The importance of version control
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The release of a new novel by acclaimed US author Jonathan Franzen has served to highlight the importance of version control. Apparently the version of his new novel Freedom launched in the UK earlier this month was printed using the wrong file.
According to a spokesperson for publisher HarperCollins, the initial print run of 80,000 books ‘have around 50 punctuation and spelling mistakes. The typesetter sent the last-but-one version.’
While it’s not exactly clear how the mix-up occurred, the incident provides a useful reminder of how important it is to establish a consistent and logical method of version control for your documents.
Most organisations will have their own file naming convention, and possibly even a document management system to track versions automatically. At Red Pony we include the date the file was created, starting with the year, month and then day (e.g. ‘20101005’ for 5 October 2010) followed by a sequential version number. This makes it easy to find the latest version when documents are ordered by file name.
As for Freedom, the corrected version is now on sale in the UK. HarperCollins is reportedly pulping thousands of books and offering anyone who bought the earlier printing a free exchange.
