Spelling mistakes and/or typographical errors I found in leading publications

[Citizen X]

I haven't checked all of them, but I confess I was troubled some that the first "correction" had actually got it wrong


If you are going to change "by" to "but", you will need to remove the preceding comma.

A very good afternoon to you Dave,

Trusting that you are well and that life is treating you kindly!

Many thanks indeed for the feedback. I’m always willing to accept feedback from anyone.

Dave, firstly, I did indeed write to the publisher on 11 July 2019. At the very least I was expecting the publisher to set me straight. I will include extracts from my email discussion with them. I won’t include the entire email as it contains some confidential information. I will, however, make the entire email available to you for independent verification should you deem it necessary.

P.S I deleted my name from the email that the publisher sent me.

Secondly I didn’t look at the punctuation.

kate.elton@harpercollins.co.uk
Dear Madam,

1. Firstly, I stand to be corrected on what I stated herein. However, I doubt very much that I am wrong!
2. In the publication with the following details, there is a spelling mistake alternatively a typographical error on page 84
3: Details of publication: Wilbur Smith: Predator: Orion Mintaka (UK)Ltd:2016: First published in Great Britain: Harper Collins Publishers:2016 Page 84, sentence13

It reads as follows: ‘’He wanted people to know that however he might look now, he’d started out as a blue-collar kid, working his way up from nothing by ability, determination and damned hard work.”
It should read:
He started out as a blue-collar kid working his way up from nothing but ability, determination and damned hard work


Dear ,

We thank you for your email regarding the errors you spotted in both Predator and Sahara.

Although we work diligently to avoid such errors, proofreading is a human skill and, as such, is occasionally subject to human error. We greatly appreciate that you informed us of these errors and would like to assure you that, if these haven’t already been corrected, they will be swiftly.

Many thanks,

Bethan

PA to Kate Elton & Roger Cazalet
HarperCollinsPublishers
THE NEWS BUILDING
1 LONDON BRIDGE STREET | LONDON | SE1 9GF
PHONE: +44 (0) 208 307 4095 |


My very important point here is that I expected the publisher to set me straight. Failure of the publisher to do so was tacit acceptance that I was indeed correct!

I now deal with that sentence itself. “By,” is a preposition. Prepositions are little words that show where things are in relation to each other. For instance “on,” “under,” and “from,” whereas “but,” is a conjunction or a joining word. For instance: “but,” and “therefore.”

Which of the following two sentences, which contain verifiable facts about myself is most correct?

I successfully completed law school from nothing by determination and perseverance.

I successfully completed law school from nothing but determination and perseverance.


I know that the photos are not clear, so it’s back to the drawing board with the photos.

[1]Coyote Back to the drawing board

Anyway I think it’s better for me to state the disclaimer that I sated in my email to the publisher in 2019. I stand to be corrected about the following alledged spelling mistakes and/or typographical errors.

Dave, I would appreciate it if you could go through the rest of the list.



For most of the errors I picked up on that list, I did write to the publishers and received similar responses.

---

[1] Coyote Back to the drawing board https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=...xj3DqSQ7Y3BD3M (date of use 20 January 2021)

[Citizen X]

A very good afternoon to you Blurock,

A spell checker won't always do the trick. Look at the example above. This book has absolutely nothing to do with ships, and it is definitely a plane that crashes in that chapter. No ships at all in that chapter. So, a spellchecker, however advanced, would not be able to rectify this particular error. The human eye and knowledge of the book would be required to spot this specific error.

Here's a photo of that page. I know that the photo is not very clear. So it's back to the drawing board for me with this photo.

[Dave A]

It is simply a question of whether there is a comma after "nothing". The right hand edge of the photo is unfortunately placed on the cusp of the answer.

If there is a comma in the print, then the print is correct as is.
If there is no comma, the issue can be resolved either by insertion of the comma (or perhaps semi-colon!), or by changing "by" to "but" as you suggest.

My original observation, of course, was based on your post 1 in this thread...

[Citizen X]

It is simply a question of whether there is a comma after "nothing". The right hand edge of the photo is unfortunately placed on the cusp of the answer.

