Gollanz to launch world's biggest SFF library

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Crusader

The SF Gateway site has now gone live - http://www.sfgateway.com/

It's got info on the authors and books available. I can't see any buying options aside from a list of physical stores, but that might be due to it still being in BETA.

Each book seems to have a "buying options" button. If you click it, it will either link to online stores or show a message that it is not available in that region.

[Graham]

Update to my comments about the quality of the files...

While the formatting of the book is excellent, there are a lot of scanning errors (about one per page) in the book I'm reading - "The Shadow of Heaven" by Bob Shaw. I'm highlighting as I go, and I'll submit them to Gollancz at the end.

The biggest issue is perhaps understandable. The book centres around an island in the sky known as an "Ile", which has mostly been converted to "He" in the book. However, there are lots of other errors as well, particularly missing opening quotes.

I'm still enjoying the book (though I did say to my wife last night that I was going to settle down and "proof-read another chapter"), and I'd still recommend that we support the Gateway whole-heartedly, but it looks like they might need a little help from their friends to clean up the catalogue.

Graham

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Graham

Update to my comments about the quality of the files...

While the formatting of the book is excellent, there are a lot of scanning errors (about one per page) in the book I'm reading - "Vertigo" by Bob Shaw. I'm highlighting as I go, and I'll submit them to Gollancz at the end.

The biggest issue is perhaps understandable. The book centres around an island in the sky known as an "Ile", which has mostly been converted to "He" in the book. However, there are lots of other errors as well, particularly missing opening quotes.

I'm still enjoying the book (though I did say to my wife last night that I was going to settle down and "proof-read another chapter"), and I'd still recommend that we support the Gateway whole-heartedly, but it looks like they might need a little help from their friends to clean up the catalogue.

With that quality of output, it doesn't sound they are worth supporting. They certainly can't be putting any effort into proofreading, beyond just running a spell-check, if those sort of errors are getting through. The 'Ile' issue is only understandable if you accept that they are not even bothering to do a good job.
They aren't treating their customers with any sort of respect, so why do they deserve support? They should be paying you, rather than vice-versa.

[pdurrant]

Good grief — they have all the Dumarest books by E C Tubb!

Sadly, although the first 10 are £2.99 (and, oddly, number 21), the rest are £4.99. (Hmmm... that's £142.67 for the set.)

All added to my Amazon wish list, as I'm not buying anything at the moment!

[Graham]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

With that quality of output, it doesn't sound they are worth supporting. They certainly can't be putting any effort into proofreading, beyond just running a spell-check, if those sort of errors are getting through. The 'Ile' issue is only understandable if you accept that they are not even bothering to do a good job.
They aren't treating their customers with any sort of respect, so why do they deserve support? They should be paying you, rather than vice-versa.

It depends which way you look at it. They have a huge back catalogue, and their prices are being kept relatively low. They seem to have concentrated on getting quantity to market, which means that more of the titles that have been very hard to get hold of will at least be available. I know I'd rather read a title with some errors than not be able to read it at all.

The key will be how they react when I send in the list of errors. If they update the file quickly then I'd read the situation as that they're trying to do a good job with limited resources. If they just ignore the email, then, as you say, it will look more like an attempt to cash in on the catalogue without really valuing the content.

Graham

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Graham

It depends which way you look at it. They have a huge back catalogue, and their prices are being kept relatively low. They seem to have concentrated on getting quantity to market, which means that more of the titles that have been very hard to get hold of will at least be available. I know I'd rather read a title with some errors than not be able to read it at all.

The key will be how they react when I send in the list of errors. If they update the file quickly then I'd read the situation as that they're trying to do a good job with limited resources. If they just ignore the email, then, as you say, it will look more like an attempt to cash in on the catalogue without really valuing the content.

Graham

I agree. Lets wait until we see how they handle submitted revision requests before writing them off. Scannos may just turn out to be one of the consequences of cheap backlist titles. Cheap AND perfect may not be very realistic. Proofreaders probably don't work for free.

If they handle the library as a "living" project, and constantly revise and fine-tune based on reader feedback. I see no reason not to support them.

[Crusader]

Just tweeted them and asked if they were open to user feedback pointing out typos, scanning errors etc.

