Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Once is a mistake. Twice is... me in the wrong?

So despite my grumbling about Harper collins, they do publish a nice wealth of 'romances in the regency period', including those by Stephanie Laurens, whose new book To Distraction is due out next Tuesday.
The one redeeming quality of the Harper Collins website is that, when it takes their fancy, they supply a 3-chapter taster of their ebooks - including this latest release, although they have the link wrong because the free sample is really available through this link and not the one they supply.

Anyhow. Thing is. I downloaded and read the sample chapters. And was struck by...
apostrophised plurals. No, I don't know what I mean either; but surely the appreviation of "there are" is "there're" and not "there's" ?

I mean, is a sentence like this:
“There’s the social obligations, of course.”
(To Distraction, page 13)


...or this:
“I’m sure you’ll find plenty to interest you during the next few days. Maria usually organizes a picnic on the downs, and there’s some lovely rides.”
(To Distraction, page 21)


..correct?
Because, in my ignorance, I'd have said that they both should have been the result of "there are", not "there is"

And If I'm right, what's happening to Harper Collin's copy editors (is that the right phrase?)? This, on top of the ebooks cover disgrace, really does make me wonder...

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have seen that contraction before in Regencies, but technically only the first example you quoted is at all accurate. I don't know why it *is* considered accurate, perhaps because it does conform to speech patterns back then or something like that?

But the second example should be 'there are'.

Hmm, maybe it's less to do with correct grammar and more to do with the look of it on the page? 'There's' looks nicer than 'there're'.

Stranger things have happened @@

And it's not just HarperCollins. I've noticed a drop in editorial standards industry-wide over the past few years in particular.

- Olivia (aka Sian, procrastinating away from novellas with deadlines on them *sigh*)

4:05 pm  
Blogger TeeBee said...

LOL Procastinate away! I'm glad I'm not the only one being picky ;)

'Deadline' is such a depressing word, isn't it... Or, to put it another way: get back to work!
:-D

4:09 pm  
Blogger TeeBee said...

Also, I'm wondering whether I put my contacts in upside down when writing this post: "appreviation" rather than "abbreviation"??? Weird.

4:15 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LMAO I spent most of this morning in and out of MSN being told 'get back to work!' by various people. Amazing how much more interesting other things get when time is ticking...

'appreviation' is surely the Antipodean version of 'abbreviation', yes?

4:20 pm  
Blogger TeeBee said...

Oh yes, that's right.

!

4:22 pm  
Blogger Alan said...

There're. What's wrong with that? ;-)

2:51 pm  

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