The other day here, I wrote about receiving the first printed copy of my new book, Kirby: King of Comics and instantly finding a typo. I hope no one took this as any sort of criticism or complaint about its publisher or any of the fine folks who worked on the book. This rule — when you first open your new book, you find a typo — is something I've been saying for years and it applies to every book from every publisher. There's something about the finality of it finally being printed that causes you to suddenly notice mistakes that weren't visible when it was possible to fix them.
I wrote about this many years ago in a column that was reprinted in my book, Superheroes in My Pants. And of course, when I got the first copy of that book from the printer, I instantly found a typo.
Let the record show that I am enormously happy with my new Kirby book. I have never been reticent to complain mightily about companies or editors with (or for) which I work and I have zero beefs this time. If you're a writer or you want to be a writer, I hope you someday have as fine an experience as I've had with my editor on this one, Charlie Kochman.