First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.

For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.

However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
versions that were released at the same time and there are no
superfluous underlined words in them.

BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
�-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

On Wednesday, 21 July 2021 at 06:20:50 UTC+1, Robert Woodward wrote:
> First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
>
> For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
> transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
> have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
> the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
> paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
> another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
> that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.
>
> However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
> Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
> an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
> by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
> underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
> 70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
> occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
> is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
> versions that were released at the same time and there are no
> superfluous underlined words in them.
>
> BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
> in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
> those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.

What do you mean by "figures" - illustrations?
diagrams? numbers?

"The Bible", Christians' holy book, has appeared in
editions with particular idiosyncrasies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_errata>
The most notorious is "The Wicked Bible",
so called, which leaves out the word "not" and so
says "Thou shalt commit adultery." It was recalled.

But if you're picking an oddest, it might be,
"Blessed are the placemakers", or "Printers have
persecuted me without a cause", or "Who has ears
to ear, let him hear." Or "thy son that shall come
forth out of thy lions".

Oddness arguably is greater if you can't say -
which access to the mutilated text only - "I perceive
that an error has occurred in the process, and I
understand what should be here instead." If you're
very faithful then you may be not able to accept
easily that what's in the book is wrong. Sorry, but I
think all of it is wrong.

It appears that fewer than all surviving copies of
"The Wicked Bible" also say, "And ye said, Behold,
the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and
his great-asse".

In <https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Mistakes_in_the_Harry_Potter_books>
the writer may be responsible for describing
"Lord Voldemort" as the last remaining ancestor of
ethically challenged practitioner Salazar Slytherin,
when in fact he is the last descendant. This was
corrected in reprints. Most of the "mistakes"
described are factual inconsistencies in the story.
Many of these are corrected as well. At least one
where "Hagrid the half-giant says" something that
is contradicted later, I accept as Hagrid not knowing
the true facts, which happens often enough to be
deliberate by the author to feed you false information.
There may be a separate web page just about
Hagrid's Mistakes.

I saw a reproduced rare book seller's advert that
was offering "Prometheus Bound. Bound upside down."
In many sources, the disobedient god Prometheus
/is/ bound upside down, but this seems to be about
the cover being backwards.

And this happened apparently, did I mention?
<https://notalwaysright.com/dust-off-that-jacket-for-the-brain-too/238977/>

From which, a reviewer:

"Then there was the book that had an incomplete chapter,
as in the author hadn't finished writing it. It still had the
place holder that had been in the eARC (electronic
Advanced Reader Copy). Incase your wondering it was
the first edition hardcopy of "Strands of Sorrow"
by John Ringo, end of chapter 14. All it has is
///big splosions here///. I had opened a copy in the store
to see what the actual description was. And that's all that
was there."

----

There's a Star Trek novel where let's say chapter 48
is a short description of a character's thoughts as they
accelerate to theoretically impossible Warp Speed Ten.
Chapter 49 then is simply a repeat of chapter 48.
Chapter 50 repeats it twice, then devolves into stuttering
restarts of the chapter. Or something like that...
obviously a deliberate effect, arguably a mistake by
the character.

My copy of Roger Zelazny's _Today We Choose Faces_
left out a chunk of the story and I didn't notice, until
pages I'd read started repeating. Then I suppose I
checked page numbers. I got a replaced copy, and
the story didn't make hugely more sense with all the
pages included, so it's possible that the whole book
was messed up to start with and remained so.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunates>
by B. S. Johnson is a "novel" of 27 chapters, with
those between beginning and end intended to be
read in any order that you pick them up. I expect
most of us own some books in that condition.

In article <robertaw-CEFF86.22204420072021@news.individual.net>,
Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.

There was a Neal Asher...Line of Polity, I think... where a significant
fraction of the first print run was missing a signature. As it happened,
the entire supply of that book sent to Ontario was from the affected range.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

In article <robertaw-CEFF86.22204420072021@news.individual.net>,
Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
>
>For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
>transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
>have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
>the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
>paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
>another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
>that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.
>
>However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
>Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
>an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
>by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
>underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
>70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
>occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
>is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
>versions that were released at the same time and there are no
>superfluous underlined words in them.
>
>BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
>in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
>those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.
>

Well, Strunk & White recommend using 's for all names, even those ending
with 's'. (With some historical exceptions like "Jesus' teachings").
The *don't* recommend underlining them though.

