And I picked up a book I hadn't seen before. The Buick: A Complete History. Kinda sad though. When a hack like me can pick up a 600+ page book and within a couple of minutes find a mistake..... :error: A minor one, but still a mistake. Kinda calls into question the credibility of the rest of what's in the rest of the book. ou:
The Buick - A Complete History I have a first edition of this book (1980/444 pages), and most Automobile Quarterly Publications are usually researched fairly thoroughly to ensure the content is correct and proof read so that typos are minimal. It just goes to show that they are only human and mistakes do happen. If you contact the publisher and draw it to their attention, I'm sure they will take the necessary action to correct the error in future editions. :Smarty: :TU:
Maybe you should share what you found, just to make sure that it's really a mistake. And which edition is your book ? Maybe someone already informed the publisher and all is well in a newer edition...... :TU:
I do this for a living although not in the automotive world. Mistakes do happen and are corrected when caught, whether by a staffer or a customer. If it's really a mistake, then contact the publisher. What was the mistake?
They had a picture of a 67 A Body and called it a Wildcat. p 293 I think it was, upper right(?) hand corner. I was looking at Amazon.com, and their description of the book indicated that it was in it's 6th edition, first published in 2002. Assuming that since it was a new book that I was looking at, it should be the latest edition. No malice intended in my comments, my goodness, the book is over 600 pages long. And more importantly, no innocent animals or children were hurt during the compiling and printing of the book. My point was just as I said, if a hack like me could find a minor mistake like this in a couple of minutes, what else is buried in there? And I have no idea who or how I should contact about what I found.
< You know what do do..... :Comp: Mine was published is 1997, it has the blue cover and the blue paper cover with the red 1953 Skylark on it. 556 pages. I've also seen editions with different colours...... :Smarty:
I found a mistake in this same book. In the color photo section, they show a '68 Wildcat custom coupe but identify it as a standard coupe. Three things tell me this. 1) The car shown has white interior. White was only offered in the custom series. 2)The rear courtesy light lens is visible on the rear sail panel. The location of the courtesy light on a standard coupe was overhead, not on the sail panel. 3)The car shown has a dual pinstripe on the sculpted body line. Dual pinstripes were painted on the custom series cars-not the standard series. Nitpicking? Maybe.......but I know my '68 Wildcats!
The book was written by Larry Gustin (he was in public relations at Buick for years) and Terry Dunham ,who is a recognized authority on Buicks. They have made six editions ,and have added information in every one. The last (sixth) edition has a tremendous amount of information on Buicks early racing. I am sure that even though the book was researched diligently that you will find some errors. If you do read it ,you will have a fairly complete idea of what was accomplished here in Flint Michigan.
Guys, I am working on a date code book right now and can tell you this much, it is very easy to overlook a mistake when writing something. You go through so much editing, and keep looking at the same pages over and over to the point where everything starts to blend together and you miss things. That's why I have been sending pieces of the book to have it proof read, but even then I expect there may be a few mistakes. The problem with me is that I am trying to put too much info into a small package. Duane
Amen to that.... I proof read every window sticker I make many times but once in a while something still slips through ou: That is why I like to send out proof copies first but even then it may not get caught until the final version is printed.... In the end I always make sure everything gets corrected :TU: My eyes were going batty proof reading the production guide that I put together :shock:
If you look real close at the '67 A body in the photo, you will see that it is one of the rare Specials with the W-1 GS Ornamentation Package. You can barely make out the GS emblem in the grill. There is a bigger photo of the same car on the GM Photo Store web site and it's called a 1967 GS 400 Thin Pillar coupe http://www.gmphotostore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=53217578
