Quote:
Originally Posted by mr ploppy
That's basically what they do, they're called advance reader copies, and they replaced professional proof readers years ago. Two problems with that, proof reading is a rare talent, and any changes only get made to the book version.
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Hmmm... I've gotten ARCs and have never been asked to make any changes to them. (And yes, they often needed them.)
And yes, proofing does take skill. I'm not suggesting that any given Beta returns a pristine copy. But get ten or so of them and you've likely got a much better base document than you had before. After all, I don't think any of us are expecting perfection, just significantly better.
As for only using those changes on the pbook, well that's not an insurmountable issue.
After all, producing a print copy of a book is not rocket science. For an ARC it doesn't have to be high art, it just has to be legible. Then once you get the corrections back and implemented, split the doc into it's final parts.
If I, self-published author, can figure out that splitting my document into it's different formats is the last step in the process, you'd think the big boys could realize this, too.