Continuity

I've been reading a lot of Chick Lit recently. When I first started my novel it was important not to read other's stuff, as I was frightened I'd be influenced by their voices. Not now; I've found my groove and I'm sticking to it. I find that what I read now only benefits my own work; if it's well written it inspires me and reminds me to aim high and keep striving to be better, if it's bad it makes me check to see if I'm making the same mistakes.

I've read some really, really well written Chick Lit, quite a lot of 'ok' books, and a couple of very badly written ones that I've struggled to get through.

This doesn't shock me. It's partly to do with taste, admittedly. However what does surprise me is that I've read quite a few that are extremely badly edited! How can this happen?

For example, in the last 6 months I have read 2 books where a character's name has changed. No, I'm not kidding. MID SCENE, on one occasion. In the first book, there was a minor character - let's say she was the main character's aunt - who appeared briefly in one notable scene early on in the book. Then towards the end of the book she is mentioned again, except called something different! In the second book, in one of the last chapters of the book the main character has a bit of a showdown with her boyfriend in the bedroom. Her boyfriend's name changes halfway through the bloody scene!! With both these instances, I read back through the book to see if I'd missed something. I'm thinking, 'Who the hell is Aunt Ruby?' or 'How come this bloke John just turned up in bed with the two main characters?'. I swear to you, the names were wrong.

I've also noticed the following inconsistencies in several books: hair/eye colour change, people wearing the wrong clothes for the season, geographical inaccuracies (like driving from London to Leeds via Somerset, that kind of thing). There are many more things I've tutted at and then forgotten.

And then there's the stylistic and technical stuff; UNINTENTIONAL things like repetition or sudden point of view changes. Even, in one book, a spelling mistake!

I know how this makes me sound. Believe me, I am all for artistic licence and I'm open to giving the writer benefit of the doubt in cases where I think it's been some kind of style choice. But what I want to know, is how can this happen?

Granted, I know enough about writing to understand that with the best will in the world you can read and edit and check your ms a thousand times and still not see that you've made a few mistakes. But in most cases, your ms then gets read by your agent, who hopefully will pick up on some of them. Then it gets passed to your editor. She might decide that she thinks that Aunt Ruby should be Aunt Rose, or John should be Jake. So you change it. Then presumably, she reads it again. Quite a few times. Then it goes to a copy editor. I've heard that these people really go to town and quite often suggest a lot of changes from the point of view of grammar and accuracy. Then you get to read the thing again and make more changes.

Ok, I've never been published but I know there is a hell of a lot of back and forth on a novel before it goes off to print. So how come nobody notices?!?

What they need is a continuity girl. And for a generous fee, I'll volunteer.

(Anyone seen any glaring errors in a book they've been reading?)