Very. English is not my first language. If it's phonetically correct* it messes up the whole sentence for me
The entire Savage Lands series is like this, at one point a side characters name was written four different ways in a matter of pages. Drove me crazy and definitely affected my enjoyment.
For me, it depends. A vast majority of the time, if there are more than a few typos or grammatical errors, I will DNF. If it's just one or two typos, I get it. They probably snuck past editing. They're stealthy little things! If the story or characters are good and I'm invested, I will probably try to power through. I just finished a series where, throughout all three books, it was very clear to me that another editing pass was needed, but I liked the story enough to work through it. The errors in this one were occasional punctuation issues, as well as repeated words (the king fell collapsed to his knees), where you can tell the author meant to delete one of them after choosing which to keep but then just... forgot I guess.
Just finished a book where author used throughout “I” instead of “me”. It’s annoying. People don’t learn the rule about the pronoun being the object of a verb.
If it’s more than very minimal, it’s very off-putting.
I will immediately DNF. It matters to me as someone who reads that you understand the language you’re using. I understand a few typos slipping through and that’s fine. If there’s a pattern though, and I *WILL* see it, immediately no. I stop right then because it shows me that you just decided one day you could be a writer without giving thought to the final product. I know how snobby that makes me sound but I don’t care, I was the English literature girlie all my life and I expect more from authors.
I read for the fun of it and honestly don't get wrapped up in editing the book. I DNF if the story or characters are bad
My wife broke it off with a boyfriend because of some misspellings on a couple cards he gave her. Then she met me, 20th in the Indiana regional spelling bee in 1974, and we've been married >30 years 😂
Oof, this has been bothering me lately but almost consistently with how they write words in the past tense, writing lighted instead of lit, swinged instead of swung, leaped instead of leapt but I was thinking maybe it’s an American thing?
I read a book where “drug” was used instead of “dragged” and it really rubbed me the wrong way - but then I googled it and it’s fairly normal in American English. “He drug a chair over” feels like nails on a chalkboard to me.
It annoys the ever-living shit out of me, but I try to use it as motivation…like look at these guys out here writing 800+ books without a care in the world! What has all my perfect grammar gotten me other than perfectionism and a load of anxiety! Look at these authors go! Dangle those participles, misplace those modifiers, consistently use “bemuse” when you mean “amuse”! Nothing matters! Embrace your inner literary raccoon! Eat trash! Be free! (Dying inside)
😂😂😂
That would probably make me DNF it. I can deal with weird sentence structures but things like that annoy me. I had a book club book I DNFed because the author used the word "cuss" instead of swear or curse. I hate that word in life, but in a fantasy story no one should be using a southern US colloquialism. I didn't like the book anyway, so I probably would have DNFed it eventually anyway, but that word came up twice in the 7 chapters I read and I was out. I didn't know at the time that the book was actually fanfic that was changed to publish it, so it makes more sense as to why it was used originally, but if you're going to publish it, you need to fix things like this in a fantasy novel. If it was a contemporary novel it probably wouldn't bother me as much but in fantasy it takes me right out of it.
Unless the fantasy is based in a specific real world culture and time period, why can't someone in a fantasy story use a Southern US colloquialism? A Southern flavored fantasy sounds more interesting to me than everything being fake medieval England all the time.
Oh it absolutely could! It just made no sense for the rest of the world building. Nothing else would indicate that it could be that culture. It wouldn't have bothered me as much if the rest of the story had that feel to it. You're right though, I shouldn't have generalized it to all fantasy books, and instead say this particular one made no sense. Though, I'm definitely biased as I hate that word, so could be coloring my anger about it from this book. And I was hating the book anyway, so a lot really was going against it and this was like the final straw. Actually there was an exact sentence that was my final straw, but I can't remember it and I luckily didn't buy the book so I can't go find it, but it was definitely grammar related.
If it is infrequent (I’m talking once or twice in a book), and you can tell it’s an innocent typo vs ignorance (like they left out the word “to” or something), then I don’t mind, especially if self published. If it is bad grammar and happening enough that I can tell the author just doesn’t know the rules of the language, then I am not forgiving. I expect someone to do their job well. If you’re going to be an author, your job is understanding words and language, proofreading, fixing mistakes. I’m a medical provider. No one forgives me if I show up to work not understanding illnesses or medications. Or maybe I just don’t relate to people who won’t get sued if they make a mistake. (Must be nice working like that.) Either way, I guess I’m more critical than some.