If there is a comma in the print, then the print is correct as is.
If there is no comma, the issue can be resolved either by insertion of the comma (or perhaps semi-colon!), or by changing "by" to "but" as you suggest.

My original observation, of course, was based on your post 1 in this thread...

A very good morning to you Dave,

I hear you 100% to be perfectly honest I documented those supposed errors old school style by hand writing. When I decided to post it on TheForumSa I typed out several pages of hand written notes in about 30 minutes. I just wanted to get done!
All things equal, nothing ventured nothing gained.
I do, however, commend you for the dignified and respectful manner in which you always respond to any post by anyone.
I commit to also respond to any post by anyone with dignity and respect for the poster, always reminding myself that I’m dealing with a fellow human being.

If there is any post of mine where the aforementioned was not displayed, I strive to become a better man than I was yesterday.

[Blurock]

I must admit I am very pedantic when it comes to business correspondence and work related issues.
However, when I'm reading Jack Reacher or an action novel, I get so engrossed in the character and storyline, I do not have time to look for mistakes, unless they go completely off the rails! Then I usually read like this:

[Citizen X]

I’d like to take this opportunity to motivate any primary school child.
If you a boy child or girl child and you battling with English don’t give up!
Show your teacher or parents this thread. Tell them if editors and publishers make mistakes so too can you but that you determined to improve.

The key to mastering English lies in completing all the exercises that you are given.
Reading will improve your vocabulary, grammar and punctuation.
Grow a love for reading. You don’t have to read novels. You can read comics. A comic’s grammar and punctuation is correct. Look at what your favorite character is saying. Look at the punctuation marks. Identify the subject, verb and object in every sentence. Then break that sentence up into the eight parts of speech. You can read your favorite comics at the following link:

https://www.comicextra.com/batman-2016/chapter-Annual_5/3

Exercise: Divide the following sentence into its parts of speech.

‘’He wanted people to know that however he might look now, he’d started out as a blue-collar kid, working his way up from nothing but ability, determination and damned hard work.”[1]

Start from the first word in the sentence.

Where you get stuck use a dictionary. The dictionary will not only give you the meaning of the word but will also tell you what part of speech the word is.

PARTS OF SPEECH
NOUNS	People, kid, way, ability, determination, work
PRONOUNS	He, that, he, he’d, nothing,
DETERMINERS	A,
ADJECTIVES	Blue-collar, damned, hard
VERBS	Wanted, might, look, started, know, working,
ADVERBS	However, out. as, up
PREPOSITIONS	To, now, from
CONJUNCTIONS	But, and,

Exercise: Briefly explain each part of speech and thereafter formulate a sentence using a part of speech that you identified in the previous exercise.

’He wanted people to know that however he might look now, he’d started out as a blue-collar kid, working his way up from nothing but ability, determination and damned hard work.”[1]

Nouns: Words for people, places, things and ideas such as: Lethabo, Melokuhle and Blessing; Johannesburg, Cape Town and Gauteng; car, bicycle, bag and pen; wisdom, justice and love

Example: The kid has the ability to succeed.

Pronouns: Little words such as ‘he,’ ‘she,’ or ‘it’ that stand in the place of the full names of people, places, things or ideas.
Example: He has the ability to succeed.

Determiners: Little words such as ‘a,’ ‘the,’ ‘some,’, ‘many,’ ‘much,’ and ‘few that come in from of some nouns.
Example: A bag can be used to store school books.

Adjectives: Words that describe nouns such as ‘big,’ ‘round,’, ‘new,’ and ‘red.’
Example: President A is losing the support of blue-collar voters.

Verbs: Words that describe actions(also known as doing words) such as learning, laughing, talking and singing or words that show that something exists such as ‘is,’ and ‘was.’
Example: He is working on a school assignment.

Adverbs: Words that give more information about a verb –how it happened, when it happened or where it happened such as ‘carefully,’ ‘yesterday,’ and ‘there.’

Example: She’s as prepared for the exam as she can be.
Prepositions: Little words that show where things are in relation to each other. Examples include ‘on,’ ‘under,’ and ‘from.’
He is from Johannesburg.

