A few days after I discovered the horrifying error on the QuickStudy cover, I sent an e-mail to both the publishing company's customer service department and the company's president:
Mr. Gabbard;
While I was at my local Kinko's recently, I plucked a copy of your QuickStudy English guide from a nearby rack, hoping to amuse myself a few minutes while waiting in line. Unfortunately, upon reviewing the book's cover, I was less amused than I was saddened.
Among your list of selling points for the book at hand was a list of "commonly mispelled words." I would hope I needn't point out the pathetic irony here, but seeing as an untold number of people involved in the design and creation of your book missed it, I'm compelled to do so: you misspelled the word "misspell," which incidentally is one of the English language's most misspelled words. If the absurdity of the mistake weren't so laughable, I probably would've slit my wrists with paper cuts from the very book I was holding.
Now, seeing as you can't even bother to spell-check the copy that goes on the book's cover, I must say I have little faith in the accuracy of its contents. I understand mistakes are made — I work in the publishing industry, myself, and I make them, too — but one reeking with such absurdity in a study guide that, according to your Web site, purports to help "students boost their grades," leaves me wanting to punch a raccoon.
Wesley Treat
I never heard back.