Quality

One of my recent bosses, who came to publishing via another industry, once commented that for a business that talks so much about quality, it's surprising how ill-defined and controlled it is. With the recent errors abounding in e-books, I hate to admit that I agree with her.

Yes, publishing is no longer an old boy’s club where the wealthy enter it for the prestige—or for something to do—and yes, whether for profit or non-profit, it is a business and needs to make money. But what is a publisher’s core value and what value do we provide our customers and authors if quality means so little to us?

Here’s what got me thinking about this:

• Just this week a romance author had to publicly apologize for a blatant and embarrassing typo in her e-book. You can read her post here, but basically “shifted” became “shitted.”
• PIA (Publishing Innovations Awards) have announced a new quality seal of approval for e-books: QED (quality, excellence, design).  Since when do we need an award to ensure quality and that we’re doing our jobs?

And here are just a sampling of posts/articles that I came up by typing “ebooks” and “errors” into my Google search:

• http://americaneditor.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/the-problem-is-publishers-dont-read-ebooks/
• http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2010/09/16/in-the-face-ebook-errors-4/
• http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/shanerichmond/100005238/ebook-publishers-must-do-more-to-eliminate-annoying-errors/
• http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/08/error-free-ebooks/

I’ll stop now, but you get the picture.

So how can publishers keep costs down without it being at the expense of quality?

1. First and foremost, every manuscript needs both copyediting and proofreading, and this should be done professionally. Writing, editing, and proofreading are distinct skill sets and just because one can do one does not mean that one can do the other well.  And even if you are one of the rare few who can, it’s a good rule of thumb to have a second fresh set of eyes to review anything you’ve written. Even professional copyeditors and proofreaders know to put things aside and go back to it with a fresh perspective.
2. Every time you change formats, a quick proofread is necessary: whether you go from hardcover to paperback or from paperback to e-book, errors are bound to happen when words reflow. It's far better for your future sales and reputation if you, the publisher--and not the author or customer--catch the mistakes. Think how quickly mistakes can be publicized today? Between tweeting, blogs, and even social media now built into e-books, the word will be out before you know it.
3. Build copyediting and proofreading into every P&L. Consider these required, non-negotiable costs of doing quality business and protecting your core values and brand.
4. Reevaluate other costs to streamline workflows, eliminate redundancies, and remove activities which do not add to your core value or business.

Maybe the QED award is necessary to remind publishers that they are meant to be gatekeepers of a higher-standard.