Why Fans Are Unhappy With Taylor Swift’s $40 Eras Tour Book

Taylor Swift, the most-streamed artist on Spotify for the second year in a row, released a project recently that disappointed some eagle-eyed fans.

Last week, Swift’s $39.99 coffee table read “The Eras Tour Book” went on sale, highlighting the superstar’s record-breaking Eras tour, which was the first ever to gross over $1 billion. The 256-page hardcover book has over 500 images and personal reflections written by Swift.

Since the book’s release, however, fans have spotted typos, grammatical errors, and design flaws.

Related: Taylor Swift Just Gave a Masterclass in Crisis Management—Turning an Onstage Disaster Into a Highlight

One Reddit user, for example, found the song “this is me trying” written as “this is me rying,” while another found more than five individual typos across two pages, including “High Infidelity” written as “High Infedelity” and “Jump Then Fall” written as “Jump The Fall.”

The range of errors has led some Reddit users to dub the book “The Errors Tour Book.”

In a TikTok viewed over one million times, user @emermore7, a self-described Swiftie, stated that she was “disappointed” with the book, and pointed out grammatical errors like random commas and issues with the layout: She notes that at least three pictures have Swift in the center, which means she’s placed in the spine of the book, requiring viewers to crack the spine to see the image.

“I guess I expect more love and care to be taken when writing, designing, and editing,” the TikToker said.

@emermore7 I know I’m not the only one disappointed with the Eras Tour book, but I haven’t seen anyone else talk about the glaringly obvious grammatical errors and clunky sentences within the pages. I make this video with peace, love, and a general frustration about how easy many of these problems could have been fixed with one more set of editing eyes. This book just had so much potential, and with a little tweaking it could have been absolutely spectacular. #erastourbook #errorstour #booktok ♬ Cruel Summer – Taylor Swift

The sentiment has been echoed by other Swifties, especially on Reddit.

Still, despite the negative attention, the book is selling extraordinarily well.

After launching exclusively at Target on Black Friday, “The Eras Tour Book” sold 814,000 copies over Thanksgiving weekend. It’s one of the biggest nonfiction book launches ever and Target’s best-selling book of the year.

^{Target shopper holds Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour Book” on Black Friday 2024. Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images}

Swift made two bold moves: She chose to self-publish the book and to release it exclusively through one retailer. Publishing experts told Business Insider that Swift’s decision to self-publish may have contributed to the design errors and typos. However, bypassing traditional publishers means that Swift gets to keep more revenue and creative control — and inspire other authors to skip the gatekeepers too.

Plus, some Swifties love the book. “It’s a really nice book… I think it’s worth the money,” one user wrote in the Taylor Swift Merch subreddit.

On Target, the book is rated a 4.7 out of 5, with over 400 ratings factored into the average.

Swift is worth $1.6 billion, per Forbes estimates.

Related: Taylor Swift Faced a Major Malfunction on Stage. She Improvised on the Spot—and Gave a Great Lesson on Keeping Cool Under Pressure.