Wednesday 2 December 2015

IWSG Day: Worst Typos EVER! Take 2

Today, I am delighted to be a co-host for IWSG day, along with     
Sandra Hoover, Mark Koopmans, Doreen McGettigan, and Megan Morgan!
 
My insecurity?  Typos!  Gaaaaahhhh!  <pounds head on desk>


It happened again, and this time it was all my fault.

You know how it happens.  Spellchecker has an evil twin that changes your word by one letter, and you don’t notice it until it goes to print.  

Public becomes Pubic.  Corporate Assets becomes Corporate Asses.  The Provincial Health Minister becomes Provincial Health Monster.  We’ve all been there.

Readers may recall that last year, I wasn’t too happy when the virtual blog tour company paid by my publisher changed the title Rowena and the Dark Lord to Rowena and the Dark Lard.  Sales were NOT stellar.  However, the hilarity that ensued was probably worth the typo.  Seems there were all sorts of people willing to suggest alternative plot lines for a book about a Dark Lard.  Many were a mite more entertaining than the original concept (she said ruefully.)

Here’s a small sample:
Protagonist moves back to Land’s End and opens up a bakery.

Protagonist and love interest return to Land’s End and become pig farmers.

Protagonist messes up another spell that causes all who look at her to turn into donuts.

It’s enough to make a grown writer cry.

Well, this time I did it to myself.

REALLY not cool to request a formal industry review for a book and misspell the title.

No matter how it reads, "Cod Name: Gypsy Moth" is not a tale <sic> about an undercover fish running a bar off the coast of Newfoundland...

That wasn’t enough.  People were quick to respond with suggested plot lines on Facebook.  Other authors (22 in fact) had to wade in <sic>.

he'd have to scale back his expectations - a bar like that would be underwater in no time.

and here's me waiting with 'baited' breath

Readers will dive right into that

That's a whale of a tale

that book will really "hook" a reader

Smells pretty fishy to me

definitely the wrong plaice at the wrong time.

We're really floundering here; no trout about it.

Okay!  In the interest of sane people everywhere, I’ll stop on that last one. 

The real name of the book? 
CODE NAME: GYPSY MOTH

What's your most spectacular typo?  Tell us in the comments below.

Check out other great IWSG posts today:  Click here

84 comments:

  1. That's hilarious! Really sucks when it's our own.
    I sent an email to a few friends this week, asking if they'd help promote the sale of one of my books. I not only misspelled the title in subject line, I wrote the wrong title! So far, no one has said a thing...

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  2. Alex, we are kindred spirits. grin. I'd sell my soul for a personal assistant.

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  3. That's both parts funny and sucky. I try not to rely on spellchecker too much because I know it's not going to catch typos like using the wrong word in a sentence. For example, using then when I meant the, but not alerting me of my error because it's spelled correctly. I try my best to catch them yet they always manage to sneak in, wth. What I'd give to have a professional proofreader by my side.

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  4. You said it, Lidy. We all need that personal assistant with the eagle eyes!

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  5. Great post, Melodie. I did giggle. We've all been there. Good job we can laugh about it after the fact. Have a great Christmas and thanks for co-hosting. All the best.

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  6. Wish I could tell you my most spectacular typo, but there have been too many...

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  7. Please tell me it really didn't happen!!! OMG. (deep breath) Okay, not a problem. It's in the past. And no, I refuse to tell you my most memorable blenders. Mostly because they'd be bigger typos than any of yours. Yes, my typos are notorious ... to me. I quicken went and had my name changed to protect my non-innocentness. Excellent post, Melodie. TG you didn't miss your calling. Tanks for co-toasting.

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  8. Hi,
    Thanks for co-hosting. I really appreciate your humour in your article. It lets me know that I am not the only one out there that it happens too.
    All the best.
    Shalom,
    Patricia

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  9. Hilarious post! My latest repetitive typo has been for the twitter tagline for my Paramours series: more wood than boo! That isn't supposed to be wood. Lose the 'd' at the end! Though, I suppose in a way, wood works too! *LOL* Thank you for co-hosting today. :)

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  10. Funny!!! And I've been there too!!!

