every mainstream ebook i buy...

[basschick]

seems to have been UNedited for the ebook version. i own a bunch of books in paper format that have been pretty well edited and proofread, yet the ebook versions are horrible - packed with typos, odd punctuation and other issues.

the funny thing is that one of the reasons that publishers claim ebooks cost the same as pbooks are editing and proofreading. i don't understand why they'd redo something that was already done, and that was done so much better.

[ElaineMomNC]

I just updated the software for my Sony PRS-300. I have downloaded several books in the E-PUB format, and they look awful. The type is tiny and the right margins are not lined up. I used the Sony store for this, too! The previous books were fine.

[rcuadro]

Some of those mainstream books may have been scanned, hence the errors... though take a look at Stephen King's The Stand... the unedited version in paperback has a ton of errors lol

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by ElaineMomNC

I just updated the software for my Sony PRS-300. I have downloaded several books in the E-PUB format, and they look awful. The type is tiny and the right margins are not lined up. I used the Sony store for this, too! The previous books were fine.

That's because the ePub books are formatted differently than the ones that Sony used to carry (LRX). ePub doesnt support full justification (having all of the lines line up).

Typos and such are from the publisher (not Sony or other ebook distributors). I agree with basschick, there are often many typos, more than I would expect with a print version. I still haven't figured out why, you would think they would just use the version they send to the presses.

[fugazied]

Honestly it confuses the hell out of me, because you would 'think' they have these books as a bloody word document or quark express (printing software) somewhere.

So you would 'think' it would be a straight forward process to take the latest edited version and make an ebook out of it. But no, their workflow processes are so messed up it's an incredibly difficult task for them.. They need to join the 21st century.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by fugazied

Honestly it confuses the hell out of me, because you would 'think' they have these books as a bloody word document or quark express (printing software) somewhere.

So you would 'think' it would be a straight forward process to take the latest edited version and make an ebook out of it. But no, their workflow processes are so messed up it's an incredibly difficult task for them.. They need to join the 21st century.

It gets worse. If you format an ebook using Mobipocket Creator, from a nicely-formatted Word .doc, (including several different font families/sizes/bolding/italics interspersed throughout, all that will show up fine in the PC version of Mobipocket Reader, but won't on a Bookeen Cybook Gen3. You will at least get a range of font sizes and styles (but as far as I can tell, not families) with that same file transferred to a Kindle 2. Sigh. And while the page breaks work great from BookDesigner, they don't from MobiCreator when you simply import a Word .doc. Double-sigh.

Derek

[neilmarr]

The problem is BassChick that conversion into ebooks from the PDFs used to create print versions is often being rushed ... it's by no means an automatic process if you intend to turn out flawless presentation.

(Barnes & Noble just converted 19,000 titles to ePub format in about two months. Don't tell me those were individually handled and subjected to editorial intervention before release.)

My own wee house is currently converting nearly 150 paperback titles (previously covered only by [perfect] PDFs) into several other formats. To get it right, we must go back to Word.doc source, re-design, produce new formats and then re-proof read and correct each format. Even then, the formats must be checked on as many reading devices as we have access too. It will tie up two technical operators and three editors for quite some time.

Not many publishers will go to that trouble. Maybe it's because they don't know. Maybe it's because they can't afford the effort. Maybe it's because they don't give a damn.

Neil

[omk3]

I understand about the less than ideal formatting, but how can new typos appear during this conversion process? I have found some mistakes that seriously hint to ocr, like exclamations marks being transformed to one's or l's (!-1-l).
It's really annoying to pay more than the paperback and get lower quality. I hope publishing houses soon find a way to easily produce quality ebooks. It's surely not much to ask. They get paid for it after all.

[guizzy]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

The problem is BassChick that conversion into ebooks from the PDFs used to create print versions is often being rushed ... it's by no means an automatic process if you intend to turn out flawless presentation.

The problem is that as a publisher, they shouldn't have to go through converting an already published PDF document. They have access to the Word document and the publishing document (Quark or InDesign).

Either it's a mortifying display of the lack of organization on the publisher's part that they would convert PDFs rather than dig out those documents, or there's a serious lack of a good ebook publishing software if they're unable to trivially make a perfect ebook out of the established publishing standards.

[neilmarr]

Right, Quizzy. Too many publishers don't go back to Word.doc source material and think it's OK just to convert existing PDFs from which print was created. Sadly, though, there are occult flows in formatting that don't show in PDFs but which will elsewhere.

Your point, Omk, underlines the importance of re-proofing. The errors you mention are generated by conversion software. Any caring publisher should check editorially and make repairs where necessary. There is no excuse (or room) for shoddy presentation.

Hoots. Neil

[alecE]

I've been buying ebooks for just over a year now, and am still disappointed by the poor quality exhibited by some titles, frequently from mainstream publishers who definitely ought to be able to do better. I've found the problems seem to break down into:
a) straightforward typos - missing/misspelt words;
b) formatting problems - inappropriate/missing page breaks, duplicated TOC, cut & paste errors;
c) ebook-specific problems - incorrect display of accents/ligatures/diphthongs etc;
d) complete failure to display illustrations - I have three books where the illus are present in the epub file, but do not display;
e) and of course, the OCR errors.

Many of these problems would appear to be a direct result of the publishers taking an economical (cheapskate?) view of converting to ebook from pdf (see Neil's points above), but what also seems to come out is that publishers *still* are not embedding ebook production as a primary part of their workflow. I suspect that until publishers change this ebooks will be the poor relation of the industry.

I now make a point of informing publishers and the bookseller of significant quality issues - who knows, one day they may get fed up and take some notice! In the meantime, I can still strip off the DRM, correct the typos and improve my reading experience.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by omk3

I understand about the less than ideal formatting, but how can new typos appear during this conversion process? I have found some mistakes that seriously hint to ocr, like exclamations marks being transformed to one's or l's (!-1-l).

They are OCR errors. Any book that wasn't produced as an ebook at the same time as the pbook, was probably scanned & OCRd. Publishers don't keep the print-ready documents around after the book goes out of print.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by omk3

I understand about the less than ideal formatting, but how can new typos appear during this conversion process? I have found some mistakes that seriously hint to ocr, like exclamations marks being transformed to one's or l's (!-1-l).

Yes, exactly. They're OCR errors. Many times, the Publishers are just scanning the pBook and then rushing it through in order to get out an eBook without putting much time and effort into it. Then they charge us either the same amount, or more.

I've seen a lot of examples where the P2P version of an eBook was better formatted/checked than the Publisher's version. It's pretty sad.

I think it's just an example of the Publishers not taking eBooks seriously. In many cases hey're more interested in keeping the costs down, regardless of the quality, and don't really care much about the eBook market.

[omk3]

But..but...why aren't they keeping the digital files? Why delete them when a book goes out of print? What if there's demand for this book to be reprinted? I know they want to save money, I know they just don't care, but working from the digital copy rather than scanning would be way easier (and have better results). There's a lot I don't understand about publishing.

Oh, yes, most pirate copies are produced with love, and they are almost perfect. Not that I've seen any you understand.

[tompe]

And the errors will continue if people do not return the broken ebooks.