An
inadvertent error sees the latest from Raymond E. Feist replaced
and a character in two places at once.
Readers and fans of Raymond E. Feist might be caught a little between sympathy, amusement and annoyance this week, with the following announcement making the rounds in literary circles.
It seems that during the final stages of production for A Crown Imperilled the author mistakenly inserted part of an earlier draft, resulting in a continuity error that saw Pug appear in two places at once. This was missed by his editor and the proofreader, and the book went to print.
Both Feist and Publishing Director Jane Johnson released the following open letters.
Dear Reader,
Putting a book together is a collaborative undertaking, but ultimately the responsibility for errors falls to the author. Even if someone introduces an error in production, the author is given the opportunity to read the final manuscript and should spot it. A Crown Imperilled has such an error, one potentially annoying to the reader. In the last stage of production, I inadvertently inserted a much earlier draft version of part of one chapter in lieu of the final draft, which resulted in a continuity gaff. For this I deeply apologise, and will do my very best to not repeat such a mistake. It's the first real gaff in thirty years, and doubly galling because I know how it was supposed to read. Thank you for years of support.
Raymond E. Feist
It's not fair that Ray should shoulder all the blame. I was the editor in charge of getting a perfect book to press, and in the midst of a white-hot edit I missed the fact that suddenly Pug was in two places at once! Editors are supposed to be infallible (it's our job), but I fear I was swept away by the story, reading like a reader and not like an editor. After 27 years you'd think I'd have got that one down. And then the proof-reader, whose job it is to sweep up after both of us, missed it as well. I am so sorry: we pride ourselves on the quality - both in terms of the writer's imagination and of our production - of Voyager novels, and I sincerely hope the glitch will not spoil this wonderful novel for you.
Jane Johnson, Publishing Director
Any Readings customers who have already purchased A Crown Imperilled may exchange it for the corrected version, in-store, once the book comes into stock
