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Originally Posted by gandoe
Thanks again for all your responses.
Yes, I guess it is a bit of a hit or miss thing. The problem is, if I'm reading something new to me, I won't know if it's been "edited for clarity". I think I'll just have to pay more attention to the ebook versions and stores I purchase.
Thanks again!
Ed
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If it's a commercial, still in copyright book, there is but one version extant: the publisher's. eBook stores are no different from pbook stores: what they get is what they sell. If the publisher puts out a poorly edited or even unproofed book then that's what they'll sell, with few exceptions.
(If you catch it quickly, you can always return it at most ebook stores.)
The exceptions seem to be mostly at Amazon, which has a feedback process for readers to tell publishers about errors they encounter. Things like duplicate passages, scrambled text, etc. If the problems are big enough, they'll pull the book until the publisher corrects it. Or not.
(That is one area where smaller tradpubs and Indies are very responsive. Big publishers are loathe to maintain separate text bases for print and digital so the ebook only gers corrected when and if the pbook is.)
Once the issue has been fixed, Amazon will send you the corrected version but only if you enable it. After their own 1984 fiasco early in the Kindle age, Amazon only removes or replaces books when the *customer* asks.
Editing it themselves? No.
The stuff isn't worth enough to offset the cost of post-publisher editing, even if it were legal (it isn't--it would be a copyright violation). Plus in today's environment it would only unleash a torrent of vilification. Nobody wants to deal with the resulting boatload of abuse.
Now, if you're talking PD books, there are indeed multiple editions of many popular titles. Some better than others. You'll have to research it.
One notable case can be found at, ahem, BAEN, where they carry a series of (very) early SF titles, cleaned up and edited by Ron Miller. One of the bundles, of Jules Verne classics, features all-new translations from the original french:
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Features 26 unique illustrations by Ron Miller including cutaway views and schematics of the Natuilus, accurate maps, and details of Verne’s diving suits
Includes appendices, annotations, and other additional information by editor Ron Miller
Now with an Historical Afterword by Ron Miller
Unabridged version
Featured in Ron Miller’s “The Conquest of Space Book Series.” This special edition of Jules Verne's classic novel corrects more than 3000 errors in the original 1872 English translation and replaces the 23% of text that had been expurgated by the original translator for political, ideological and other reasons.
Published: 7/16/2013
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Things like this are exceptions, not the rule.
It is non trivial to do. Costs money.
Penguin and B&N's Sterling offer some commercial cleaned up classics of tbeir own but these newly edited editions come with brand new copyrights, so they won't be as cheap as the more common repackaged-Gutenberg edition.
Not commonly done though, but you can find quite a few free, labor of love editions right here at Mobileread.