The plural of book is NOT book's!
Contributor
Written by
Maria Murnane
October 2011
Contributor
Written by
Maria Murnane
October 2011

I have a new grammar pet peeve: the use of a possessive apostrophe to denote a plural. In just the past few weeks, I’ve seen the following on signs, menus and posters around New York City:

  • Great gift idea for teacher’s
  • Open Sunday’s and Monday’s
  • We print on tank top’s!
  • Banana’s and mango’s on sale this week

I have no idea why this has become so popular, but it’s everywhere I go, and it drives me nuts! I even saw it in a self-published book last week, in which the narrator mentioned how she had consulted with various doctor’s. Yes, doctor’s. I was annoyed but kept reading, only to be distracted by countless other grammatical blunders throughout the book. The storyline was interesting, but it was completely overshadowed by the errors that popped up on every page. Every single page. Because of that, I will not be recommending the book to anyone, which is a lost opportunity for the author because I love to talk about books.

If you’re going to put your work out into the world, make sure the grammar is perfect. If grammar isn’t your thing, hire an editor! Actually, you should hire an editor anyway, because we all need multiple sets of eyes to help catch what ours can no longer see after staring at the computer screen for so long.

In a future blog post, I’ll go over the most common grammatical errors I see. For now, see if you notice the apostrophe overload. Maybe together we can stop the madness!

-Maria

Maria Murnane writes romantic comedies and provides consulting services on book publishing and marketing. Learn more at www.mariamurnane.com

This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2011 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Comments
  • Fun post!!  Funny thing is I once tried to hire an editor -- except she didn't 'do' grammar.  A copy editor is what I needed -- and should have hired.  Though, I'd love to know what 'tricks' people have to edit their own work, or even any computer programs out there other than Microsoft Word to catch grammatical mistakes.  Though next time, I am going to research with Shewrites!   Keep writing all!!  My book did get published -- LIE -- and the big plus of a professional publishing house (St. Martin's Press) is that they did a terrific copy edit of the book!!  www.carolinebock.com

  • Georgia Ann Mullen

    Author-published books hampered by grammatical errors give self-publishers a bad name. Sloppy production is one reason some traditional publishers refuse to consider later works. If you have great ideas but are poor at execution, hire an editor--she needs the work.

  • Kamy Wicoff Brainstorming

    I couldn't agree more about hiring a good editor -- don't forget that if you need one, you can rely on the amazing editors She Writes has ready to help!

  • Cindy Brown

    If I made any of those errors mentioned, I would have myself declared mentally incompetent or claw my own eyeballs out. My work isn't perfect, but those are basics everyone should know. I have found that an editor is necessary because it is true that our eyes don't catch things occasionally. However, to miss some higher level errors occasionally should be tolerated and I have found that some editors often make me feel like a complete idiot when I make a mistake. If mistakes are few and far between and there is talent and the content is very good, give them a break. Glaring errors on every page, however, need to be pointed out. Somebody should contact this author and make sure she is aware that the book is full of errors and suggest that she should use a different editing source next time. I know I want to grow and improve in my writing. She probably does too. I am thinking there must be some very nice editors out there who can Paula Abdul correct you instead of Simon Coweling you to death.

  • Elaine Fields Smith

    Glad to see I'm not the only one! I took a grammar class from Writer's Digest (yes I think it should be Writers' Digest and be both plural and possessive) and it helped. Well, printing the reference material helped. But one thing I've learned in this writing/publishing thing is: get a GOOD editor. Pay for it. Then get a proof reader, too. I "self published" my book by starting my own company and to date, no one has found an error in it. Now if MS Word could decide when it's correct to use its grammar feature correctly or it's gonna continue to make me crazy. er. (Let's not even talk about comma usage...haha)

  • Karoline Barrett

    I love, love, love this post!!!  A good book on the subject: The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time. By Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson.

    My pet peeves have all been mentioned, plus how EVERYONE seems to use "There's a lot of ...." when they really mean "There're a lot of..."

  • Beverly Vines-Haines

    When we finish this discussion let's talk about the weird use of your for you're and 'alot' and text speak making it into homework and signage.  Worthy discussions all.

  • Rebecca Hughes Parker

    I agree - the use of apostrophes for possessives is maddening! And widespread! Years ago we were at an outside cafe and the chalkboard said "We have egg's" and I actually went and erased the apostrophe! At my law firm on Fridays we can wear jeans if we pay five dollars to a charity and we often get emails titled "Jean's Day this Friday." I didn't realize Jean had a day....

  • Patricia Gligor Promoting

    Maria,

    I too would like to stop the madness! I enjoyed your post. Actually, it prompted me to add a post today on my She Writes blog; the subject is Punctuation. I hope you'll check it out.

  • Michael N. Marcus

    Tom Lehrer claims he went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity.” Tom graduated from Harvard Magna Cum Laude at age 18 and is in Phi Beta Kappa. He taught at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley and the University of California, but is best known for hilarious songwriting, much of it political satire, in the 1950s and 60s. Britain’s Princess Margaret was a fan and so am I. I can still sing Tom Lehrer lyrics I first heard in sev­enth grade, in 1958.

    In Tom's "Be Prepared," he advises "Don't write naughty words on walls if you can't spell." The grammar corallary is similarly important. In addition to unnecessary or misplaced commas, I go nuts over unnecessary quote marks like "No" parking.

    Michael N. Marcus
     
    -- Just out: "STINKERS!: America's Worst Self-Published Books," http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983057257
     
    -- http://www.BookMakingBlog.blogspot.com
    -- http://www.BookFur.com (information, help and book reviews for authors)
    -- Create Better Books, with the Silver Sands Publishing Series: http://www.silversandsbooks.com/booksaboutpublishing.html
    -- "Stories I'd Tell My Children (but maybe not until they're adults)," http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983057249

     

  • Joanne C. Hillhouse

    Agreed.

    "you're" for "your" and vice versa is another of my pet peeves.

  • Deb Sierra Damone

    Thank you for the reminder. One of the biggest issues I face is that when I reread my work, I read it the way I know it should be written. Now I am not saying that I am an expert,however,there are times that once a mistake is pointed out to me...I wonder how I missed it.  So editors will never starve as long as I am alive to write:-)