Jo Walton ([info]papersky) wrote,
@ 2008-03-06 13:51:00
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Mistakes in Ha'Penny?
I have the Ha'Penny paperback page proofs.

If anyone has spotted any typos, errors or mistakes in the hardcover Ha'Penny that should be fixed in the paperback, now would be a really good time to mention them to me.

I'm a terrible proofreader. I read too well what I know it ought to say.

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[info]rosefox
2008-03-06 07:23 pm UTC (link)
I'm reading the ARC right now--the original ARC, for the hardcover--and I think the worst I've noticed is "crisply" twice in one sentence or maybe two consecutive sentences, when Carmichael first meets Viola and is describing her. Don't know if you caught that already.

There are comma choices I might disagree with, but I'm sure you fought your CE over every single one of them and I wouldn't want to put you through that again!

And I had some question I was meaning to ask you about the book, come to think of it... it's gone out of my head now, though.

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[info]ron_newman
2008-03-06 10:10 pm UTC (link)
I did not realize that the book gets re-proofed for paperback. Are the pages a different size than the hardback, and therefore all the pagination is different too?

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[info]papersky
2008-03-06 11:53 pm UTC (link)
Books are usually reproofed for paperback, Farthing for some reason wasn't. And yes, the pagination is completely different.

Reading the paperback proof is usually the last time I actually read my novels.

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[info]ethelmay
2008-03-06 11:44 pm UTC (link)
Amazing timing -- I *just* read _Ha'Penny_ last night, and would be happy to look through it again. One thing I wondered was whether you meant the bits of German and French to be as the people remembered them, or as they used them in English, and hence not always quite accurate (e.g., I don't *think* Fuhrer is given an umlaut in this printing), or whether some might count as typos. Another one I remember is "alouetta" given as French for lark, when it should probably be "alouette." But that could well be Viola's error.

I'll probably post back tomorrow sometime. Cheers (oh, and I *greatly* enjoyed the book, by the way! sorry, almost too obvious to mention!)

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[info]papersky
2008-03-06 11:50 pm UTC (link)
"Alouetta" is a deliberate mistake, Viola thinking she knows more than she does because that's how it is pronounced in the song. I stetted it back to wrong.

The umlaut I think was a copyeditorial decision or a case of English usage.

Do go ahead and mention anything else you notice.

I'm glad you liked it.

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[info]ron_newman
2008-03-07 04:44 am UTC (link)
]I stetted it back to wrong.

Love that sentence.

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[info]calanthe_b
2008-03-07 03:06 am UTC (link)
Sorry, the original of this comment was actually for something in Ha'penny. Gah, my memory!

Edited at 2008-03-07 03:07 am UTC

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[info]a_d_medievalist
2008-03-07 02:53 pm UTC (link)
I like proofreading ... but am crap at proofing my own stuff.

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[info]ethelmay
2008-03-07 06:57 pm UTC (link)
Here's what I've found:

p. 32 "organized for you, inspector" -- "inspector" should be capped, as it is everywhere else (though "constable" and "sergeant" aren't)

p. 61 bottom "noncomittally" should be "noncommittally" (two M's)

p. 123 close up em dash to "joke" in "if he makes one joke --"

p. 131 "Boedicea" should be "Boadicea"

p. 153: "hang peer's daughters" should be "hang peers' daughters"

p. 190 ff. "Reichsmarshall" -- if it's meant for German spelling, should be Reichsmarschall, if English, I'd think it would end "-marshal" with one L. Of course this is in V's reporting, but I don't see much point to V getting it wrong (unlike with the "alouetta" thing, where there were hints)

p. 238: "tarrydiddle" -- standard spelling is "tarradiddle"

p. 292: "lost a quite a bit of blood" -- delete first "a"

p. 295: close up em dash in "I-- it was"

p. 297: "charged with murder of Royston" should have "the" before "murder" (you can be charged with murder, full stop, but not, I think, "charged with murder of X" except in a headline)

p. 297: "omelette aux fine herbes" should have "fines"

p. 319: "and sure dear friends, my thanks" should have comma after "sure" per the Riverside text (which also has "halfpenny" spelled out, but I am not that dumb)


Additional stuff that read oddly to me, but is probably as you intended:

p. [7]: "answers to odd questions, particularly Tim ..." No one will *really* think Tim and David are the questions rather than the answerers, but there is a dangling modifier there, FWIW.

p. 30: "calling him darling, darling nonstop" should have a comma after second darling (otherwise it looks as though "darling nonstop" is a phrase, like "darling doorstop")

p. 59: Siddy gets through her cigarette in an incredibly short time -- she lights it and six speeches later is grinding it under her heel. As she goes straight on to another, it didn't make sense to me that she would be abandoning a half-smoked one, and anyway I'd have thought V would have said so, in the same way she noted S leaving most of her food later.

p. 75: "I stood there fuming" occurs twice in first para

p. 91: "Barthelona" -- I'm sure this is one you hashed out with the editor already, but it seems odd to me to use that spelling to indicate M's pronunciation when M would think of the word as Barcelona. Same with Keiler saying "Reichsmarshall", perhaps?

p. 93: "a colorless man who Churchill had once described" should have "whom" (as this is narration, not dialogue, and the tone of the narration in the Carmichael chapters is moderately formal) (see also 144, "Jack's friends, who Carmichael loathed" -- sounds like archaic wording for "who loathed Carmichael")

p. 109: I'm sure you mean lick of hair and not lock, but thought I'd call it out just in case

p. 124: "New New Scotland Yard" -- again, I assume this is intentional (I'd have guessed "new New Scotland Yard," but don't know if you've established "New New" as correct in your world)

p. 139: " "Oh I like that" " -- I'd put a comma after "Oh", which matches V's diction on 141, where she says "Oh, thank you"

p. 182-183: "crisply" used twice in quick succession, as someone else mentioned

p. 230: "took up position as if cradling a skull" -- I think you can take a position, or take up a position, but "took up position" sounds wrong (of course, this is one of those awful phrases where the two versions sound almost alike in speech, so you never know if you've just been mishearing it for years or not)

Hope this helps!

Helen Schinske



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