Bestsellers with Typos

I turned towards the phone and wagged my left hand up and down from the elbow, palm up. I was frustrated. “They sell millions of copies. Who edits these things? What’s the copyeditor doing, picking his nose?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said my mum. “The plot sells the book.”

“I know. I know.”

“You can produce all the flawlessly proofed prose you want and it won’t sell unless you can write a page-turning plot.”

My mother’s right, but it feels like a slap in the face when inside a cover that’s been designed within an inch of its life is a manuscript that misses basic punctuation and has at least three unintended run-on sentences. This book is hailed as the archetypal example of new, strong, YA literature.

Publishers. Stop it.