Help Edit the 2nd Printing Of The Complete X Files

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Stegall on April 17, 2009 at 4:14pm

Chris Knowles said:

This is exciting. Matt, Lisa and I were very disappointed by some of these editing/production problems and this amazing work of art really deserves better - as do all of the people who put so much hard work into it. As to the Rob and Kim quotes, you have to realize that these interviews were conducted well after the fact and that they may not remember exact details while working on other projects. I know it was very challenging for the actors to remember specific details at all. It was all a blur of incredibly hard work in a very short time- kind of like the book itself.

So get out your red pencils, Philes!

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Stegall on April 17, 2009 at 4:31pm

Chris Knowles said:

This is exciting. Matt, Lisa and I were very disappointed by some of these editing/production problems and this amazing work of art really deserves better - as do all of the people who put so much hard work into it. As to the Rob and Kim quotes, you have to realize that these interviews were conducted well after the fact and that they may not remember exact details while working on other projects. I know it was very challenging for the actors to remember specific details at all. It was all a blur of incredibly hard work in a very short time- kind of like the book itself.

So get out your red pencils, Philes!

Seriously? You guys can't afford a copyeditor, so you want READERS to re-edit your manuscript? Does this sound professional to you? I must admit, if I'd shelled out several bucks for a book as riddled with errors as these posts seem to indicated, I'd definitely want a refund.

I speak not just as a fan but as someone who knows what it's like to write an X-Files book under deadline pressure. I researched and helped write the first three Official Guides to The X-Files; there were years when I carried a database of The X-Files episodes around in my head the way Chuck Bartowski does in "Chuck". When I was doing my research, I confirmed every fact with either Chris Carter, his assistant Mary Astadourian, or one of the many actors, producers, writers and others I interviewed. The other writers and I went over the galleys with a fine-toothed comb. We had incredible deadline pressures, and barely any time to meet them. We were constantly fighting to get the attention of the creatives at Ten Thirteen, who were busy actually making The X-Files and Millennium. Yet we managed to get the books out on schedule, and never had to print a "do-over" edition.

You say this is "exciting". I am sure it is. But if it was my name on the title page, I'd have called it "embarrassing". Correct spelling and punctuation should never be an after-thought, a "detail" to clean up later. They are integral to clear writing, and a professional doesn't think twice about them. He certainly doesn't ask the READER to make up his deficit. Yeesh.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Knowles on April 22, 2009 at 3:58pm

I'm not involved in this process, Ms. Stegall. Nor was I involved in or consulted on the original edit. I never saw the galleys, I only saw a handful of rough spreads with greeked text. I guarantee you it would have been a much different story had that not been the case.

There's a big difference between working on a book for an active network show and one for a defunct network show.
I didn't have access to anyone at Ten Thirteen since whoever is left there was working on the feature film. The one change with the Kim Manners quote was not in my manuscript, neither were a lot of other mistakes that people are citing. Insight is working very hard to rectify these problems, which I think is commendable. The person responsible for most of these problems is no longer employed there.


Sarah Stegall said:

Chris Knowles said:

This is exciting. Matt, Lisa and I were very disappointed by some of these editing/production problems and this amazing work of art really deserves better - as do all of the people who put so much hard work into it. As to the Rob and Kim quotes, you have to realize that these interviews were conducted well after the fact and that they may not remember exact details while working on other projects. I know it was very challenging for the actors to remember specific details at all. It was all a blur of incredibly hard work in a very short time- kind of like the book itself.

So get out your red pencils, Philes!

Seriously? You guys can't afford a copyeditor, so you want READERS to re-edit your manuscript? Does this sound professional to you? I must admit, if I'd shelled out several bucks for a book as riddled with errors as these posts seem to indicated, I'd definitely want a refund.

I speak not just as a fan but as someone who knows what it's like to write an X-Files book under deadline pressure. I researched and helped write the first three Official Guides to The X-Files; there were years when I carried a database of The X-Files episodes around in my head the way Chuck Bartowski does in "Chuck". When I was doing my research, I confirmed every fact with either Chris Carter, his assistant Mary Astadourian, or one of the many actors, producers, writers and others I interviewed. The other writers and I went over the galleys with a fine-toothed comb. We had incredible deadline pressures, and barely any time to meet them. We were constantly fighting to get the attention of the creatives at Ten Thirteen, who were busy actually making The X-Files and Millennium. Yet we managed to get the books out on schedule, and never had to print a "do-over" edition.

You say this is "exciting". I am sure it is. But if it was my name on the title page, I'd have called it "embarrassing". Correct spelling and punctuation should never be an after-thought, a "detail" to clean up later. They are integral to clear writing, and a professional doesn't think twice about them. He certainly doesn't ask the READER to make up his deficit. Yeesh.

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Permalink Reply by Dianne starbuck83 on April 23, 2009 at 3:37am

I still havent taken mine out of the plastic shrink wrap in fear of getting it damaged so i cant help on this topic, but cant believe how many errors u guys have picked up

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Permalink Reply by orodromeus on March 24, 2010 at 8:23am

I doubt anybody will read this, but:

Somewhere around p.150, in the two-pager with quotes of the CSM from "6X11: Two Fathers":
"Dr. Oppenheimer" should be "Dr.Openshaw".

(Jeez...)

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Permalink Reply by Young Heejin on March 24, 2010 at 8:53am

I feel bad for you Gale. It's really expensive. And to find out that there were a lot errors. What went wrong? Is the book made in a hurry? Are they drugged while typing the books to commit such errors? IMO. No offense.

Gale said:

oh my god. no. although i want to correct the mistakes on the book, i dont think i would own the 2nd edition of the complete x-files. my book costs 2246 PhP. and its very expensive. ill check my book tomorrow and see if i can contribute more errors for the reprinting. but iam just sadddddddd. 2246 PhP is expensive. lol

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Permalink Reply by luther on May 23, 2010 at 7:07am

"What went wrong? Is the book made in a hurry? Are they drugged while typing the books to commit such errors? "

Well, the posts from the author himself earlier in this thread should answer those questions for you. And, while I'm sorry the errors exist in the first place, the book itself looks incredible and I'm glad they're taking the steps to make it read as good as it looks! Thanks, Chris, for your honesty and openness about it all. And one can easily look past the errors to see what a labor of love it was for you. I feel bad for you that the end product marred all the hard work you put into it. Any of us who've had our own work (whatever that might be) suffer from the hands of others empathize with you.

So, any idea when the new printing (hopefully error-free) will be published? I look forward to the day it's released and believe that, one day, the book will also feature the inevitable third XF film...

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