[Catlady]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I admit those are ideal. But then lots of the books that I buy where I see those errors are old mid-listers who likely aren't going to make large piles of money from their e-books (Ripplinger's Rick Hautala, f'rinstance). In those cases I'm glad the book is available, period. I don't know what the added expense of a good proofreader is. For all I know, hiring one might be cost prohibitive and the book may not be released at all.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I also understand that publishers are never going to throw new-book resources at backlist conversion projects.

Expecting them to have each and every backlist title carefully converted to electronic format, and then lovingly proofed and corrected (and proofed again) by a human eyes from cover-to-cover isn't really realistic. Doing so would result in an ebook no one could afford to buy. They already sunk those expenses into the original print-only publication.

Originally Posted by DNSB

Much the same here. I will let the author/publisher know about the errors but I won't return the book. If really annoying and I have the time, I will correct the errors in my personal copy. As you mentioned, for a lot of the older mid-listers, I'm just happy to see an ebook version.

Anyone offering a book for sale is obliged to do the work required to present a quality product, which includes proper formatting and proofreading when digitizing. If they can't do that, let them sell a pdf; readers who so choose can then OCR the material themselves.

I refuse to be ripped off by some author who has the nerve to charge for a book that is a complete mess. Shoddy workmanship should not be rewarded.

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Yes, you're right, I forgot to add that part. The few books I've scanned, that's exactly what I did, read against a copy of the original scan still on my PC. In fact, even when I've completed the ebook, I keep those original scans just in case a question comes up later, so I have them for reference.

Yes. This.