Kindle eBooks will have PUBLIC Warnings for spelling/formatting errors!

[patrik]

Hitch, I'm curious if you know how, if anything, Amazon considers an awz3 that only consists of images (scanned pages)? I have bought some which was like that, and it's barely readable on an 6-7" e-ink reader. (I ended up reading it on my tablet.)

Since there is the option "fixed layout" for such things, one could hope that it's not "allowed" for azw3.

One author I contacted is redoing the book, I'm consider contacting the others as well.

Thoughts? :-)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

"But I has an English degree and don't need no editor or book."

Cins: gosh. It takes a lot to leave me speechless, but that line did it! ;-)

Originally Posted by patrik

Hitch, I'm curious if you know how, if anything, Amazon considers an awz3 that only consists of images (scanned pages)? I have bought some which was like that, and it's barely readable on an 6-7" e-ink reader. (I ended up reading it on my tablet.)

Since there is the option "fixed layout" for such things, one could hope that it's not "allowed" for azw3.

One author I contacted is redoing the book, I'm consider contacting the others as well.

Thoughts? :-)

Hi, patrik:

I would suspect that those will get the Scarlet Letter, if they are reported. That sort of "book" can be created in a number of ways:

• Deliberately. Believe it or not, some people do this on purpose, by using a cheap scanner. They scan the print book, and Abbyy Fine Reader creates a PDF that's an imaged-only PDF. If you run something like that through mobigen or Calibre, you get what you're describing--pages that are "images of text," rather than text.
• Inadvertently, because they don't know any better. Either they do what I said, above, or, they take a PDF that they happen to have, upload it at KDP, and, voila! A book! If they don't have a Kindle--think about it--how would THEY know that it's not a good eBook?
• Now, on this one...they COULD be using KTC, Kindle Textbook Creator. There's a real PUSH in the DIY crowd to use KTC for bloody everything. It's like Amazon hung out a sign: "Have PDF Will Travel." It's beginning to make my head spin. But, KTC will put out a product that is very much like what you describe, although the pages ARE zoomable, unlike other fixed-layout products (kids' books, comics, some coffee-table books.

I realize that trying to read a PDF on a Kindle of almost any size (excepting the DX and the 8.9") is a pain. Flip the page, grab it, tap it, then pinch zoom it, read a bit, and then pan-scan around the page to find where you left off, lather-rinse-repeat...oish. If you can contact the publishers, yes, you'd be doing them a favor. If you can't, as much as it pains me--you really ought to contact Amazon about the readability. You'll likely need to do it through the book's sales page if you aren't on a PPW or Voyage, which has firmware/software set up to let you report it in-book.

Amazon is all about the customer experience. Bad customer experiences with a book that are reported and then verified by them will indeed result in them contacting the author about issues. This was true even before the advent of the Amazon Scarlet Letter. I don't think you are doing anyone any good by not reporting it. The publishers may not even know that the book is crappily done if they are not part of the e-reading community. You'd be BOGGLED--boggled, I tell you--by how many publishers don't have Kindles, Nooks, etc., and don't read on any device. To those folks, an eBook=ePDF. So, why wouldn't a PDF be a good choice as a book?

Those are my thoughts on it. Were it me, I'd either contact the publisher, directly, or report them. You and others ought not pay money to receive unreadable books, or books that provide such a crappy reader experience.

Hitch

[Cinisajoy]

Agreeing with Hitch completely.
For every one publisher I know that is a professional (read this as invests in the books before they are published), I know at least a dozen that think publishing a book is free and easy.
Note: those dozens also whine about advertising costs, why won't an advertiser take them and the ubiquitous "but that big name writes worse than I do and she made millions".

And yes, I heard the ED excuse more than once. All an English degree does is prove to other academics that you understand the language.

Note to authors, just because you can construct a perfect sentence does not mean you can put together a story.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Agreeing with Hitch completely.
For every one publisher I know that is a professional (read this as invests in the books before they are published), I know at least a dozen that think publishing a book is free and easy.
Note: those dozens also whine about advertising costs, why won't an advertiser take them and the ubiquitous "but that big name writes worse than I do and she made millions".

