[neilmarr]

Hya Steve and Mike: Both excellent points.

Mike: The retailer is, without a doubt, directly responsible if he offers shoddy goods; just as much as if Sony was a butcher's shop and bought in bad meat to offer customers. They should have their own quality control in place, react immediately to consumer complains and demand improved quality from suppliers who provide faulty items for sale.

Steve: 'New Wave' publishing is about punblisher/author-consumer. No middle man beyond those supplying a shop window (which is what online stores do -- no face at the counter to shout at, just a display window). It is vital that publishers and authors keep an open ear to complaint, just as they so obviously do to praise.

I must confess that even my own wee house -- which launched ten years ago -- was at first guilty of treating ebooks as a bi-product of paperbacks; largely a promotional tool that we gave away willy-nilly and used to carpet-bomb reviewers.

We very soon caught on to the fact that they should be taken seriously and that simple PDF spin-off from for-print files was an insult to the growing e-reading community (where great potential lay) and changed tack. The big boys don't seem to have appreciated that yet.

Mind you, in defence of the large houses, it's easier to turn on a sixpence in a Mini Cooper-S than it is at the wheel of a juggernaut. I'm sure the ebook reader can look forward to better service in the future, when the biggies learn what the littlies already know: The customer is ALWAYS right.

If dead fish stink from the head down, likewise progress is made from the tail up.

Cheers. Neil