August 24: 23-Question Quiz with Horrible Sentences from a PUBLISHER'S Website

by | Aug 24, 2016 | Uncategorized

From time to time I look around publishers’ websites, just to see what standards the company sets. I feel that a publisher’s content should be flawless, period.  Now, it’s true that some publishers will use a serial comma and others won’t—just as long as there is consistency in style, I won’t quibble. There might be a few other style-related issues that I won’t necessarily consider mistakes, and, again, if that’s true and if the publisher is consistent, it’s not that big of a deal.
This publisher, though, had embarrassingly sloppy, poorly edited content. I was surprised and not a little dismayed at seeing such low standards. If the publisher isn’t careful, what must the books it publishes look like? The mind boggles.
Bottom line: You can understand a publisher’s work ethic from its online content. Sloppy content = sloppy editing = a piss-poor book. It’s up to authors to make judgements, based on what they see. With this publisher, I’d flee!

  1. If you have a book that you think fits with our theme of ABC authors, ABC books and ABC stories; call or email to begin a conversation. [This nasty sentence appeared twice!]
  2. At XYZ we believe in a collaborative process whether we are publishing tweets, blogs or books.
  3. XYZ publishes: a few books each year, several websites and social media posts for authors, business owners and others.
  4. She came to XYZ and after editing, editing we have designed the cover and interior text pages.
  5. With a BA in Journalism, a talent for design and a lifelong career in journalism, marketing and public relations, MNO is able to provide a quality product in content and design and a full array of marketing to help books be in the hands of readers.
  6. XYZ is an offshoot of XYZ Communications operating from 1990 to 2005 as a marketing/desktop publishing/business consulting services company in the STU area.
  7. People here and from away love ABC. We love ABC for its people, beaches, rocky shores, lighthouses, mountains, trails, wild edibles and , did I say, its people.
  8. An active community member she co­chaired the rehabilitation effort of the RST and guided the planning and creation of two riverside parks at each end.
  9. Many people have purchased Wild DEF of Maine: A Useful Guide by Timmy Smith.
  10. Poison ivy, virgin’s bower (wild clematis, a vining plant of edges and woodland trails), often mistakenly called “poison oak” and several other plants can cause mild to severe reactions in people.
  11. The first name is the genus, or general family and the second name tells something specific about the plant.
  12. Along with two others she founded and serves as a member of the board of Save Our RST.Org to ensure the maintenance of the historic RST designed and built bridge connecting the two towns.
  13. Visit Berlin, XYZ and travel in time through the years!
  14. From school–s, to factories, to founding families, to all the minutiae that create a town—Frontier to Industrial City provides a clear picture of the many facets of Thomaston during its transformation.
  15. Immerse yourself in the 17th Century South with either of these deftly written books.
  16. Through perseverance, back-breaking work, bravery and sometimes luck­—the family beat the odds and held onto the their land for centuries.
  17. Read about and see ABC people at their finest—everyday hard at work, ready to lend a hand and creating a better world—right here at home in ABC.
  18. This trilogy AT, BC and RR, chronicles many of the same quirky characters and much of the landmarks in this mystery set in post Vietnam War rural ABC.
  19. Enjoy these tales as they takes you around the world and back to ABC with nonstop action revealed through Shoot’s prose—that like, her poetry, is, “careful language, precise, with a sparse beauty.”
  20. You can either pay by credit card, Visa, Mastercard, Discover or Amex, or you can setup a Paypal account at your time of purchase.
  21. No credit information will ever be sent to us directly to help insure your privacy.
  22. PayPal uses the best commercially available technology and procedures to protect the security of your online transactions. Review their Data Security and Encryption if you have further questions.
  23. At XYZ, we publish through twitter, blogs, websites, books and more.