LOTR ebook erratum and ebook quality - Page 2

viviena · 04-17-2011, 10:56 PM

Wormtongue's first name is Gríma.

I've looked through the list of errors that AprilHare posted, comparing them to my EPUB edition of The Two Towers. I also have the 50th Anniversary 3-in-1 print edition sitting beside me, which I've used to double-check various things.

The retail EPUB edition of The Two Towers has none of the errors reported in this thread. If anybody has errors for FOTR and ROTK, I'll check them too, but I wouldn't be surprised if the individual ebooks for FOTR and ROTK were also error-free.

So... why? Aren't these individual EPUBs from the same source as the 3-in-1? Why is the 3-in-1 screwed up in the process?

Also, 573 is just 'Westu Théoden hál!' cried Éomer.

AlexBell · 04-18-2011, 04:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by viviena

The retail EPUB edition of The Two Towers has none of the errors reported in this thread. If anybody has errors for FOTR and ROTK, I'll check them too, but I wouldn't be surprised if the individual ebooks for FOTR and ROTK were also error-free.

If anyone can confirm that the ePub version of FOTR and ROTK are error free then please do so. I bought the 3-in-1 version when it first came out, but would be delighted to replace it with the separate volumes if they are error free.

Regards, Alex

AprilHare · 04-18-2011, 05:07 AM

Thanks for the checking

Whoops about Wormtongue - too quickly thought out (they both were in the service of Théoden after all). And yes, this is the 3 in 1 combo that has obviously been cobbled together (badly). Maybe this was the source text and they later on paid someone to bother to proofread it when they made the 3 separate ebooks.
I'll go through ROTK section when I get a chance to actually read it all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by viviena

Wormtongue's first name is Gríma.

I've looked through the list of errors that AprilHare posted, comparing them to my EPUB edition of The Two Towers. I also have the 50th Anniversary 3-in-1 print edition sitting beside me, which I've used to double-check various things.

The retail EPUB edition of The Two Towers has none of the errors reported in this thread. If anybody has errors for FOTR and ROTK, I'll check them too, but I wouldn't be surprised if the individual ebooks for FOTR and ROTK were also error-free.

So... why? Aren't these individual EPUBs from the same source as the 3-in-1? Why is the 3-in-1 screwed up in the process?

Also, 573 is just 'Westu Théoden hál!' cried Éomer.

Sweetpea · 04-18-2011, 07:13 AM

Hmm, I wonder where you all get your perfectly, without any errors, designed bought ebooks... If these were the only mistakes, I'd say it wasn't too bad. I replaced 4 instances of Smeagol. The extra spaces are easy to overlook, especially considering the fact that it was probably scanned in. The missing words (or words where only the first letter is there) are the worst of the lot.

But something is weird. The 3-1 and the separate books came out at the same time. Why wasn't the same source used for both?

MJK2111 · 04-18-2011, 02:46 PM

Uh-hmmm. Pardon my interruption...

Hama was the guard at the door of Meduseld...and a man of Gondor.

Wormtongue was a derogatory nickname given to Grima, son of Galmod, not his "last name."

Quexos · 04-18-2011, 04:59 PM

My version by the way is the 3-in-1 ebook. And It is the 50th anniversary edition with all the introductions. I'm saying this cause I think you asked in some post if the ebook had the introductions.
And it is really strange that errors appear in the 3-in-1 but not in the separate volumes ebooks.

In any case Viviena could I ask a little bit of your time ? there is a line which sounds strange and I was wondering if you could look it up into your print LOTR book ?
The line can be found in book 6, chapter 6 (many partings). It's roughly 4 pages into the chapter, here goes: and the question is: is "King Elessar is come!" correct for I would say "has come" but maybe I'm mistaken and just paranoic :-)

Quote:

‘Behold, the King Elessar is come! The Forest of Drúadan he gives to Ghân-buri-Ghân and to his folk, to be their own for ever; and hereafter let no man enter it without their leave!’

Quote:

Originally Posted by viviena

Wormtongue's first name is Gríma.

I've looked through the list of errors that AprilHare posted, comparing them to my EPUB edition of The Two Towers. I also have the 50th Anniversary 3-in-1 print edition sitting beside me, which I've used to double-check various things.

