Proof Positive.
I considered riddling this post with typos. Like, riting a sentence tat contains a bnuch of spelling errors. Then I reconsidered, figuring that in line with my track record, I would manage to include a typo or two even after proofing and rereading over and over before pressing the “post” button.
In my previous blog post, I confessed my failings as a proofreader as the first error in Subversive Addiction surfaced. Two more mistakes have come to light since then. Yikes. However, as compared to False Assurances, that’s nothing! Here’s the backstory:
When I released False Assurances and Threat Bias, I worked with a production company that included proofreading work. The first pass at proofing False Assurances exposed well over 300 errors. I took this as good news; I figured if there were so many, they had all been found.
Nope. Not quite.
After False Assurances was released, readers from around the globe began pointing out mistakes, including one on the back cover! I mean, really. If there’s any proof needed for just how bad I am at proofreading, that’s it. A typo in the back cover!
I stopped keeping track, mostly for my own sanity, because the tally approached, and maybe exceeded, fifty errors. Naturally, I’ve since had the files revised, so therefore a copy bought today should be reasonably error-free.
Two of those readers volunteered to help me with future books, and they are both included in the Acknowledgement section of Subversive Addiction. Here’s what I wrote:
John House is an Air Force veteran with electronics and computer science expertise, along with a firm grasp of language. He has a knack for reading with a clever and nuanced eye to realism. Patricia “Tink” Harwerth has a wide range of experience, from game show host to founder of an academic school for children with autism and learning differences. She is also a perceptive reader, with a sense of humor to match. Her contributions within this story are matchless. I am very thankful for both John and Tink: for their time, for their thoughtfulness, and for their willingness to take on the story.
Apart from the error in the Almaz graphic, I have learned of two other typos, which appear in sentences that I inserted after receiving John and Tink’s comments. And the version that John and Tink reviewed included a draft of the graphic which was correct; it was the final high-res print-ready graphic that was incorrect. See the pattern that emerges…?!
The typo-tally for Subversive Addiction stands at three. No doubt more will be found. I should start a poll on this blog page, but I don’t know how to. Let’s do this instead: email me at the address below with your guess to the final number of errors (including the three already discovered, so your number has to be greater than three). I’ll close entries in ninety days (July 5, 2021). Whoever guesses the correct number will receive a signed copy of the book, which I will have printed for that winner after the errors have been corrected with new print files!
Thank you as always for your support.
—Christopher