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PENGUIN GROUP AUSTRALIA turns over $120 million a year from printing words but a one-word misprint has cost it dearly.
The publishing company was forced to pulp and reprint 7000 copies of Pasta Bible last week after a recipe called for "salt and freshly ground black people" – instead of pepper – to be added to the spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto.
The exercise will cost Penguin $20,000, the head of publishing, Bob Sessions, said. At $3300 a letter, it's a pricey typo.
Stock will not be recalled from bookshops because it would be "extremely hard" to do so, Mr Sessions said. Copies remained on the shelves in city bookshops yesterday, selling for $20.
Mr Sessions could not understand why some readers had found the slip offensive.
"We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind and why anyone would be offended, we don't know," he said.
"It's called the Pasta Bible, almost every recipe has ground black pepper in it, mostly in the same place [on each page].
"In one particular recipe [a] misprint occurs which obviously came from a spell checker. When it comes to the proofreader, of course they should have picked it up, but proofreading a cookbook is an extremely difficult task. I find that quite forgivable.
"We've said to bookstores that if anyone is small minded enough to complain about this very ... silly mistake then we will happily replace [the book] for them."
Freshly ground black people.
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