The immutable law of publishing

If there’s one thing you need to know about publishing, it’s this: there is no such thing as a perfect book.

Whether you are an author, an editor, a publisher, a designer, or anyone else involved in the creation of books, this is a truth that you need to absorb deep into your being. To believe that it is possible to create a flawless publication will only lead to tears before bedtime (or worse still, at the launch).

One of the attributes I discovered about myself early in my career is that when I am handed the first advance copy of a book that I have worked on, I will flick it open to a random page and spot an error. The first time it happened, it was a copy of the Colonial Women’s Diary. Flick – oh, look! Australia Day is not on the usual date … Working in London, it was a photographic book on Zeppelins, in which I found stamped across an image the words, ‘do not print this picture.’

Sometimes my flair for belated error-spotting kicks in a little earlier in the process, leading to last-minute panics and corrections at the printer. The Rosetta Stone that was flipped left to right on the front cover of an Egyptology book, for example. Or the misspelling of ‘larrikin’ in a new edition of a Blinky Bill picture book.

There is always something. A missing page number, an incorrect entry in the index, a poorly reproduced photograph. No book is without a flaw.

What can you do?

My advice is to consider two things:

1. Is this a fatal flaw? Will it cause readers to complain and want their money back, or lawyers to sue?
2. None of us is perfect. However, we are all perfect in our imperfection.

The first point will impress the finance director. The second will not, but it might make you feel better.