Proofing - aarrrgggghhhhh.
The worst thing just happened to me: I got an email from one of my best clients telling me there was a typo in the first paragraph of the newsletter pdf I'd sent him. It hadn't gone to print yet, THANK GOD, but, still, it's so bad when that happens. And he didn't find it, his BOSS did. And to make it even more awful, the typo was in the sentence: "Our focus is always on quality." The IS was missing! Ohmygod, can you imagine? I want to die when that stuff happens.
And this wasn't the first time it's happened with this client. Which kills me because I love doing their newsletter. It's a business-to-business pub, and it's really important that everything be perfect because they truly are a quality-focused company. They do contract manufacturing for some of the biggest and best corporations in the U.S. so everything has to be right.
Like many writers, I am terrible at proofing. In this case, I offered to deduct an hour of my time and to find a proofreader for the future newsletters. But is that enough? No. Because what if the newsletter had gone out with that mistake and one of their current or prospective customers saw it and said, "They focus on quality? Well, then how the hell did they screw up here?"
I hope this isn't an indication of what the rest of my day is going to be like.
And this wasn't the first time it's happened with this client. Which kills me because I love doing their newsletter. It's a business-to-business pub, and it's really important that everything be perfect because they truly are a quality-focused company. They do contract manufacturing for some of the biggest and best corporations in the U.S. so everything has to be right.
Like many writers, I am terrible at proofing. In this case, I offered to deduct an hour of my time and to find a proofreader for the future newsletters. But is that enough? No. Because what if the newsletter had gone out with that mistake and one of their current or prospective customers saw it and said, "They focus on quality? Well, then how the hell did they screw up here?"
I hope this isn't an indication of what the rest of my day is going to be like.
posted by Keash at 4:36 AM
2 Comments:
I know what you mean. Even though I started out in this business as a proofreader (I STILL can't believe that!), whatever skill I had there has gotten so rusty over the years that I don't trust my abilities these days at all!
I am so used to relying on a proofreader in fact that I forget that as a freelance writer I am now responsible for my own proofing... It's almost enough to scare me off!
kath
Just wanted to let you know that I am reading and enjoying your blog. Hope your day went better. I'm not a professional writer, but I have worked at a newspaper, and I am well aware of how little errors can somehow escape the eye.
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