Typo in romantic novel causes bowel movement during love scene

"I apologise to anyone who bought my on-sale ebook of Baby, I'm Yours and read on pg 293: 'He stiffened for a moment but then she felt his muscles loosen as he shitted on the ground'," writes Susan Andersen. "Shifted -- he SHIFTED!" (Via Arbroath)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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lknope

SHAT, he SHAT on the ground!
- daen
  
  Well … it’s close enough to “shitten” http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/… …I have been making odd muffled snorting noises for the last few minutes over this. My co-workers always suspected that I’m deranged. This confirms it.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Gallagher/1327219735 Daniel Gallagher
  
  He “shat upon the ground” would be the right way to “express” this sentiment…
- sloopy65
  
  He shat upon the ground?
- Randy Cauthen
  
  “Shitted” is also considered correct.
tylerkaraszewski

What? I’m sure some people found that hot.
- tacoblaster
  
  Hot and steamy!
ill lich

If “2 girls 1 cup” is any indication, there is a certain demographic that was pleased (or more appropriately “thrilled”) with the typo.
Tyler Roy-Hart

that was intended for the german and japanese translations
Michael Curran

Come on, no need to make fun of the publishers of this book over one little consonant, at least they didn’t seem to have trouble with their bowels.
earthtone55

Its just a typo.
You know what they say, “shift happens”.
daen

And now, of course, the magic ad pixies have chipped in their tuppence worth. ”Is incontinence a problem? Try the free sample pack!”, says the Depend advert at the top of the page …

I think I have to lie down for a bit …
GawainLavers

Is Janet Evanovich going to be given a chance to update her review based on the new text?
- http://twitter.com/ManekiNico Maneki Nico
  
  Evanovich might want to go with “Gassy, crappy, and steaming hot!”
daen

Oh dear …”Get a better carpet at a better price … plus lifetime stain warranty …”
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

Oh baby, when I’m around you I just lose control…*BRRRRRRRRAPLOP*
SomeDude

So I shitted on the grououououound
I ain’t part o’ your system!!!!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAYL5H46QnQ)
Donald Petersen

Came for the sophistication, moving in permanently for the accidental feces.

I love you all!!!!!!
jimh

Mood killer, there.
- cymk
  
  Wouldn’t be a mood killer if the editor had changed the last two words in the sentence to “her chest.” That would be just be hot and steamy.
http://isthisreallynecessary.com someToast

“ God, I am so appalled, not to mention horrified that anyone would think that’s what I wrote. I’d really appreciate it if you would forward this to your romance reading friends…”

A typo in the ebook version of the book (not the printed version, thank god, according to Amazon), in a paragraph perfectly composed for maximum hilarity and repostability? Kudos.
http://twitter.com/zeesmama Marianne Blackburn

I’m partial to “done shitted” myself…
spacemanmatt

Glen Baxter has been notified.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Pishabh-Badmaash/100000345226234 Pishabh Badmaash

What does the novelist have against Cleveland steamers?
RJ

He stiffened for a moment but then she felt his muscles loosen as he shitted on the ground. “Impressive,” she offered, to which the man replied with a single grunt. “What’s your name?” she asked. “Sanchez,” he growled. “Sanchez Steamer. You can call me ‘Cleveland.’ Now how about you shut the door? I’d like a little privacy in here.”

“But, Sanchez,” she countered, “there is no door. You’re a drunken hobo, pooping in my boxwood hedge.”
- daen
  
  … where ‘boxwood hedge’ better not be a euphemism.
Guest

Never trust a fart.
Joel Bass

“Sassy, snappy, & sizzlin’ hot!” – Janet Evanovich
http://twitter.com/EmilyHill_Indie EmilyHill

Well! This is ONE novel way to increase sales in one’s eBook. I’m going straight to this title RIGHT this minute! GREAT marketing ploy, Susan. Uhhh…Janet sticking with you on this one??
Private Private

Really, people? I honestly thought scatological humour like this would be beneath…Oh, who am I kidding? RJ, man, You’re killing me here. I can’t breathe.
SeamusAndrewMurphy

Was there a paragraph anywhere in the chapter prior to this where he ate a lot of chili?
daen

He stiffened for a moment but then she felt his muscles loosen as he shitted on the ground. ”Damn”, he said to himself. ”I knew I should have thrown out the rest of that curry from last week”.
Roy Trumbull

My favorite newspaper typo was: “Maria Callas is on a two week scruise with Aristotle Onasis.”
- redhead329
  
  Reminds me of a typo I missed in a travel magazine I was editing. ”Thousands of exciting discounts” was published (over 1,000,000 times) as “Thousands of exciting discocunts”
Calimecita

*wipes joyful tear*
I love you all.
social_maladroit

That typo just makes me want to pull up a stool and read the ebook!
ill lich

“Get a room you two. . . preferably a bathroom.”
http://pineappledonut.org Lachlan Musicman

Gah. I presume this was due to an OCR fail? Why oh why do they OCR texts instead of using the original manuscripts? *Especially* for texts that have been written using a word processor?
- EggyToast
  
  Because Harper Collins does their own e-book conversion internally, and they don’t really care about quality of the electronic deliverable because they are a publisher. I wouldn’t be surprised if they simply run off image-based PDFs and then, when they realized “oops!,” they just did a basic dirty OCR with no cleanup involved.
  
  I wouldn’t be surprised if this author, who no doubt has the original manuscript, had no part in the ebook creation process. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Harper simply gets the eBook from their printing company.
  - http://twitter.com/EmilyHill_Indie EmilyHill
    
    What I’d love to know is what is the contractual cut Harper got on the ePub editions? Not sure what the template-contract says on this issue ‘nowadays’…but…as an Indie PubCoach I would love to know. info at avharrison dash publishing dot com
http://www.facebook.com/daen.de.leon Daen de Leon

“dirty OCR with no cleanup”

Is that what they call it these days?
http://profiles.google.com/nibblets Linda Crosfield

Oh brother, I don’t know what’s funnier—the original article or the comments.
http://www.facebook.com/rionam Riona MacNamara

Long time ago I was an editorial assistant on Nexus, Virgin Publishing’s smutty imprint. My favorite typo ever referred to the “bugle in his trousers”.
- ABQ_AW
  
  They say that is a sign or true love–or diarrhea.
http://www.kirstenmortensen.com Kirsten Mortensen

A friend of a friend once applied for a P.R. job . . . but in her cover letter wrote that she had always wanted to work in pubic relations.