They replied with:

Certainly - we intend to be doing this for some time & need to know about any mistakes we're making so we can fix them!

So it definitely seems as if they are in for the long-haul and very open to revisions. Be sure to send through any errors spotted.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

With that quality of output, it doesn't sound they are worth supporting. They certainly can't be putting any effort into proofreading, beyond just running a spell-check, if those sort of errors are getting through. The 'Ile' issue is only understandable if you accept that they are not even bothering to do a good job.
They aren't treating their customers with any sort of respect, so why do they deserve support? They should be paying you, rather than vice-versa.

Yes... don't bother supporting the bastards who are actually trying to do something about backlist, why let 'em know about any errors to correct them if they're too damn lazy to pay an army of proofreaders to fix them... oh, wait, if they slow down and only release perfect books that have been completely and professionally proofed then you can complain about the cost of them and their miserable failure to release their back list... Why not let them go out of business?? See how long it takes then to sort out rights ownerships and get the back list out...

Why is the predominate attitude on this site from many people, to attack anyone for everything they do... the glass is always half empty...

[owly]

Oooh! THIS was what I was waiting for! right away I saw books from a series that I only could find the first part of when I first found it at the library.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Yes... don't bother supporting the bastards who are actually trying to do something about backlist, why let 'em know about any errors to correct them if they're too damn lazy to pay an army of proofreaders to fix them

An army of proofreaders? How about one? How about someone actually reading the book you are about to sell to your customers? An error per page is not indicate of a less than 100% success rate, it suggests little more than automated OCR+spell check. Things like missing quotation marks suggest the same thing. Getting the name of a significant location in the book wrong suggests that no-one actually read it. Would you be happy buying a paperback that no-one had actually edited or proofread?

Why is the predominate attitude on this site from many people, to attack anyone for everything they do... the glass is always half empty...

Why is there such an inconsistent attitude on this site from many people, where there attitude towards an event depends on who has done it?

If one of the Big-6 publishers had done this, would you have the same view?

If Apple did what Google does, or vice-versa, would people have the same view?

As described above, it seems like this publisher are putting out a very low quality product, and should be criticised for it.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

An army of proofreaders? How about one?

1 x the 3,000 titles they plan to have available by the end of 2012?

Do you want cheap, or do you want perfect? Or something in between? Both at the same time is not going to happen with backlist titles... regardless of who's doing the publishing. Unless it's handled in a book-by-book or author-by author contract (and there goes cheap).

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

1 x the 3,000 titles they plan to have available by the end of 2012?

Do you want cheap, or do you want perfect? Or something in between? Both at the same time is not going to happen with backlist titles... regardless of who's doing the publishing. Unless it's handled in a book-by-book or author-by author contract (and there goes cheap).

So we pay for crap and like it?
Again, we are not talking perfect, that is a strawman argument.
We are talking some human proofreading. That is a long way from perfect.
Again, if they were reprinting these as paperbacks, would you be happy to pay money for this quality?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Again, if they were reprinting these as paperbacks, would you be happy to pay money for this quality?

Since they're not reprinting these in PB (in many cases), I just don't know, to be honest. I just know I'd have a much, much easier time correcting an ebook than I would revising, reprinting and rebinding a physical book. That's a factor for me personally.

I understand it won't be a factor for everyone, but for me, the ability to fix my own copy does weigh heavily in my decision. Especially at 2.99 - 4.99 a pop.

That, plus I'm willing to wait and see if this one report just might happen to be the exception, rather than the rule concerning the overall quality.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That, plus I'm willing to wait and see if this one report just might happen to be the exception, rather than the rule concerning the overall quality.

And that is totally fair, maybe we just hit the one book they screwed up on.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

So we pay for crap and like it?

Except it wasn't crap. Or anything close to crap.

There's more to an eBook than the proof-reading.

• The book itself was an excellent read.
• The formatting was excellent, with narrow margins and a good font size.
• The cover was simple, tasteful, wasn't a resource hog, and didn't cause an issue.

The scanning errors were distracting, yes, but I still enjoyed the book and was happy with the price paid.

As long as they do fix the errors, as their tweets suggests they will, then I'm happy to contribute to what could mean that these books remain in print for decades, or even centuries. Conceivably, for millennia...

Graham