I've had my first bad formatting experience

krisk · 04-06-2009, 09:00 AM

with an Amazon book. "The Legend of Witch Bane". It was either a free or .99 book. My Kindle reading habit is to go to the "cover" and catch all of the pages between there and where Kindle decides the first page is at. The first issue is that it would not let me do that. The next issue was the chapter headings page was all muddled up. The last (so far) is that on new chapter pages, the first word has an overly large letter Using the font adjustment. This always leaves an orphan letter on one page with the rest of the word on the next.

Unfortunately it is turning out to be a fairly unreadable book as well. It was touted as being similar to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Written primarily with children in mind but for adults as well. It talks down to kids while using at times confusing language.

I thought about putting this in the "Content" section, but this one won out.

weatherman · 04-06-2009, 02:57 PM

Seems to me that you should "return" this to Amazon. The only way that Amazon can start dealing with the problem of poorly formatted books is if people say something. I don't care if it was $9.99 or $1.59, if it's in the Kindle Store it should be formatted for the Kindle.

krisk · 04-06-2009, 03:29 PM

You are indeed correct as I am certain that it will be pulled from the free/cheap list soon enough.

kevindorsey · 04-07-2009, 11:11 AM

I heard about this book as well and it peaked my interest briefly. I will be forgetting about it permanently, thanks to you.

krisk · 04-07-2009, 01:03 PM

It may be your cup of tea, however I found the writing style very odd. She swaps from speaking to very young children to speaking "down" to the reader to using words that the average 8th grader (which I assume is approximately target audience) wouldn't know. She also uses confusing sentence structure at times.

Sporadic · 04-07-2009, 02:07 PM

The author actually posts here (I added it to the list after seeing that thread)

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...end+Witch+Bane

Try contacting him. - edit I would also post a negative review on Amazon.

I pulled it from the free/cheap list since the price went from $0.99 to $1.59

krisk · 04-07-2009, 06:07 PM

*gulp* should I link him to my comment?

Daithi · 04-07-2009, 07:17 PM

Two of the books I've purchased from Amazon recently have been badly formatted.

Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause was really awful. It was full of OCR errors. I'd say about 1 a page on average and it almost made the book unreadable. However, I did read the book so I didn't complain to Amazon -- I think I'll write a bad review instead.

The other book was Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead. It wasn't formatted that badly, but it had an extra line of space between every paragraph. A little annoying that's all.

(Yes, I like vampire books written for teenage girls.)

UPDATE: It looks like Silver Kiss has been pulled from the Kindle Store.

KevisHendrickson · 04-09-2009, 03:10 PM

Krisk,

As the author of The Legend of Witch Bane, I feel I must apologize to you for your unhappy reading experience with my book. My publisher behaved very irresponsibly and produced a shoddy version of my book for kindle. They have since resolved the formatting issues with my book and the new kindle version is quite error-free.

I am sorry to hear that you did not enjoy my book. But I do feel it is my responsibility to address the formatting issue.

If you would please contact me at aragornisking@lycos.com, I will gladly send you a refund. Again, I apologize for what happened and would like to rectify this issue as best I may.

Thank you for your patronage.

krisk · 04-09-2009, 04:27 PM

Well hello and thank you for the response! I'm not worried about a refund, and I am sorry about your hassle with the publisher.

I think you probably have a good story on your hands, I could see what you were doing with it. I'd like to throw out there that maybe another read through by a different editor would help reconcile some of the language usage issues ;o)

Good Luck!

KevisHendrickson · 04-09-2009, 04:38 PM

Thanks, Krisk!

Sporadic · 04-10-2009, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by habs4life

Today, 12:39 AM in another thread about The Legend of Witch Bane

Thanks I'm going to give it a try...

Quote:

Originally Posted by habs4life

2 minutes before your post saying you are going to try the book

I read this book highly recommended!!!

Which one is it?

Also why do you put http://www.parkeddomain.us/blog/smart.GIF in [IMG] tags in every one of your posts?