The retail EPUB edition of The Two Towers has none of the errors reported in this thread. If anybody has errors for FOTR and ROTK, I'll check them too, but I wouldn't be surprised if the individual ebooks for FOTR and ROTK were also error-free.

So... why? Aren't these individual EPUBs from the same source as the 3-in-1? Why is the 3-in-1 screwed up in the process?

Also, 573 is just 'Westu Théoden hál!' cried Éomer.

AprilHare · 04-18-2011, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJK2111

Uh-hmmm. Pardon my interruption...

Hama was the guard at the door of Meduseld...and a man of Rohan.

Wormtongue was a derogatory nickname given to Grima, son of Galmod, not his "last name."

Háma was in the service of King Théoden, true.
Wormtongue indeed was a nickname.. but when everyone calls you something and forsakes your original name, what is the difference between a nickname and a name?

GreenMonkey · 04-18-2011, 10:53 PM

I'm particularly sensitive, I think, to typos. Even the few DRM'd retail books I've purchased, I've found a few typos in.

I just got a book from Smashwords ("The Kingdoms of the Night" by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch) and found a bunch of errors in it. They had the hardcovers at the local used bookstore but I went with the ebook version instead from Smashwords instead...maybe my mistake.

I finally installed Sigil and I've started bookmarking the errors as I read, and correcting them later.

If I'm not sure what the word should be, a careful google books search will generally get me the sentence so I can confirm it.

Quexos · 04-19-2011, 02:26 AM

I think that all in all, the book industry is awfully and unacceptably remiss. Proofreading is one of the basic processes of the creation of a book. You don't buy a television with say the frame not the right shape of the screen or a car with one of the wheels bigger than the others or not perfectly round ... but e-books are sold with the text being seriously flawed. Not one or two words errors across any given book but scores, sometimes hundreds (over a hundred in Stephen King's IT I can personally confirm)
If for some technical reason it would be very hard or almost impossible to have the books error free then I could perhaps understand like for the dead pixels issue in Televisions. But this is not the case for a very simple reason: You don't have all those errors in print books so there is no acceptable reason to have them in the e-book versions. The book industry have people proofreading the paper books but it seems no one to do the job on e-books ? I don't buy that. What is the excuse ? how can it be more expensive or time consuming or any other problem proofreading electronic vs print ? Hell, they could even have it proofread by readers. They could release any book a little earlier to a small selection of beta readers at half the price or something and get feedback for the errors which are easy to spot as we all have seen, then correct them and only then release the book to the general public (if paying a professional proofreader is such a problem for them)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

I'm particularly sensitive, I think, to typos. Even the few DRM'd retail books I've purchased, I've found a few typos in.

I just got a book from Smashwords ("The Kingdoms of the Night" by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch) and found a bunch of errors in it. They had the hardcovers at the local used bookstore but I went with the ebook version instead from Smashwords instead...maybe my mistake.

I finally installed Sigil and I've started bookmarking the errors as I read, and correcting them later.

If I'm not sure what the word should be, a careful google books search will generally get me the sentence so I can confirm it.

crich70 · 04-19-2011, 03:33 AM

Having given it some thought I have to wonder if J.K. Rowling got her 'nickname' for Peter Pettigrew from J.R.R. Tolkien. Wormtongue = Wormtail ? They do bear a bit of simularity between them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Háma was in the service of King Théoden, true.
Wormtongue indeed was a nickname.. but when everyone calls you something and forsakes your original name, what is the difference between a nickname and a name?

viviena · 04-19-2011, 03:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quexos

The line can be found in book 6, chapter 6 (many partings). It's roughly 4 pages into the chapter, here goes: and the question is: is "King Elessar is come!" correct for I would say "has come" but maybe I'm mistaken and just paranoic :-)

Yes, that's correct, is come.

John the Miner · 04-19-2011, 07:21 AM

Hot dayum!
No mistakes until page 573 ... now that's what the world would call good proofreading. Perhaps the original proofie got tired after 572 pages and a new, amateur, non-professional, untrained, unpaid one took over?
Or maybe even a team of the same standard?
How thrilling it must be to put these miserable "publishing" efforts on your e-readers and then have to spend time correcting the texts (whether you paid for those texts or not).
Of course, that presupposes that the one making the correx knows what the proper alterations are in the first place ...

MJK2111 · 04-19-2011, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Háma was in the service of King Théoden, true.
Wormtongue indeed was a nickname.. but when everyone calls you something and forsakes your original name, what is the difference between a nickname and a name?

