Correcting typographical errors - Contact AMZN or Publisher ?

[IluvToRead]

Hi, as we all probably have, I've found a number of typographical errors in the books that I read on the Kindle.

I have contacted Amazon about this previously, and their only response has been heavy handed and non-constructive in that they remove the book from availability for sale. Amazon does this even if the errors were quite small.

I am certain that someone here has had this problem, and probably found a constructive way to contact someone who can effect the changes needed to make corrections.

Does anyone have any ideas on this issue ?

This may have something to do with contacting the publisher directly. I don't know.

[Dave329]

Why do you care?they are small errors.....just ignore them

[eschwartz]

Tell Amazon, Amazon will pull the book, and pretty soon the publisher will make up for their offense.

That is why Amazon pulls it anyway...

[IluvToRead]

Originally Posted by Dave329

Why do you care?they are small errors.....just ignore them

Good question.

I don't see this as a "defective product" issue (if I could use that term).

I see it more as a potential for participation in cleaning the book up.

I'm in the process of finishing a three year degree in counselling, and the books I've been reading on the Kindle hold great significance for me. On a personal and therapeutic level.

My logic is, that if I were to feed the corrections back to the publisher, then they could clean the book up.

I don't see this as a "defective product" issue. I'm desperately glad to have the book, even in it's less than perfect state.

[eschwartz]

Then rejoice, for Amazon will communicate the errors in the same message that says, "hey, we took down your book, please fix these errors in order to get your book available again".

[pidgeon92]

I'd go with "both."

[HarryT]

There are publishers, such as the "SF Gateway" imprint of Gollancz, who encourage readers to tell them about errors in books.

[fratermus]

Originally Posted by IluvToRead

I am certain that someone here has had this problem, and probably found a constructive way to contact someone who can effect the changes needed to make corrections.

I'd like to see a "send selection to publisher" option on the selected text popup.
The sent text would would include position in the book so an editor (or intern, more likely) could review the passage.

Free crowdsourced debugging. Win-win.

[ElspethB]

I work for a university publisher. Amazon and Apple inform us regularly about user-reported typos, bad links, and other errors. I don't know about B&N or other vendors.

[Clawdia]

I'd prefer to see the books adequately proofed before being offered for sale; actually, I've often seen authors touting a "new and improved" revision, which most of the time tells me that they shouldn't have been charging for a product and then expecting those who paid them to provide constructive feedback. This seems to me that some authors are expecting paying readers to act as de facto editors of their work, and I'm not inclined to want to pay for the privilege of editing someone else's work.

Then again, a lot of what I see aren't simply "typos", but rather errors in syntax, spelling, grammar, etc. - things that should not be present in a book for which an author expects to be paid. In other words - fix it and then sell it, rather than expecting me to pay for it and then help you to fix it.

[TheRevolutionist]

Originally Posted by fratermus

I'd like to see a "send selection to publisher" option on the selected text popup.
The sent text would would include position in the book so an editor (or intern, more likely) could review the passage.

Free crowdsourced debugging. Win-win.

Amazon do send publishers a spreadsheet of reported errors - part of my job as an assistant at a UK publisher is going through that report and fixing them. I also spend a significant amount of time checking and proofreading new ebooks, believe it or not!

So I'd say report errors to Amazon, but if you can find an email address to contact at the publisher, dropping them a line directly will probably bring it to their attention quicker.

[fratermus]

Originally Posted by Clawdia

Then again, a lot of what I see aren't simply "typos", but rather errors in syntax, spelling, grammar, etc. - things that should not be present in a book for which an author expects to be paid. In other words - fix it and then sell it, rather than expecting me to pay for it and then help you to fix it.

I am not offended by book errors any more than I am with software bugs. In the latter situation I report them and follow along with bugtracker notifications.

If doing a little p2p error correction is the price for subverting established power bases then I'm all for it.

Power to the artists and the consumers (fist raised in air)!