Benjamin Dreyer, the Random House copy chief whose debut book, Dreyer’s English, became a smash hit earlier this year, would like you to join him for game time.
Dreyer, the language maven and all-around grammar daddy, announced on Twitter that Random House will publish a card game based on his bestseller next year.
Here's a little something to, one hopes, amuse youse: https://t.co/xxQ3NoPeZV pic.twitter.com/FwNo2PEI8U
— Benjamin Dreyer (@BCDreyer) October 15, 2019
The game, called STET!, is “perfect for every level of writer, from high school students wanting to brush up before a test to co-workers looking for an engaging ice-breaker,” Random House said.
"There are 100 entertaining sentences waiting for you, the copyeditor, to correct—or, alternatively, to STET,” the publisher explained. “The first person to spot the error, or else call out ‘STET!’ (a copyeditor’s term that means “let it stand”) if there is no error, gets the card.”
Dreyer’s English was a huge hit for Random House, shooting up the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists shortly after its release. It was the first book by Dreyer, who for 26 years has worked as a copy editor at the publishing house.
He maintains a popular Twitter account, which he uses to offer tips on language, observations about classic films and opinions about the current presidential administration (of which he is decidedly not a fan).
In August, he told Literary Hub that his next book, Dreyer’s Fiction, will see him “take excerpts from works of fiction that I love and . . . break them down from a copy-editorial perspective.”
There’s no planned release date for that book as yet, but STET! is scheduled for publication on July 7, 2020.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.