Conjunctions: Words that join different ideas in a sentence such as ‘and,’ ‘but,’ and ‘therefore.’

Example: I want to study until 23:00 but I am so tired.

---

[1] Smith W Predator (Harper Collins publishers 2016) p 84.

---

[2] Smith W Predator (Harper Collins publishers 2016) p 84.

[Citizen X]

When I read this ... it didnt sound right ... "You insane" ... should in not be "you are insane" ...or "you're insane" ?

Cute. Touché.

I’m the writer and you are my editor. Why did it take you so long to pick up that error? Oh, good staff is hard to find.

[Citizen X]

"MOVEMENT NUMBER ONE: DRAGON SEEKS PART"

Generally speaking, I don’t have to be accurate grammar-wise as I’m not an author! I stand to be corrected on the following but I doubt that I’m wrong
I, found a serious typographical error in an important piece of legislation, namely “The National Credit Regulations of 2006(as amended).
The foregoing requires a word of explanation. Regulation 19(6) is a very important piece of legislation as it prevents, alternatively precludes, and alternatively prohibits the listing of a prescribed debt on credit bureaus.

1. It reads as follows: “No source of information as set out in section 70(2) of the Act and Regulation 18(7) may submit adverse or other information to a credit bureau in respect of a debt that has prescribed in terms of the Prescription Act 68 of 1998.”

[Subr. (6) added by GN R202/2015]”

1. It should read as follows: It reads as follows: No source of information as set out in section 70(2) of the Act and Regulation 18(7) may submit adverse or other information to a credit bureau in respect of a debt that has prescribed in terms of the Prescription Act 68 of 1969.
2. It begs this question: Does the typographical error affect the validity of the regulation? My humble submission is that it does not.
3. To be absolutely certain that I’m correct, I obtained the regulations from three different subscription legal sites on 25 May 2025.. I also compared it to the version I have of it from 2023. The typographical error is there!
4. If you google” National Credit Regulations of 2006, and find that there is only Regulation 19(5), then this is an outdated piece of legislation!
5. I’m not looking for fame and fortune so to speak, so, if anyone wants to bring this to the attention of the Legislature, please feel free to do so, but mention that the source is TFSA.

Citizen X

[Blurock]

I am not at all interested in Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives etc or grammar as taught at school. That is exactly what makes learning a language boring. Languages are learnt by learning the words an phrases and the pronunciation by singing. Learn the songs and read as much as you can. Then speak the language and don't be shy when you are corrected. Forget about the grammar part, that's for teachers only.
PS. I bunked school often and never did any homework, but I am fond of reading and music and always achieved high marks in my language exams.

[Citizen X]

I am not at all interested in Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives etc or grammar as taught at school. That is exactly what makes learning a language boring. Languages are learnt by learning the words an phrases and the pronunciation by singing. Learn the songs and read as much as you can. Then speak the language and don't be shy when you are corrected. Forget about the grammar part, that's for teachers only.
PS. I bunked school often and never did any homework, but I am fond of reading and music and always achieved high marks in my language exams.

A very good afternoon to you Blurock,

I understand your perspective completely. My point is that a serious typographical error has been made in Regulation 19(6) of the National Credit Regulations of 2006(as amended)

[Citizen X]

I was recently at a book fair. One book caught my attention. “ Katherine by Anya Seton.” I was under the mistaken impression that this book is a true story on Shake pear’s King Henry V’s “Catherine.”
At page nine, I picked up a typographical error in the very first paragraph of the author’s note.
“In telling this story of Katherine Swynford and John of Guant, the Great duke of Lancaster, it has been my anxious endeavor to use nothing but historical fact when these facts are known-and a great deal is know about the fourteenth century in England.”[1]

It should read:

“In telling this story of Katherine Swynford and John of Guant, the Great duke of Lancaster, it has been my anxious endeavor to use nothing but historical fact when these facts are known-and a great deal is known about the fourteenth century in England.”
So, I took a photo of the page.

Photo source[2]

---

[1] Seton Anya Katherine 9.

[2] Seton Anya Katherine 9 Hodder Paperbacks 1969