I wonder if copy editors flagged them all, by underlining, the authors
pointed to S&W and convinced them, and the still flagged text got sent
to the typesetters that way..
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

In article <ca02eacf-d4b1-4a91-837b-82bb2b3648b6n@googlegroups.com>,
Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:
>
>In <https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Mistakes_in_the_Harry_Potter_books>
>the writer may be responsible for describing
>"Lord Voldemort" as the last remaining ancestor of
>ethically challenged practitioner Salazar Slytherin,
>when in fact he is the last descendant. This was
>corrected in reprints. Most of the "mistakes"
>described are factual inconsistencies in the story.
>Many of these are corrected as well. At least one
>where "Hagrid the half-giant says" something that
>is contradicted later, I accept as Hagrid not knowing
>the true facts, which happens often enough to be
>deliberate by the author to feed you false information.
>There may be a separate web page just about
>Hagrid's Mistakes.
>

Hagrid is explicitly written that way. In fact one of Rowling's
many devices & metaphors for showing the kids maturing is the gradual
realization that while Hagrid will always be salt-of-the-earth and
a great friend, he has terrible judgement and poor impulse control.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On Tue, 20 Jul 2021 22:20:44 -0700, Robert Woodward
<robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:

>First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
>
>For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
>transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
>have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
>the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
>paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
>another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
>that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.
>
>However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
>Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
>an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
>by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
>underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
>70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
>occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
>is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
>versions that were released at the same time and there are no
>superfluous underlined words in them.

OK, I'm confused.

If you are talking about a print edition, please say so, and specify,
as referencing e-books and hardback/paperback editions muddy the
waters.

If you are talking about a Kindle edition, they may be links. Try
activating it and see if anything happens.

>BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
>in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
>those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.
--
"I begin to envy Petronius."
"I have envied him long since."

In article <fbjgfglrd8ds5jfhokuhibuldtlufr3pn7@4ax.com>,
Paul S Person <psperson1@ix.netcom.invalid> wrote:

> On Tue, 20 Jul 2021 22:20:44 -0700, Robert Woodward
> <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>
> >First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
> >
> >For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
> >transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
> >have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
> >the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
> >paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
> >another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
> >that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.
> >
> >However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
> >Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
> >an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
> >by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
> >underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
> >70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
> >occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
> >is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
> >versions that were released at the same time and there are no
> >superfluous underlined words in them.
>
> OK, I'm confused.
>
> If you are talking about a print edition, please say so, and specify,
> as referencing e-books and hardback/paperback editions muddy the
> waters.
>

The problems that I have mentioned are with the March 2018 hardcover
edition. The paperback reprint in 2019 as well as the HTML and Epub
versions that were released in March 2018 do not have the problems.

> If you are talking about a Kindle edition, they may be links. Try
> activating it and see if anything happens.
>
> >BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
> >in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
> >those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
-------------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

In article <ilr02dFnag7U2@mid.individual.net>,
ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote:

> In article <robertaw-CEFF86.22204420072021@news.individual.net>,
> Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
> >First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
> >
> >For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
> >transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
> >have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
> >the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
> >paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
> >another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
> >that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.
> >
> >However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
> >Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
> >an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
> >by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
> >underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
> >70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
> >occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
> >is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
> >versions that were released at the same time and there are no
> >superfluous underlined words in them.
> >
> >BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
> >in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
> >those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.
> >
>
> Well, Strunk & White recommend using 's for all names, even those ending
> with 's'. (With some historical exceptions like "Jesus' teachings").
> The *don't* recommend underlining them though.
>
> I wonder if copy editors flagged them all, by underlining, the authors
> pointed to S&W and convinced them, and the still flagged text got sent
> to the typesetters that way..

But why only 61 of the 130 occurrences of "...s's" were underlined (all
of the "Travis's" and only 1 of the 2 "O'Higgins's")? I believe that
there were several pages that had an underlined "Travis's" and one of
the "...s's" that were not underlined.

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
�-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

In article <sd988r$f0i$2@reader1.panix.com>,
jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote:

> In article <robertaw-CEFF86.22204420072021@news.individual.net>,
> Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
> >First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
>
> There was a Neal Asher...Line of Polity, I think... where a significant
> fraction of the first print run was missing a signature. As it happened,
> the entire supply of that book sent to Ontario was from the affected range.