And yes, I heard the ED excuse more than once. All an English degree does is prove to other academics that you understand the language.

Note to authors, just because you can construct a perfect sentence does not mean you can put together a story.

...and just because you have a story to tell doesn't mean you can write.

Shari

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by shalym

...and just because you have a story to tell doesn't mean you can write.

Shari

Indeed. And, sadly, more importantly: even if you have a story, and even if you can write, there's no guarantee that anyone will ever want to hear it.

I see this often with memoirs--they just die on the vine, unless it's a celebrity or public figure of some kind. Even then--look at Hillary's book--they can sink like the Titanic.

Hitch

[badgoodDeb]

I wonder if there's any "late-life second career" path in being a private editor. Or is it mainly Really Terrible books, that I really really really wouldn't want to read, even if paid to proof them?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

I wonder if there's any "late-life second career" path in being a private editor. Or is it mainly Really Terrible books, that I really really really wouldn't want to read, even if paid to proof them?

What price range were you thinking?
If you are higher priced and can prove yourself, you would get better books.
If you are cheap, then you would get mostly needs major work before even thinking about editing.

[badgoodDeb]

Well, I haven't started yet, but I think I could do better than many of the authors whose ebooks I've read. Who clearly didn't do ANY such editting.

Then again, a quick look at the aforementioned SlushPileHell.com makes me think it *may* not be worth the grief!! I'll think about it, if I ever get around to retiring. If I'm not too busy reading my TBR list because that's a better read than the slush pile would be.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Well, I haven't started yet, but I think I could do better than many of the authors whose ebooks I've read. Who clearly didn't do ANY such editting.

Then again, a quick look at the aforementioned SlushPileHell.com makes me think it *may* not be worth the grief!! I'll think about it, if I ever get around to retiring. If I'm not too busy reading my TBR list because that's a better read than the slush pile would be.

I am not an editor by any stretch of the imagination but I could do better than many of the books I have tried to read.
I tried my hand at proofreading. One book I ran across had an average of 3 errors per sentence. (The author had asked me to look and let him know why he was not selling.)
Another was better, it only had one error for every 3 paragraphs. But his book had other problems too.

Think hard before offering your services.

[badgoodDeb]

Yeah. It sounds REALLY painful, now that I think about it longer.

Nevermind! (in *that* voice)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Yeah. It sounds REALLY painful, now that I think about it longer.

Nevermind! (in *that* voice)

It's funny you mention that. One of the Disqus discussions about this--the Kindle Quality dealio--was one pondering whether a new class of editors would arise, selling services to fix these books?

I have recently added some editing at my shop. Not developmental--we don't have the resources for it--but line edits and proofing. I'd sought to stay out of it, but we've had so many requests I had to capitulate to demand. But I fully expect an increase in demand pursuant to the Kindle stuff.

Perhaps it's something different. Not an editor, or proofreader...maybe it's another term or phrase. Hmmmm. Not an alpha reader...sumpin' else.

What could we call it? A "same day salvation" editor. HA!

Hitch

[Jack Torrance]

So if you start returning the books that you buy because of errors will they flag your account and remove your ability to download stuff you bought and did like???

oops wrong thread.

[Jack Torrance]

Call the Police.

I am rereading "Day by Day Armageddon" since there is A new book in the series and it has been long enough to forget some of the details and have found 3 mistakes in the first dozen pages or so.

REFUND REFUND REFUND.

Oh wait never mind, I think I'll just keep reading.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Jack Torrance

Call the Police.

I am rereading "Day by Day Armageddon" since there is new book in the series and it has been long enough to forget some of the details and have found 3 mistakes in the first dozen pages or so.

REFUND REFUND REFUND.

Oh wait never mind, I think I'll just keep reading.

I think MobileRead should develop a similar policy. We need to take a strong stand on this -- or we might be overrun by screaming "hoards" of yahoos and descend into illiterarcy!



It is absolutely unacceptable for people to e.g. mistype their posts and forget the word "a".

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

It is absolutely unacceptable for people to e.g. mistype their posts and forget the word "a".

It's much easier to be the critic than the "artist" and my commentary is free.

As an added bonus no one had to bitch to Amazon to get it fixed.