Saturday, April 16, 2005
If there's a typo, blame the author
In his online journal today Neil Gaiman is talking about receiving the first copy of his new book MirrorMask, expected to hit the bookstores soon and chuckles:
Permanent Link to Gaiman's post "From the mail pile"
It was a lot worse for me when The Creative Guide to Research came out in September 2000, the typo was on the cover. At the time I was teaching Investigative Journalism (link to archived syllabus) at the Ryerson University School of Journalism but on the cover the book was the notice that I taught at "the Tyerson Polytechnic."
Rowland's Law of Publishing: No matter what the publisher does, the public, the reviews, everyone, always blames the author, not the cost-cutting publisher,
It's one thing for an understaffed small publisher to make a major mistake (though that is not an excuse --it was easy to check) but it shows the problems lesser known authors face when even the work of a best selling star like Neil Gaiman faces the same problem and says "I half-expect it."
By the way, I have turned the old Creative Guide to Research site into my second blog, so please visit for ongoing research news, information and tips.
And if you want MirrorMask:
Amazon Canada:
Mirrormask: The Illustrated Film Script of the Motion Picture from the Jim Henson Company
Amazon.com US:
MirrorMask : The Illustrated Film Script of the Motion Picture from The Jim Henson Company
10:09 AM posted by Robin Rowland
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In his online journal today Neil Gaiman is talking about receiving the first copy of his new book MirrorMask, expected to hit the bookstores soon and chuckles:
My copy of MirrorMask the script-and-storyboards book was waiting in the mail when I got home -- it's huge and heavy and, really rather wonderful. (Gaiman's law of picking up your first copy of a book you wrote held true: if there's one typo, it will be on the page that your new book falls open to the first time you pick it up. It never fails. It used to make me sad or frustrated. Now I half-expect it.)
Permanent Link to Gaiman's post "From the mail pile"
It was a lot worse for me when The Creative Guide to Research came out in September 2000, the typo was on the cover. At the time I was teaching Investigative Journalism (link to archived syllabus) at the Ryerson University School of Journalism but on the cover the book was the notice that I taught at "the Tyerson Polytechnic."
Rowland's Law of Publishing: No matter what the publisher does, the public, the reviews, everyone, always blames the author, not the cost-cutting publisher,
It's one thing for an understaffed small publisher to make a major mistake (though that is not an excuse --it was easy to check) but it shows the problems lesser known authors face when even the work of a best selling star like Neil Gaiman faces the same problem and says "I half-expect it."
By the way, I have turned the old Creative Guide to Research site into my second blog, so please visit for ongoing research news, information and tips.
And if you want MirrorMask:
Amazon Canada:
Mirrormask: The Illustrated Film Script of the Motion Picture from the Jim Henson Company
Amazon.com US:
MirrorMask : The Illustrated Film Script of the Motion Picture from The Jim Henson Company
10:09 AM posted by Robin Rowland
Permanent Link
