I'm much more nitpicky with published authors than I am with fanfic writers. I see it like this: if I'm actually paying money to read a book, and if the author is getting money for having written it, I expect her/him to have done her/his research and got things right. I have little tolerance for glaring errors of spelling, grammar and punctuation in published fiction, and none at all for errors which demonstrate that the author seems to have done no basic research on the topic s/he is writing about. (Anyone who's read any of my Amazon reviews will be aware of that!
), confusion of similar words (eg diffuse instead of defuse, adverse instead of averse) - that I really get thrown out of a story. At that point I start skimming rather than reading or, if it's really distracting, just give up.
Do I point errors out? There, it depends on the author. I know that some authors are comfortable with having errors pointed out in feedback folders - though I would tend not to point out tiny typos. With some others, I might email or catch them on IRC. And with others still, I simply feel that I don't know them enough to take the risk that they might be hurt or offended.
Now, errors of
fact - eg an incident attributed to one episode which actually happened in another, or a reference to something which I know is inaccurate - I probably would point these kind of things out in a feedback folder, unless, again, I was unsure how the author would react.
Bottom line? Yes, I'm nitpicky. But I don't always let it show!
Wendy
