10-22-2011, 11:20 AM | #1 |
Groupie
Posts: 159
Karma: 1005378
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cambria, California
Device: Kindle 2
|
Some perspective on why ebooks are so filled with errors.
I thought this was a pretty interesting article.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-...b_1023072.html |
10-22-2011, 11:43 AM | #2 |
doofus
Posts: 2,529
Karma: 13088847
Join Date: Sep 2010
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kindle Voyage
|
Given the convoluted workflow, it's a wonder ebooks aren't bigger piles of mess than they are.
|
Advert | |
|
10-22-2011, 12:00 PM | #3 |
Member Retired
Posts: 1,999
Karma: 11348924
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Limbo
Device: none
|
Sounds like a cop-out to me.
All they have to do is do the proof-reading back and forth from the author, the type setters and publisher until all are happy just as they do now but ON THE ORIGINAL file document from the author, and only after that they should work on the layout and appearance and do PDF's or whatever else they do before printing or creating the ebook file. |
10-22-2011, 12:04 PM | #4 |
how YOU doin?
Posts: 1,100
Karma: 7371047
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: India
Device: Kindle Keyboard, iPad Pro 10.5”, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Libra 2
|
All they have to do is to proof-read the OCR'd output that serves as the source for the e-book. This isn't rocket science.
|
10-22-2011, 12:21 PM | #5 |
Spork Connoisseur
Posts: 2,355
Karma: 16780603
Join Date: Mar 2011
Device: Nook Color
|
|
Advert | |
|
10-22-2011, 01:07 PM | #6 |
Groupie
Posts: 159
Karma: 1005378
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cambria, California
Device: Kindle 2
|
It's definitely not an excuse. My favorite line from the article is, '"When you consider the fact that many e-books from the major houses are priced higher than paperbacks," Cronin says, "a mistake-riddled reading experience is pretty hard to rationalize."'
|
10-22-2011, 01:08 PM | #7 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,888
Karma: 5875940
Join Date: Dec 2007
Device: PRS505, 600, 350, 650, Nexus 7, Note III, iPad 4 etc
|
What a bunch of extremely clever people... how come you're not all producing perfectly proofed, edited and beautifully laid out books if it's so easy...
Quexos and RainingLemur have always known better regarding production than those who do it and howyoudoin is obviously reading a different article when he's talking about "OCR," where did that creep in... As resident experts, let me know when your perfect publishing enterprises get off the ground and we can all bow down in awe and admiration... |
10-22-2011, 02:07 PM | #8 |
Groupie
Posts: 159
Karma: 1005378
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cambria, California
Device: Kindle 2
|
Sure, perfection is too much to expect, but should my kindle copy of Gene Wolfe's "On Blue's Water" really keep confusing "needler" (the name of a type of firearm,) with "needier"? Obviously, this is an OCR problem that apparently no one saw, and it doesn't happen once. I'd say more often than not the wrong word is used. I found a pirated version of another book in the series that had the same type of mistakes. Also, in the paper version of the book, hyphens are used to break words up, but in the kindle version, these words remain hyphenated even if they no longer occur at the end of a line. It's hard to chalk this up to anything other than either laziness or apathy. And yes, the kindle version cost more than the paperback version.
|
10-22-2011, 02:10 PM | #9 |
Groupie
Posts: 154
Karma: 2054094
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Boulder, CO
Device: Kindle Voyage, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (for PDFs)
|
On the one hand, I think it's nearly impossible to vanquish every last typo.
On the other hand, I picked up a Brautigan omnibus e-book from my local library (the one with Revenge of the Lawn), and gave up after 8% of the book because I had noted over a dozen obvious errors, e.g.: "Hey, kid, take your head cut of your ass" ... "No," she said. "I don't wan: any hamburger," ... After reading that 8% and seeing errors that even a basic spellcheck would have caught, I was convinced that either (a) no one at the publisher had even read the ebook prior to selling it, and/or (b) no one at the publisher gave a f*ck about Richard Brautigan. The lack of professionalism on the part of the publisher made me really angry. From the Gutenberg folks, I can accept a lower standard. But for people whose job it is to produce "perfectly proofed, edited and beautifully laid out books," and who charge top dollar, the standards are different. |
10-22-2011, 02:11 PM | #10 | |
Groupie
Posts: 159
Karma: 1005378
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cambria, California
Device: Kindle 2
|
Quote:
It seems like a reasonable idea to conclude that closer proofreading (or proofreading at all) of OCR'd texts could help - at least when it comes to older publications. |
|
10-22-2011, 02:11 PM | #11 | |
how YOU doin?
Posts: 1,100
Karma: 7371047
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: India
Device: Kindle Keyboard, iPad Pro 10.5”, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Libra 2
|
Quote:
But I guess we're just dumb folk with no idea of what's going on |
|
10-22-2011, 02:13 PM | #12 |
Groupie
Posts: 159
Karma: 1005378
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cambria, California
Device: Kindle 2
|
Exactly. When I spend $9.99 on a product that costs nothing to reproduce, I expect it to at least match the quality of the $7.99 version that I bought in a store.
|
10-22-2011, 02:14 PM | #13 |
Groupie
Posts: 159
Karma: 1005378
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cambria, California
Device: Kindle 2
|
|
10-22-2011, 02:16 PM | #14 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 75,901
Karma: 134368292
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
But how do we get a mess like with Snuff where a lot of the instances of people and couple were missing the leading space? The explanation of back and forthing a PDF doesn't explain this. Unless the PDF was used as the source and then errors are a free-for-all.
|
10-22-2011, 02:23 PM | #15 |
Groupie
Posts: 159
Karma: 1005378
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cambria, California
Device: Kindle 2
|
I know what you mean. There are some errors that I just can't "reverse engineer."
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Ebooks filled with typos and bad formatting, is it unavoidable? | Algiedi | General Discussions | 70 | 08-02-2011 11:07 AM |
Your kindle has 3 GB capacity, how is yours filled? | arfarf624 | Amazon Kindle | 22 | 07-26-2011 02:30 PM |
Finally filled up my Kindle 2 | sirbruce | Amazon Kindle | 22 | 01-13-2010 12:27 AM |
What is the process for reporting errors in ebooks from Amazon? | chilady1 | Amazon Kindle | 7 | 07-22-2009 01:49 AM |
Errors in Baen 's eBooks? | JSWolf | Reading Recommendations | 19 | 07-15-2009 09:54 AM |