04-06-2009, 09:00 AM	#1
krisk Wizard Posts: 2,148 Karma: 8229 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: on the road again Device: kindle	I've had my first bad formatting experience with an Amazon book. "The Legend of Witch Bane". It was either a free or .99 book. My Kindle reading habit is to go to the "cover" and catch all of the pages between there and where Kindle decides the first page is at. The first issue is that it would not let me do that. The next issue was the chapter headings page was all muddled up. The last (so far) is that on new chapter pages, the first word has an overly large letter Using the font adjustment. This always leaves an orphan letter on one page with the rest of the word on the next. Unfortunately it is turning out to be a fairly unreadable book as well. It was touted as being similar to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Written primarily with children in mind but for adults as well. It talks down to kids while using at times confusing language. I thought about putting this in the "Content" section, but this one won out.

04-07-2009, 02:07 PM	#6
Sporadic Banned Posts: 427 Karma: 2690 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kindle 1	The author actually posts here (I added it to the list after seeing that thread) https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...end+Witch+Bane Try contacting him. - edit I would also post a negative review on Amazon. I pulled it from the free/cheap list since the price went from $0.99 to $1.59 Last edited by Sporadic; 04-07-2009 at 02:15 PM.

04-07-2009, 07:17 PM	#8
Daithi Publishers are evil! Posts: 2,418 Karma: 36205264 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Rhode Island Device: Various Kindles	Two of the books I've purchased from Amazon recently have been badly formatted. Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause was really awful. It was full of OCR errors. I'd say about 1 a page on average and it almost made the book unreadable. However, I did read the book so I didn't complain to Amazon -- I think I'll write a bad review instead. The other book was Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead. It wasn't formatted that badly, but it had an extra line of space between every paragraph. A little annoying that's all. (Yes, I like vampire books written for teenage girls.) UPDATE: It looks like Silver Kiss has been pulled from the Kindle Store. Last edited by Daithi; 04-07-2009 at 07:19 PM.

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04-06-2009, 02:57 PM	#2
weatherman Addict Posts: 385 Karma: 1010052 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: (previous: Kindle 2, Kindle Fire) Kindle 4 WiFi, K3K, KPW	Seems to me that you should "return" this to Amazon. The only way that Amazon can start dealing with the problem of poorly formatted books is if people say something. I don't care if it was $9.99 or $1.59, if it's in the Kindle Store it should be formatted for the Kindle.

04-06-2009, 03:29 PM	#3
krisk Wizard Posts: 2,148 Karma: 8229 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: on the road again Device: kindle	You are indeed correct as I am certain that it will be pulled from the free/cheap list soon enough.

04-07-2009, 11:11 AM	#4
kevindorsey Evangelist Posts: 488 Karma: 258 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: kindle	I heard about this book as well and it peaked my interest briefly. I will be forgetting about it permanently, thanks to you.

04-07-2009, 01:03 PM	#5
krisk Wizard Posts: 2,148 Karma: 8229 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: on the road again Device: kindle	It may be your cup of tea, however I found the writing style very odd. She swaps from speaking to very young children to speaking "down" to the reader to using words that the average 8th grader (which I assume is approximately target audience) wouldn't know. She also uses confusing sentence structure at times.

04-07-2009, 06:07 PM	#7
krisk Wizard Posts: 2,148 Karma: 8229 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: on the road again Device: kindle	gulp should I link him to my comment?

04-09-2009, 03:10 PM	#9
KevisHendrickson Zealot Posts: 100 Karma: 200000 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Miami, Fl Device: Kindle	Krisk, As the author of The Legend of Witch Bane, I feel I must apologize to you for your unhappy reading experience with my book. My publisher behaved very irresponsibly and produced a shoddy version of my book for kindle. They have since resolved the formatting issues with my book and the new kindle version is quite error-free. I am sorry to hear that you did not enjoy my book. But I do feel it is my responsibility to address the formatting issue. If you would please contact me at aragornisking@lycos.com, I will gladly send you a refund. Again, I apologize for what happened and would like to rectify this issue as best I may. Thank you for your patronage.

04-09-2009, 04:27 PM	#10
krisk Wizard Posts: 2,148 Karma: 8229 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: on the road again Device: kindle	Well hello and thank you for the response! I'm not worried about a refund, and I am sorry about your hassle with the publisher. I think you probably have a good story on your hands, I could see what you were doing with it. I'd like to throw out there that maybe another read through by a different editor would help reconcile some of the language usage issues ;o) Good Luck!

04-09-2009, 04:38 PM	#11
KevisHendrickson Zealot Posts: 100 Karma: 200000 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Miami, Fl Device: Kindle	Thanks, Krisk!

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