I've been in the words on paper business for 16 years now. No matter how hard you try, how many layers of quality control you have, shit happens from time to time.
Let me just say I HATE proofreading, though I'm glad I could fall back on it for a really good gig. It's hard and tedious and no matter how many mistakes you fix, if one slips through, it's on you. I used to have a photocopied page from "The Handbook of Proofreading" posted in my cube that read: "Never read anything after it's been printed. If there's a mistake, it will be pointed out to you by people whose mistakes you correct every day."
My first job out of college was working for a sketchy vanity publishing company. People paid to have their biographies published in books for a huge fee. While I was there, I wrote about a Dr. So-and-so who was honored for his many accomplishments in public service. And I left out the "l" in public. Fortunately, Dr. So-and-so was from China and the book was only sold to the other 500 people included. And they probably only read their own profiles.
When I was working at the advertising agency, we had a German car account. We were rolling out a new sports car. In the teaser collateral, we used type effects down the sides of the pages. One was supposed to read "Possibilities," but we printed "Possiblities." I wasn't on that press check, thank g-d. The piece is now a collector's item on E-bay.
So today, an AE came around with a bill insert that went to a million customers in Florida. It included an article on how keeping their ducts up to date could save customers money on their bills. Clear as day, in the first paragraph, it read, "Have your ducks checked."
The poor AE was beat-down and terrified. I laughed and said, "I should be fired!" He was scared that his boss would fire him. My boss came around and asked how many people had seen it, when the error occurred, etc. I just said, "It doesn't matter who else was involved. I missed it and it all comes down to me. If you need somebody to go bow down and grovel, well, it's part of my job." She was cool and said, "A lot of people missed it." I replied, "I guess we didn't have our ducks in a row!"
This is the kind of situation that would have made me throw up and not be able to sleep five years ago. Shit happens. You go on to the next task.
Thank you, Lexapro!
Posts
3 comments:
Being an English/History major I just wanna say I'm with ya Girl!!
Natashua
LOL!! In my business, this is a mistake I see ALL THE TIME. If it makes you feel any better, it took me almost 5 years to learn to spell "Restaurant" correctly. How embarrassing is it to have a cover page (thats 24"x36") with "Taco Bell Resteraunt" in huge 48 point text!
Yup, Im an idiot.
M.
I break out in hives when the last "QC" proofread on a piece comes down to me at the office (because the editors are busy, out of town, etc) I do ok, but I always end up awake later wondering what I may have missed. My worst was leaving the last s off of assess. Conservative financial companies are not so forgiving of things like that:) I will have to follow your lead and calm the hell down about all of this.
Post a Comment