    Hello Melodie, nice to meet you and thank you for co-hosting the IWSG!!!

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  11. Nope, sorry I've been sat here for ages trying to think of a decent joke. Guess I'll steer clear of comedy & leave it to you. Great post and thanks for hosting

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  12. Hi Pat! There is nothing that makes me feel more of a fool than mucking up my own promotion with typos. Thanks for commenting!

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  13. Yes indeed, Karen. Thanks for commenting!

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  14. Gah! And lol to wade in.

    I had a horribly placed typo in a fanfiction I wrote as a teenager. One character was mocking the name of another by calling him Howard the Duck. Duck was NOT the word that landed on the page. Fortunately I caught it, but LORD!

    Thanks for co-hosting!

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  15. I recently sent my publisher a list of 10 typos and 14 edits for my latest novella that was released early in November. I haven't hears a peep back yet. Should I still promote or wait? Hmm. (Talk about smacking head on table.)

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  16. Deborah, I am laughing! Thanks for commenting!

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  17. Tamara, I play this game with my writing students. Who can be first to find a typo in any of my books? I swear there is one (at least) in every single book, even though a dozen people proofed the damned things. Thanks for commenting!

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  18. First of all, I love how you right (I mean write). ;)
    I think the worst editing nightmare professionally for me was made by the publisher. I'm the mock up copy, my first name was misspelled and I panicked. Personally, I admit, my blog suffers a lot. My two children constantly derail my focus no matter how I try to prepare. I usually write in the early hours of the morning and sometimes my brain isn't processing. What makes since at 4:00 am might not work out as brilliantly later no matter how many times I read and reread. Thank you for hosting. Erika

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  19. Very funny. It happens all the time to me.

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  20. Haven't been "famous" enough to have a credited typo, but I'm sure the day will come. There's isn't much to do about that but laugh, if you can, fix it and move on. Each letter is important, that's for sure, but so are those who put them in order, even if a computer decides to intercede. Thanks for co-hosting this month, Melodie.

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  21. Happily, I haven't had any quite that bad, though the auto-fill has made me send some weird texts, especially when I text without my glasses! And when I use my first initial and last name for an ID, my IPad automatically "corrects" from "RDouglass" to "trout ass." Which might go right along with your cod, if anyone can convince me that a trout HAS an ass!

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    1. Too funny :) I've turned off autofill as I had a similar embarrassment. Of course, I also keep getting tweets about ducks....

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  22. Erika, I can surely relate to the name misspelled! (Melodie) I don't mind when they do Melody. That is the way my blasted name should be spelled, if my parents hadn't been so romantic. But it does piss me off when they type Melanie, grin. Thanks for commenting!

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  23. This had me laughing so much! The only typo I've had was mostly just irritating--when my novel The Bloody City first started getting promo, people were calling it 'The Blood City' which somehow sounds even more sinister than the original title. These are hilarious though--at least your readers had some fun with it! I'll be watching out for the Dark Lard, it sounds scary!

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    1. Megan, the irony is - I'm a humour writer. I wrote comedy for comedians for years. And yet even I couldn't have written these on purpose :) Thanks for commenting!

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  24. Oh, this is too funny! Of course, the anguish notwithstanding.;-) Gads I hate when that happens.But your resilience is commendable and likely one of the foremost reasons for your success!
    One of my goatheads is missing words - "I come to the event, my apologies." What?! I CAN'T come to the event - didn't I write that? Crap.

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    1. Diedre, that's a new one: apologizes for going to the event :) Love it!

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  25. You know, this sounds like the plot for a great book. Think about it!

    Thanks for co-hosting this month's IWSG.

