Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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A slight oversight

It has been brought to my attention that the US paperback of Magic Lessons—the middle-but-still-loved book of the trilogy—is now available and has been for a week.

So, um, if you’re a paperback kind of a person—there you go! The first two volumes are now in the cheaper and more portable version.

And if you see or have seen copies out in the wild please to let me know. Because, as I’ve mentioned it’s been too cold for me to leave the flat. I mean it’s still in the minuses. I need positives before I’ll venture out there. (Today a piece of ice fell onto our window sill. That is a thousand kinds of wrong.)

I should also mention that the paperback edition is the authorised-with-way-less-typoes version. You know, if that kind of thing matters to you.

It does to me.

I’m obsessed with getting rid of all possible typoes and other whoopsies from my books. Unfortunately, in order to do that I have to go over them a lot. And, well, if you write a book you’ve been over it close to a billion times before it gets into print. Once it’s in print the very last thing in the world you want to do is read it again. So typo elimination is an onerous task.

Which is to say, should you ever find any typoes in any of my books please let me know so I can get them corrected for the next edition.

I know I’m not the only one driven insane by typoes. Nor am I the only writer who is unfond of re-reading my writing. Step up and confess, people. You write but you don’t like to read it, do you? And typoes? They’re a sharp pain in your side, aren’t they?

How to reconcile the two?

Excuse the digression. My point was: Magic Lessons out now in paperback. Please to add to your collection. Or suggest your library do so. I need new shoes!

Posted by Justine at 0:07, 9 February 2007 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Vainglory | 5 Comments »

Comments

  1. Edward Willett Says:

    I’m with you. I hate typos (used to be a weekly newspaper editor, where I saw some doozies, like, “Bengough Ladies Visit Twilight Zone” for “Bengough Ladies Visit Twilight Home”). But I also hate re-reading my own books.

    I don’t have a solution, although I have heard of people who read their stuff backwards from the end, one sentence at a time. I’m scared to try it, though; what if I liked my book better that way?

    February 9th, 2007 at 8:22 am

  2. 2. Justine Says:

    I must be losing my mind or you’re messing with me cause I’m not seeing that typo.

    Read it backwards, eh? Could be a plan. I’m pretty certain I’d prefer my books that way.

    February 9th, 2007 at 11:10 am

  3. Edward Willett Says:

    Maybe typo isn’t quite the right word: the typesetter, probably half asleep, typed “zone” instead of “home”, thus turning a story about some nice small-town ladies visiting the elderly in a seniors’ rest home into something penned by Rod Serling.

    I used to have a problem with names, too. Wrote a whole feature about a “Rev. Bellows” (which seemed like a great name for a certain kind of preacher). Alas, his name was actually “Bellous.”

    And then there was the typesetter that always made booze-related errors, so that a farmer raised “beer” instead of “beef,” and a photo of a young man on a playground said “it’s better than alcohol for a boy” instead of “it’s better than school for a boy”…

    February 9th, 2007 at 11:17 am

  4. Kevin Wignall Says:

    Someone once said to me, “I’m sorry, I haven’t read any of your books”, to which I replied, “That’s okay, neither have I”.

    It’s almost true – I was one of those people who could never be bothered to read back over my exam papers when I’d finished and I find proof-reading the books an absolute pain. Amazingly though, if you open one of your books at random, it always seems to be on the page with the typo, and yes, it’s infuriating.

    February 9th, 2007 at 2:48 pm

  5. Rebecca Says:

    gah, for a second or so, i thought you were going to say magic’s child. i don’t know why, as you made it pretty clear that it was magic lessons, but my brain just sort of got ahead of itself. i blame the frigid cold.

    February 9th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

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