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I've just posted the following on the 'smell of books' thread and I think it would be just as appropriate for it to be here as well:
I'm an ignoramus about e-book readers as I don't own one. But I do have three e-books 'out there' and I'm curious to know how they appear on (or in) an e-reader. When I look at the pdf versions on my computer screen there's absolutely nothing about them that is different to their paper counterparts. Am I being naive, but aren't all books published in both forms identical? Could this only be true for books that are published with the intention of their appearing in both forms? Also, is it possible for unwanted errors to creep in during conversion from one format to another? If this is so, surely the publisher should subject the final pdf version to a proof-read before he sells it.
As an editor I'm probably more aware than most people of typos in professionally produced manuscripts. If there's only one, or perhaps two, in a book, I consider that to be not sufficient to put me off a book. If there are more than two, I find I continue to read with half my mind fixed on when I'm going to find the next. So, for me, errors can be distracting.
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