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    1. Ken, Bad Girl Comedy - Ten Years of Humour columns will be out next year. This will be one of them, I think

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  26. I know I shouldn't, but I had to smile at your post - and good on you for taking what was obviously, at the time, pretty cringe-"wordy" :)

    Some of the comments were awesome, you have good people out there!

    PS: I worked for a Florida newspaper that DID publish "PUBIC MEETING TODAY" on their front page... above the fold :)

    Thanks for co-hosting, see you out there :)

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    1. Did they get a good crowd at that meeting, Mark? grin - and perhaps I could make an even better joke, if it were below the fold...

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  27. I think auto-correct has gotten us all at one time or another. Thanks for co-hosting. :)

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  28. Hi Melodie, I just re-edited my first three books and found a lot of typos. Ugh! They seem to never end. And thanks for co-hosting IWSG this month!

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  29. Thanks for co-hosting this month. ROFL Well my morning of post today started with typos, inversions, hitting comma instead of period and the big one leaving out words because you brain auto put them in so you read them there despite the fact they are not.

    I do wonder sometimes how often are slip away typos are our subconscious at work saying what we really feel or think---or just our dark selves laughing at us.

    Great post. Merry Christmas
    melodiecampbell.com

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    1. ROFL @ self, well just read my post--there you go prime example!! Today is not my day for typing.

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    2. Juneta, I am giggling! Dark selves, indeed. I'll remember that.

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  30. Oops! I type fast, so typos are pretty common, but usually just don't make sense. Some of the things Autocorrect comes up with are strange, though!

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    1. Emma, I'm blaming it on my new glasses. They seem to filter out typos until it's too late :) Thanks for commenting!

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  31. So funny! I needed the laugh. To date, the funniest typo I found was in a critique partner's pages. She had a town square with a statue of a war hero on a rearing horse. It was a public fountain, I assume from the horse's mouth, but she called it a pubic fountain. I think the whole critique group laughed for ten minutes before we could get back to work. I can't claim anything near that bad in my own writing. I've always had an artist's eye for detail, and that's probably why other writers started asking me to edit. Could be that my love of puns makes most typos fit my style, s I keep them. But I probably just haven't spotted my worst typo...yet.

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    1. See? left out the "o" in so and found it too late...

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    2. I didn't even have to say it, Sher! You caught it yourself :) So fun! Thanks for commenting.

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  32. By the way, that 'corporate asses' was indeed my worst typo. I was the PR director of a healthcare org, presenting my first Annual Report to the board. I meant to write "we have experienced an increase in corporate assets" - and, of course, the t went missing. "We have experienced an increase in corporate asses" has gone down in history in Toronto communications circles.

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  33. It's not spectacular - but I have spelled my own name wrongly and not noticed.

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    1. Patsy, yup. I hear you. I was at a signing for anthology the other day - therefore 80 signatures needed. By 50, I had spelled my last name wrong. So I decided to just write Melodie. By 70, I was spelling it Melody because it was shorter, dammit. Someone remarked that maybe those copies will be worth something someday :)

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  34. I'm trying to think of a good one. The best (worst?) I can come up with is when doing some kind of spelling test in High School French, where I had to repeatedly write "lunette" (the French word for "eyeglasses") over and over again. I accidentally wrote "Lynette" over and over again, which was the name of a girl in my class.

    My teacher had a great laugh at that one.

    IWSG December

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    1. THAT would have created a lot of gossip! Thanks for commenting, C.D.

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  35. I caught this in time, but I was quoting the saying "the pen is mightier than the sword" but I forgot the space between pen and is. I must have had something on my mind that day. I also have a tendency to spell "shut" wrong. It's not my fault that the u and the i are right next to each other.

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    1. Oh LG - I am laughing! You are going to get a lot of people asking to see your sword...er...pen.

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  36. Hee, hee, thanks for the laugh. Typos are the bane of my existence. And so is autocorrect. Thanks for co-hosting!

