The publisher's editors are supposed to cure technical flaws. A friend of mine who fishes with a known author receives final drafts and brings up such matters and was told by the author that his publisher's editors are paid to make corrections. Despite that, I've seen errors fall between the stools. Gil
You're talking copy editors. And the assumption is that they know the nuts and bolts of what it is they're editing. When Iowa State University Press published the first edition of my pheasant hunting book, they didn't have anyone on staff capable of catching any technical errors I made. But then I was careful not to make any. Second edition, published by the same outfit that does Shooting Sportsman, I had an editor who knew the subject well. And it wasn't as much a case of catching technical errors as it was helping me make it a better book, simply because he understood the subject matter.
Slightly different version of the same issue: Back when I was teaching high school French, one of my students was the daughter of an evangelical preacher who'd written a pamphlet that he'd had translated into French. She asked me if I'd take a look. Turned out that whoever did the translation was obviously fluent in French, but not in American English idioms--several of which had been translated literally. Gave me a good laugh, and I helped with a few corrections.
Last edited by L. Brown; 08/23/19 06:57 AM.
