Quote:
Originally Posted by cerement
Author writes story up on Word, publisher extracts text, throws into template, prints books, dumps files onto archival CD, purges files from computer, goes on to next project, forgets where CD is stored. Author wants to reissue book, publisher grabs paperback, scans, OCRs, runs spellchecker, throws back into template, etc. |
That's not too far from the truth, in my experience, though it is starting to change. From the author's point of view, it's a real bear. If you want it done right, you have to proof it yourself, and that's a lot of time spent on something that may never earn you more than beer money, at least in the short term. Ereads is getting ready to reissue some of my existing titles, along with some new (to them) titles, and I'm doing what I can to proof the text. (Fortunately, with help from a reader-volunteer who happens to be really good at it.) These are texts from scanning, and despite the fact that they were already proofed by someone else, there are errors such as dropped letters and scenes run together.
I'm doing it because I want them right, but I could never justify it from a financial point of view.
And there's no telling what new errors will appear in format conversion, which I'll never have the chance to catch.