LOTR ebook erratum and ebook quality

[crich70]

And the ancient Romans did one better. The eldest son would be named for the father so historians have a hard time figuring out who did what sometimes since you have a "John Smith" son of "John Smith" sort of situation going on. That also has occurred in a branch of my own family. Every other generation the son of one of my ancestors was name John and since the surname was always the same it's sometimes hard to be certain who is who. Surnames in a lot of cases came from the profession that a person had. i.e. Tailor, Carpenter, Cooper, etc. or were based on some aspect of geography. Atgate, Attwater, Gates, etc. and sometimes changed if the family moved or there was a change in profession. And some surnames have a stigma attached to them. The Fitz in names like Fitzwalter for example meant 'illegitimate'. Tolkien was a master of naming things and people.

Originally Posted by AprilHare

In fact that is the traditional way to name someone. Surnames are a fairly new invention. In parts of the world (e.g. East India) they still haven't caught on.
And yes, I've met people with no surname. I suggested for soothing the bureaucratic beast that they choose a surname that suggests what they do, e.g. Cedric the Entertainer is a valid (and aesthetically pleasing) name.

[JSWolf]

Try the following... Go back to where you purchased the 3-in-1 edition and download it again. See if the errors are still there. Maybe they have been fixed since the copy April is reading was released.

[KenJackson]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I think we shouldn't hesitate to ask for refunds. Tell the publishers we do NOT appreciate this.

I think it's kind of cheesy to ask for a refund because of a few misspellings.

You should post that information here and in reviews. And deduct a star or two if it's really bad.

If the author and publisher learn that readers are really offended by errors and see sales hurt by bad reviews, they'll shape up.

[Jellby]

By all means tell the publisher. The chance they eventually update the ebook may be slim, but it's worse if you don't tell them. If the publisher does not respond, please upload a list of mistakes somewhere, this serves both to shame the publisher and to help other readers fix their versions.

I have read the first two ebooks of A Dance to the Music of Time and have noted dozens of errors (the usual OCR errors mostly). I have sent the list to the publisher, but they haven't even acknowledged it yet... When (if) I finish the series, I'll post the full list.

[Hellmark]

Have you guys ever got the urge to get a copy of a book from the darknet because the legit copy you had was too full of errors?

[Quexos]

Yes but for other reasons than the one you mention.

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Have you guys ever got the urge to get a copy of a book from the darknet because the legit copy you had was too full of errors?

[EowynCarter]

I think it's kind of cheesy to ask for a refund because of a few misspellings.

Not talking about about a few misspelling. But I've seen some really bad things. (And, I’m dyslexic and no native English speaker, so enough mistakes to actually bother me, well...)

By all means tell the publisher. The chance they eventually update the ebook may be slim, but it's worse if you don't tell them.

Exactly.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Try the following... Go back to where you purchased the 3-in-1 edition and download it again. See if the errors are still there. Maybe they have been fixed since the copy April is reading was released.

This occured when I went back to Books on Board:

HTTP 400 (Bad Request) Error
The request could not be fulfilled.
Due to geographic rights restrictions, this title (ID=[SNIP]) cannot be downloaded to the current country code (code=au).

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

Have you guys ever got the urge to get a copy of a book from the darknet because the legit copy you had was too full of errors?

Kind of. I've bought books while I already had the darknet version and only archived the bought book and kept reading the darknet version...

[Quexos]

Ok this thread being about errors on the book, I have just noticed that the word "éored" never comes with the first letter capital in my book, yet when I check online on wiki sites it shows as "Éored"
So this seems like an error but I cannot be sure because I don't have the print version.
The first instances of this word are on Chapter 2 of book 3: The Riders of Rohan
Can anyone confirm this is an error or not ?

‘Peace, Éothain!’ said Éomer in his own tongue. ‘Leave me a while. Tell the éored to assemble on the path, and make ready to ride to the Entwade.’

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Ok this thread being about errors on the book, I have just noticed that the word "éored" never comes with the first letter capital in my book, yet when I check online on wiki sites it shows as "Éored"

It's printed in lowercase, but italics, in my edition.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Ok this thread being about errors on the book, I have just noticed that the word "éored" never comes with the first letter capital in my book, yet when I check online on wiki sites it shows as "Éored"
So this seems like an error but I cannot be sure because I don't have the print version.
The first instances of this word are on Chapter 2 of book 3: The Riders of Rohan
Can anyone confirm this is an error or not ?

I would not consider this an error as éored is a name for something, not someone.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Kind of. I've bought books while I already had the darknet version and only archived the bought book and kept reading the darknet version...

I just was wondering, because one book I just read was so bad where every character that had an Umlaut, or any other mark, didn't OCR correctly and instead was just a ?. Since it included many references to things in other languages, this was frequent (one every two to three pages on average). I just was so tempted to see if people had made any better versions.

[MJK2111]

Originally Posted by KenJackson

I think it's kind of cheesy to ask for a refund because of a few misspellings.

Would you feel the same if the book in question was a limited edition, leather bound book that cost you fifty bucks?

[Quexos]

I wouldn't ask for a refund but I would demand a free updated version. I think they would owe it.

Originally Posted by KenJackson

I think it's kind of cheesy to ask for a refund because of a few misspellings.