It's a quibble at best, but men of Middle Earth did not have traditional surnames. They were known as "Name, son of Father's-Name."

Not a big deal!

Quexos · 04-19-2011, 03:27 PM

Oh, it's a little surprising but if that's how it comes in the print then It's good enough for me.
Thank you for looking and putting my mind at ease Viviena

Quote:

Originally Posted by viviena

Yes, that's correct, is come.

John the Miner · 04-19-2011, 03:30 PM

Ahem ... you buy an ebook reader and put a book or three on it.
Next thing, you come across some (or many) literals on the screen, which drive you up the wall when you notice them.
Then you have to correct the text yourself if you want to or are able to.
What am I missing here -- the joy of reading?

04-17-2011, 10:56 PM	#16
viviena Evangelist Posts: 412 Karma: 520610 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Canberra, Australia Device: Currently Kobo Clara HD and Aura One, iPad	Wormtongue's first name is Gríma. I've looked through the list of errors that AprilHare posted, comparing them to my EPUB edition of The Two Towers. I also have the 50th Anniversary 3-in-1 print edition sitting beside me, which I've used to double-check various things. The retail EPUB edition of The Two Towers has none of the errors reported in this thread. If anybody has errors for FOTR and ROTK, I'll check them too, but I wouldn't be surprised if the individual ebooks for FOTR and ROTK were also error-free. So... why? Aren't these individual EPUBs from the same source as the 3-in-1? Why is the 3-in-1 screwed up in the process? Also, 573 is just 'Westu Théoden hál!' cried Éomer. Last edited by viviena; 04-17-2011 at 11:00 PM. Reason: ''The Tower Towers'. Haha, yeah.

04-18-2011, 02:46 PM	#20
MJK2111 FUBAR! Posts: 1,946 Karma: 15018767 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Woodstock, IL Device: Kindle 3, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 S	Uh-hmmm. Pardon my interruption... Hama was the guard at the door of Meduseld...and a man of Gondor. Wormtongue was a derogatory nickname given to Grima, son of Galmod, not his "last name." Last edited by MJK2111; 04-20-2011 at 11:46 AM.

04-18-2011, 10:53 PM	#23
GreenMonkey DRM hater Posts: 945 Karma: 2066176 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Michigan Device: Nook ST glow, Kindle Voyage	I'm particularly sensitive, I think, to typos. Even the few DRM'd retail books I've purchased, I've found a few typos in. I just got a book from Smashwords ("The Kingdoms of the Night" by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch) and found a bunch of errors in it. They had the hardcovers at the local used bookstore but I went with the ebook version instead from Smashwords instead...maybe my mistake. I finally installed Sigil and I've started bookmarking the errors as I read, and correcting them later. If I'm not sure what the word should be, a careful google books search will generally get me the sentence so I can confirm it. Last edited by GreenMonkey; 04-18-2011 at 10:56 PM.

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04-18-2011, 07:13 AM	#19
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	Hmm, I wonder where you all get your perfectly, without any errors, designed bought ebooks... If these were the only mistakes, I'd say it wasn't too bad. I replaced 4 instances of Smeagol. The extra spaces are easy to overlook, especially considering the fact that it was probably scanned in. The missing words (or words where only the first letter is there) are the worst of the lot. But something is weird. The 3-1 and the separate books came out at the same time. Why wasn't the same source used for both?

04-19-2011, 07:21 AM	#27
John the Miner Enthusiast Posts: 47 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Eco e-reader	Hot dayum! No mistakes until page 573 ... now that's what the world would call good proofreading. Perhaps the original proofie got tired after 572 pages and a new, amateur, non-professional, untrained, unpaid one took over? Or maybe even a team of the same standard? How thrilling it must be to put these miserable "publishing" efforts on your e-readers and then have to spend time correcting the texts (whether you paid for those texts or not). Of course, that presupposes that the one making the correx knows what the proper alterations are in the first place ...

04-19-2011, 03:30 PM	#30
John the Miner Enthusiast Posts: 47 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: Eco e-reader	Ahem ... you buy an ebook reader and put a book or three on it. Next thing, you come across some (or many) literals on the screen, which drive you up the wall when you notice them. Then you have to correct the text yourself if you want to or are able to. What am I missing here -- the joy of reading?

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