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Lori! It's been fun to meet new people on here.

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  37. You're a good sport! Hopefully you got a refund for the Lard thing. Hmmm, my worst typos are all really foul, so I won't blemish your blog with them :) One was an auto correct by my phone, so not my fault!

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    1. That would be the 'duck' one, right? grin Thanks for commenting, Alexia!

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  38. Hilarious! Giggling as I write or right or rite. This is just two funy. Thanks for co-hosting!!

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  39. Hate those darn typos and auto-corrects! You had me chuckling out loud! Thanks for co-hosting!

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  40. I have done that with my book's title as well. And my NA author name. And I didn't get anyone making jokes to cheer me up. =(

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    1. I guess it was a natural thing in the case of Code Name Gypsy Moth, Patricia, as everyone on that Facebook page knows I write comedy. I have a previous 'rep' so they knew it would be safe to make jokes.
      Thanks for commenting!

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  41. I've noticed that I've been making more typos lately. Not sure why. My age? (I'm only 46!). Trying to write too fast? I don't know. Luckily I have a good team of beta readers.

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    1. Sean, one of my triggers is moving to different keyboards. The regular one is great. But when I slip to the notebook, and then to the ipad or phone, the distance of keys from one another causes a typo minefield.

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  42. I am a serial typo artist and the fact that my editor follows my blog and all of my social medial sites is both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes I spell something wrong on purpose to see if she is paying attention. Lucky for me she always is.
    It is awesome to be cohosting with you this month!

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    1. Doreen, you are wicked to do it on purpose :) So nice to meet you!

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  43. LOVE the idea of IWSG! There should be an international convention one day. I can't remember my typos but I'm sure laughing at what's been posted here. Great way to start my morning!

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    1. You should join, Sheri! It's a crazy, nutty, fun group. Thanks for popping on here :)

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  44. Ha! Funny typos. I haven't had any fun doozies like that. I mostly have problems with people getting my name wrong. I didn't realize until a few years ago that my Grandpa actually thought my name was Lenny. I thought it was just his accent that he said my name that way.

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    1. Loni, that is a HOOT! I was 11 before I realized all grandmothers didn't speak with an accent. I just assumed that was the way grandmothers spoke (she was Sicilian)

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  45. I so had to laugh out loud at this post! Wow, Like previous commenters, none of my typos seem to be so much fun! Thanks for co hosting this month!

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Lisa! Fun with typos...my next bestseller.

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  46. Thanks for a great laugh, Melodie! Although I know it wasn't too funny to you at the time. I'm actually a freak about typos - cannot stand them. I read, reread, reread again, and so on and on and on just trying to catch every typo. I've had a blast co-hosting with you this month!

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    1. I actually run a contest with my writing students: find the typo in all my books. (There is one in EVERY book, I swear.) Nice to meet you, Sandra!

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  47. Tanks for co-hosting this moth.
    Ironically enough, I had a horrible typo happen to me just today. I was using twitter and talking about how much I hated to cook for only one person. I was asked if there were no one else in my household. To which i replied, of course, "I love alone". The reply as a few questions marks, which is when I realized the typo and replied back. "I live alone".
    AWKWARD!
    Anyway, I'm sure there must still be typos in some of my writings, but I cant' think of any off the top of my head.

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    1. 'I love alone' - there's a name for that, I think
      Thanks for giving me that smile, Jeffrey! Nice to meet you.

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  48. At least you can laugh about it. And, I'd devour the donuts concept.

    My favorite saying? "I do my best editing after hitting send." Too true.

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    1. LOVE that saying! Recording it for future use. Thanks for commenting, Dolorah.

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  49. I can't think of an example that would fit into the humor column. But you made me smile tonight.

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  50. You know, I bet a typo like that can inadvertently drum up extra attention for the book!

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  51. It gets the title out there, Shannon, but doesn't do much for the plot! The industry reviewer didn't want to review a book about fish.

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