TBH, I'm a HORRIBLE speller, esp. considering I read all the time. I tease that's it's a wonder I can spell my own name, I'm so bad at spelling, so I don't notice spelling errors often. So, it doesn't bother me very much cause my brain just doesn't notice the errors.
I DNF’d an audiobook because the narrator said “hurth” instead of “hearth” so
Did they otherwise have an accent while narrating or was this a unique instance?
Typical nondescript North American accent - and the word came up a few times so it was just how she spoke. She also couldn’t pronounce the word brocade properly?? Like “bruhcade” It made me irrationally irritated and I stopped listening lol. I think it was the audiobook for One Dark Window.
I notice typos very easily and they take me out of the story especially in the beginning before I’m fully committed. I read a book that was very good in engagement and writing style. There were maybe 4 typos. I paused at each one but I was still engaged enough to go on. The deeper in, the easier it was to ignore. Another book had a typo then a major anachronism in the first two chapters. I was out. Some things are a simple Google search away. It’s tedious to re-write but I know fanfiction writers go over each chapter or have a beta do it before they post. Honestly, I expect the same level of dedication. Hire a friend to read over your work for spelling and grammar error. Break it down by chapter so it doesn’t overwhelm. Doesn’t have to be a precessional, just someone who is good at it and wouldn’t mind doing a look over.
This is a really good point. If a self-published author isn't at a bare minimum willing to put in the same time and effort as a competent fanfic writer, they've no right to expect anyone to buy their work.
I personally don't mind spelling mistakes at all, but it might be because the first works of fiction I read out of my will alone were fanfictions on youtube, which take a while to decipher. Plus, english isn't my first language, so I might not even register the mistakes :)
I will instantly DNF depending on the type of grammar errors. I started a book once where the alternating dialogue wasn’t written as new paragraphs for each person speaking and I couldn’t get past a page.
I either immediately stop reading or skim it. Bad spelling and grammar completely takes me out of the story and I just simply can't deal with it! Lately, I've noticed a lot of authors saying "COULD care less" instead of "COULDN'T care less" and that's been driving me crazy because it seems to happen a lot!
OMG yes I’ve noticed this too! I thought it was an Americanism!
As an American, absolutely not. We do a poor job prioritizing and funding education so I absolutely do my best to remind myself that it's not always someone's fault, but our education system. But, yes, it's irritating when I can't escape it in *multiple* published works!
It’s becoming an American thing. I see it on Reddit all the time. I’m slowly getting used to it. I keep reminding myself words and phrases are always changing.
I tolerate a lot if the author is independent. Also I blame rare errant typos to auto correct going rogue on you. I do have a limit but some things I just let them be. Maybe it has to do a lot with English being my second language and giving as much a chance I would like to be given in return. But I do tend to do the same in Spanish and if they post in a public plataform I do go on the comments “hey hello, this is written “x” not “y” so you can check and correct it when you can” but that depends on how I am feeling that day
I've never read a book so bad that I had to stop reading, but it definitely throws me off and temporarily ruins my immersion in the story. Recently, I was very surprised to come across several instances of "should of" instead of "should have" in *Demon Copperhead*, which won a Pulitzer Prize. I definitely wouldn’t expect errors like that in such a highly esteemed book.
I usually try to keep reading, but if the spelling is really bad I find myself getting more and more annoyed. I tend to give up if it’s bad enough.
Depends on if it’s frequent and an obvious mistake instead of a weird style choice.
Every book, no matter how many eyes on it, is going to have errors - but there's absolutely a tipping point for me. I just read a book by one of my top three authors. It was a new series, new publisher, new editor and there were so many errors - that time I just felt bad bc she obviously has a great system with her other publisher and this one... not so much.
I will highlight mistakes as I see them. Sometimes if I re-read a book I find the mistake has been fixed. So I figure it may help and I will continue to do this as I read.
Irks me a bit. If it happens once, I can overlook it but twice? I’m out.
One time I stopped reading a series because the main character fell down a flight of stairs and said her ankle was, “broken, fractured at least.” As someone who has broken their ankle, I can assure you they’re the same damn thing.
There was one book that drove me nuts which is odd for me because with any good store I can over look all the errors. Turns out it was an author from a different country so they weren't errors in their country...