I have seen books with missing signatures (plus a duplicate), but they
appear to had been isolated cases. There was one SF magazine I bought
(can't remember if it was Analog or Asimov's) that had a missing
signature - I later discovered about half of the issues at the store had
that problem.

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
�-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

In article <ca02eacf-d4b1-4a91-837b-82bb2b3648b6n@googlegroups.com>,
Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> wrote:

> On Wednesday, 21 July 2021 at 06:20:50 UTC+1, Robert Woodward wrote:
> > First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
> >
> > For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
> > transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
> > have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
> > the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
> > paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
> > another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
> > that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.
> >
> > However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
> > Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
> > an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
> > by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
> > underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
> > 70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
> > occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
> > is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
> > versions that were released at the same time and there are no
> > superfluous underlined words in them.
> >
> > BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
> > in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
> > those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.
>
> What do you mean by "figures" - illustrations?
> diagrams? numbers?
>

A map, plus several illustrations of warships (generally silhouettes).

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
—-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

On Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 12:55:04 AM UTC-4, Robert Woodward wrote:
> In article <ca02eacf-d4b1-4a91...@googlegroups.com>,
> Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
> > On Wednesday, 21 July 2021 at 06:20:50 UTC+1, Robert Woodward wrote:
> > > First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
> > >
> > > For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
> > > transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
> > > have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
> > > the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
> > > paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
> > > another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
> > > that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.
> > >
> > > However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
> > > Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
> > > an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
> > > by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
> > > underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
> > > 70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
> > > occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
> > > is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
> > > versions that were released at the same time and there are no
> > > superfluous underlined words in them.
> > >
> > > BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
> > > in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
> > > those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.
> >
> > What do you mean by "figures" - illustrations?
> > diagrams? numbers?
> >
> A map, plus several illustrations of warships (generally silhouettes).
> --
> "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
> Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
> —-----------------------------------------------------
> Robert Woodward robe...@drizzle.com

My favorite publishing error is my Bluejay books edition of 'Rouge Queen'
by 'L Spraque de Camp',

Pt

In article <5d7c23e6-9d6d-4548-bc60-b38e90bca669n@googlegroups.com>,
pete...@gmail.com <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Thursday, July 22, 2021 at 12:55:04 AM UTC-4, Robert Woodward wrote:
>> In article <ca02eacf-d4b1-4a91...@googlegroups.com>,
>> Robert Carnegie <rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
>> > On Wednesday, 21 July 2021 at 06:20:50 UTC+1, Robert Woodward wrote:
>> > > First of all, I am referring to errors that effect the entire print run.
>> > >
>> > > For example, I have a paperback edition where the typesetters (when
>> > > transferring from the hardcover) had one hardcover page out of order. I
>> > > have a paperback that was missing the last chapter, plus a few pages of
>> > > the hardcover (I think I checked multiple copies). I was once shown a
>> > > paperback where the cover for one title was bound with the text of
>> > > another (IIRC, I was told then that it the entire print run was like
>> > > that). But I can see how the mistake was made for all of these.
>> > >
>> > > However, I have an example that I can't explain. I have in my hand _A
>> > > Call to Vengeance_ by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope (it is
>> > > an Honorverse offshoot). The principal character is one Travis Long and,
>> > > by my count, there are 60 occurrences of "Travis's". Each one is
>> > > underlined. There are 9 other nouns of the form "..s's", with a total of
>> > > 70 occurrences - only 1 of them is underlined (there are two
>> > > occurrences of "O'Higgins's", two different people, mother and son, one
>> > > is underlined, the other is not). I have copies of two of the electronic
>> > > versions that were released at the same time and there are no
>> > > superfluous underlined words in them.
>> > >
>> > > BTW, Those electronic versions also have some figures that don't appear
>> > > in the hardcover (the paperback edition that came out a year later has
>> > > those figures and no underlined words). Perhaps that error was related.
>> >
>> > What do you mean by "figures" - illustrations?
>> > diagrams? numbers?
>> >
>> A map, plus several illustrations of warships (generally silhouettes).
>> --
>> "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
>> Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
>> —-----------------------------------------------------
>> Robert Woodward robe...@drizzle.com
>
>My favorite publishing error is my Bluejay books edition of 'Rouge Queen'
>by 'L Spraque de Camp',
>
>Pt

I like "center of ass" in one of the Honor Harrington books.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..