On Sloppy Editing

Rayda Jacobs’ Masquerade is published by Umuzi, an imprint of Random House.

I’ve read ninety pages and have already found two typos. They’re not your average misplaced-apostrophe typo though. They indicate that the editor is not familiar with the English language, which is worrying.

Even Word doesn’t recognise ‘make-belief.’ And who the hell is Mary Quaint?

I don’t believe I’m being too pedantic. People were paid to pick up this sort of thing. If the author insisted on these phrases because they are, say, ‘family’ words; then tell me by putting them in italics.

Someone needs a new day job.