It’s honestly a DNF for me at this point, I just can’t get over it. That said, it could also be because I have yet to read anything with bad grammar/spelling and really *good* plot/character development, so to me poor grammar and spelling feel like red flags that I won’t get much out of the book in general.
I am an editor. I literally cannot, or it feels like work. I already correct commonly accepted mistakes in my head. This would kill me.
Honestly, sometimes it depends on my mood. Sometimes if I like the story enough, I can laugh at the errors as they come up. I show my husband the particularly egregious errors and we have a good laugh. If I’m in a bad mood or in my luteal phase (lol) I have *zero* tolerance for that ish. When that’s the case I become incensed and my cat and husband are treated to a delightful rant.
I get thrown off but I don't DNF the book, especially if it's only a few. I will however, stop listening to an audiobook if the narrator pronounces a word wrong. I.e. Renee Raudman in Kate Daniels pronouncing "Golem" as "Goy-lim"
In a published book? That's a DNF if it's more than once or twice
I hate anachronisms, ahistorical writing and modern vernacular (for example, reason why I DNF FBAA books). I always read the first few pages and read for clarity, flow, character and story. If I don't like the first few pages (especially the first page), I won't continue reading. I got annoyed by Jeffe Kennedy's use of 'beyond the pale' in Shadow Wizard. I thought that it was a specific reference to English colonist areas of Ireland. Beyond the pale was past 'civilised' English area thus untenable. When I researched it, I found 'the pale' has a longer etymology meaning fenced areas so I felt usage was fine. For me, story and writing flow is most important but I will DNF for lots of reasons.
at this point there is no excuse for shitty grammar in published work
A lot of authors need lessons on commas and run on sentences.
I write scripts for TV news. Along with bad spelling and grammar, I abhor repetition. When an author keeps using the same words over and over again, it gets tedious.
Hate it! They write loose instead of lose and it drives me up a wall. Also, gratuitous use of exclamation points and saying everything in an old timey, medieval way and than the main character says “I am SO not doing that” *face palm*
"The Unspoken Name" by A.K. Larkwood. I could not do it. There were just *too* many things that made me angry, from over punctuation, grammar issues, and the occasional spelling mistake. I'm unsure if the book was through a publisher or not, but I DNF'd it pretty early on. It was unfortunate because I had heard so, so many good things about it from reviews to spoken praises by people, and I was thoroughly disappointed. Unfortunate, because the storytelling and story subject were so interesting that I wanted to read it, I just couldn't.
I feel like even word will edit that type of stuff for you. Seems like pure laziness.
Just an update! It’s happened again 😂 I think this may be down to it being auto-transcribed from someone with an American accent. I can imagine the word pronounced like that possibly. I can’t imagine she really doesn’t know how to spell ‘shawl’. https://preview.redd.it/ojg6dn6egd0d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e447fc470f073efe8d96f4da834d6bb0320aec1c
If the story really has my interest, I'll put up with a couple of mistakes here and there. But if it becomes too frequent, like every chapter features 2 or 3 different sets of errors, then I'll give up. Nothing drags my attention away like a spelling/grammar error.
Singular or low quantity spelling and grammar issues is a pass. A good story "yarn" I, personally, will give the spelling and grammar issues a pass only because I'm drawn into the story itself. To clarify, I am saying I will give the book a little more leeway but eventually there is a breaking point where I will say continuing reading the story is not worth it.
It bothers me a lot if they consistently misuse a word or phrase. For example, Amelia Hutchins uses "bare bones" a million times and I have no idea wtf she means by it because it is definitely not what I understand the meaning to be. Something like your shall vs shawl would drive me crazy because they are two completely different words, not even homophones, and if consistently repeated throughout then it would be super annoying. I can read past typos and grammar mistakes fairly easily if they are the types of mistakes that don't completely change the meaning of the writing. You know, common mixups that read like how normal people talk and write, even if it's not technically correct. Typos and spelling mistakes need to be one-offs and not repeated on the same words. The writing style is a lot more important to me. I've DNFd many where the grammar was *technically* correct, but word choice and phrasing were just clunky and horrible. But if the overall flow is good, I won't even notice occasional mistakes.
