The Writers' Network! discussion

The new spell check is a really nice feature. I think that many readers had been complaining about the books being put on sale. Apparently, there were many being published with typos all throughout. This helps the reader, which is important since they are the ones spending money. Hopefully, they will be buying more quality work from now on with this feature.

Any spellcheck program can be a recipe for disaster if the writer depends upon it: As "to" for "two" or "too."
These kinds of programs are aids, but there is no substitute for excellent proofreading and editing.

If someone is writing 'two' when they mean 'too', they probably shouldn't be writing and selling books. They won't sell many after a while unless they go back to school and learn the English language.

Sorry I'm so abrupt with my opinion but, that bugs me. I spent twelve years in college writing papers every week and I feel like anyone who writes a book should at least know which word to use and when.

Susan–—I was merely using that as an example, but I've often seen writers make similar silly typos. And they usually are typos, mistakes of which the writer knows better (this includes me). It happens.

That's true. I've seen typos in just about everything I've ever read. I'm reading a Stephen King book right now and have counted four typos so far. There's always going to be some. I had a typo in one of my books too, which I changed as soon as I realized it and maybe there's more I don't know about.

But, there are also books out there where the writer doesn't seem to know the difference. That is a problem because people pay money for books and should get a decent read out of it. It can be distracting from the story if wrong words are actually used frequently. So, I agree with you that catching typos is one thing, but the writer also has to know which words to use and when.

Lots of interesting comments. Problem I found with Spell Checkers is that they forget I'm here in England, and our usage is different! In fact, I've even had Reviews on Kindle,accusing me of 'bad spelling' when all their examples refer to U.S. style. Technically, what I've done is correct, when I do it. But what do you think - should I change my manuscript simply because Amazon dot com is in America?? After all, I get plenty of sales here, through Amazon dot co dot UK, and I'm sure those readers appreciate their words are spelled accurately.