Errata. I hate errata.

An errata is an error found in a book after publishing. And we have them. (Not with any frequency, thank goodness!) If any publisher says they never have mistakes in their books, either they’re not telling the truth or they don’t care to check.

When I started at C&T six years ago, I was a technical editor. I love the math, crunching numbers, calculating yardage. There are thousands of numbers to crunch in some project books! The key to being a good technical editor is to also try to predict how someone else might read an instruction, cut a strip of fabric, adjust the yardage requirements and edit or word the material accordingly.

We’re so serious about technical accuracy that we have two technical editors reviewing every project. But unfortunately once in a while (once in a great while), we miss the mark.

This is quite painful for us, but more painful for someone who’s trying to make a project. We often receive calls or emails from readers, mid-project, with questions about construction or cutting. The calls and emails go to our technical editors who work to figure out what’s going on. Usually it’s not a problem in the book and we are delighted to help the reader out with the answer. But sometimes we’ve missed something.

So we list our errata on our website. (Look at the bottom of the home page for Book Corrections.)

We don’t hide them. We don’t use a euphemism (such as “Book Additions”) that would make them harder for our readers to find. And we don’t take them down when a book is reprinted. Of course we fix any errors and clarify any confusing areas as soon as possible. But, unlike other publishers, we don’t take down the correction. That wouldn’t be fair to the thousands of people who purchased the original printing!

I hate errata. The best errata is one that never happens. The second best errata is one that we do absolutely everything we can to make right. We love our readers—we are our readers, quite literally—and we are committed to their success.

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