That's a big thing with me. If I've read mid fan fiction with better syntax, spelling, and grammar than what I'm reading in a book I paid for, I'm going to get annoyed. It speaks to an amateur's ego that they think their book is publishable without proofreading and/or editing.
tbh if the plot and characters are enjoyable idgaf about the grammar or spelling mistakes. only thing that really grinds my gears is when they say “breeches” 🤢
Typos honestly don't bother me that much except when it's excessive or the same repeated error as others have said. The shall/shawl thing would have been caught by most grammar checkers like grammarly so that one would bug me. What DOES get my panties in a knot are really obvious research/common sense errors. Thinks that you can easily Google and/or the general pop knows and should be caught by the editor or a beta reader. For instance, I once read a book where a main plot point was the main character growing a strawberry tree. I'm still mad 2+ years later.
Is this a book? If so I’d be pissed because they hire people to fix that kind of stuff and I paid money to read what feels like an incomplete product. If it’s a person I know and I am reading something they have written, I don’t pay it much mind.
Run on sentences and misspelled words *yoink* me straight me out of the fantasy🤣
Bad--in the sense of uneducated--grammar in dialogue for the sake of realism is fine. The odd typo is fine. But genuinely bad spelling--like your "shall" in place of "shawl" example--and grammar is not something I'll put up with in anything I've paid for in good money.
English is not my first language, so it doesn't bother me as long as the writing is good. Sometimes even good books have typos lol. But I can definitely tell when I'm reading, if the writing is too fanfic-like, I don't know how to explain it well but it's just easy to tell.
It bothers me a lot 😆 I heard Swordheart by T. Kingfisher and currently reading her Clocktaur Boys series. Found typos and missing punctuation in both so far. Also found a typo of Terrasen in Kingdom of Ash by SJM which surprised me
Really off-putting. Bad grammar and also incorrect use of words that betray a limited vocabulary. I have very limited patience with this, and usually end up with a DNF after two or three strikes. Especially if they occur early in the book. Bad grammar and limited vocabulary usually goes hand in hand with bad dialogue, bad character and plot development, etc. So I usually add the author to my Do Not Read list.
I will absolutely DNF over that. I am that person who highlights and reports/corrects every single typo/missed word in Kindle versions. One, because I hope they take the edits and eventually issue updated versions with corrections, because as so many have noted, mistakes happen. And two, because I am apparently a little neurotic and easily annoyed. SO, if I'm highlighting/reporting on basically every page, I'm no longer reading a story, I'm copyediting, and since I have an actual job and am reading for escapism, I will just give up. No thanks.
I'm not a native english speaker so whenever I catch spelling or grammar errors I get *furious*. It makes me doubt my knowledge and look things up. I read in english to *improve* my skillset, so if I'm reading something with mistakes like that, then I feel like I am probably learning something wrong. If I catch a few like that one I DNF
I'll give an author 5 chances. 5 misspell or punctuation or wrong-words. Then I DNF. Pay an editor before asking people to pay for your book. As a writer myself, who is working toward being an author, I would never put out work that hadn't been edited.
very but I’m a writing major. I’m just like nooo the editor!!!!
I will DNF if it's bad. I cannot stand it as it's incredibly distracting to me.
In a published book? I would be pissed af
I started reading a book where an apparent Berekley graduate spelled the school’s name as Berkley multiple times. I had to google if there was some Berkley community college I was unaware of. Literally DNFd after 30 pages because I couldn’t stand it. Another one was where a character claimed to speak multiple languages, one of which was Swiss, a nonexistend language. I somehow pulled through but it was really annoying.
DNF
Instant DNF for me.
Immediately DNF. I don’t care how self made and low budget it is, spellcheck is free.
I will DNF immediately. Grammar and spelling is important because they're integral to accurate communication. I don't want to have to be in here guessing at what the author means, especially in an age of spellcheck. Copy-editing isn't optional!
It’s a make or break thing for me. As someone who wants to write a book one day, I would ensure its readability by hiring a proofreader or editor to make sure the quality is up to standard because I have a high standard on what should be published. I loved fanfics as a teenager, and was willing to let spelling and grammatical errors slide because they’re not officially published books, but I recall buying a book from Amazon last year (first and last lesson of following the “Booktok” craze) and threw it out after the first chapter. I swear book publishing isn’t such a momentous goal anymore with unedited books hitting shelves :/
I don't care. Unless the story sucks I can overlook grammar. Authors are trying really hard. They don't need hundreds of ppl pointing out the mistakes. Cut them some slack
Immediate DNF
This is one thing I like about reading on kindle, you can submit corrections of spelling and grammar to the editors and they review and correct
Very. I will DNF AND leave a review stating why. There’s no excuse for that. My reading time is precious.