First impressions count when a manuscript or idea is being considered for publication An agent or editor is unlikely to read many pages of a book (I have heard as few as three suggested) or many paragraphs of an article before forming an opinion: read on, because it seems good… or not. It’s a harsh business. Obviously such people do not like typos, indeed I suspect that they read more into them than just being evidence of a momentary lapse. People tend to see them (especially if there are several) as an indicator of a writer likely to be unreliable in various ways. It’s a harsh business.