When a reader contacts me
about grammar or spelling issues
in one of my (heavily edited) stories,
I know that’s not her real problem
with the story.
Because if the story had satisfied her,
made her laugh, cry, feel,
did all of the things great stories do,
she wouldn’t have noticed a couple of typos.
She wouldn’t have noticed a misplaced comma.
She’s a reader (a customer),
not a writer (a product developer).
She doesn’t know why the story
didn’t work for her
so she looks for some reason,
any reason.
Typos and grammar issues,
trivial things,
are easy to find.
Trivial complaints
aren’t usually about the trivial.
Your customers aren’t being irrational.
They simply can’t tell you
what is wrong with your product.
Don’t dismiss these customers.
Personally, I wouldn’t complain about grammar, (assume the writer/editor wrote it that way on purpose),
But a spelling error could have been introduced by the printer, unknown to the product owner. Particularly in stories that consume me a spelling error is like a poke in the eye.
I’d suggest a correction only to improve the product.
Typos happen, unfortunately.
If you write 100,000 words, you’ll type at least one wrong.
With spellcheck, the typo is usually an incorrectly used word, not an incorrectly spelled word, but, IHMO, that looks even worse for the writer. It appears intentional.