Book Versions

[Karellen]

Like most people, I read a book on its own in one form or another, either pbook or ebook.

Recently, since I started cleaning and organising my ebook library, I have been reading two books at the same time. That is the same novel but the pbook and ebook version. I do this to fix errors in the ebook by referring to the pbook.

I had always thought that an Author writes a book, the publisher prints and distributes it, and maybe some regional spelling adjustments were made.

So it came as a complete surprise to me that many of these paired books were different. Reading the pbook and ebook highlighted many, many differences - some were major differences many are minor.

For example as a major difference, I read Arthur C Clarke's Imperial Earth. The ebook version had an extra 6 chapters that were not included in the paperback I own.
A minor difference- I am currently reading The Visitor by Lee Child, and Jack Reacher boards the plane and sits in Business Class (in my pbook) / sits in First Class (in my ebook)

I wouldn't be exaggerating by saying that I have come across easily 100+ of these type of differences over the last year of reading.

So, why does this happen?
Has anybody noticed this also, and what were some of the differences you have come across?

[icallaci]

How interesting! I've never noticed this. I have been reading two books at a time lately, too, but more along the lines of a classic (say, a Shakespeare play) alongside a modern retelling of the same story. It seems odd that seemingly nonconsequential things (such as business/first class seating) would be changed. My only experience with different versions of the same book happens because ebooks seem to have many more typos or glitches in them, so when I run across one in an ebook, I will search a printed-on-paper book (usually from the library) to see if the ebook's version might be a typo, and most of the time it is. I'm intrigued by your finding.

[davidfor]

There are lots and lots of reasons. Sometimes authors or publishers fix errors between editions. That could be because an inconsistency within the book, or because they found something out later. The First/Business class change could be either. Maybe because of something else in the book it is inconsistent. Or maybe the author found out that that particular plane/flight/airline didn't have that class and decided to fix it.

Another reason is the nationality of the publisher. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the US. And there were other changes to the language used (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_..._and_reception for some examples). That is not an uncommon thing. I have seen at least one book where they "corrected" spelling (colour vs color). And, as you are in Australia, there is a good chance your paperbacks were source from UK based publishers and your ebooks are being sourced from US based publishers.

Another reason, is that the publishers edited the book, or forced the author to, and later the author managed to get the original version published (Robert A Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" is an example, though the original was published posthumously). Or different publishers did different things. That seems to be the case with "Imperial Earth". According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Earth#Editions, the US and UK editions are different. There is no explanation of why they are different, just that they have different chapter counts.

It could be the publishing format and the author adding things when that changes. An example, look at, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochew...cation_history. Originally serialised and the author extended it when published it as a book (but, maybe the magazine edited their version). The author extended it twice after that for new versions with a title change at the end. I know I borrowed one of the versions title "Flight of the Dragonfly" from a library and read it. Then stumbled on the final version later. [For the record, a good book but not great characterisation. But, the science is very good. Robert L Forward has some of the most interesting, and possibly buildable, propulsion systems for space craft ever. And his aliens tend to be unique.]

[theducks]

Print book have '2 printing plates made' (the plate may have multiple books or multiple pages that make up a 'signature'. And that is for Black print only) for each (really big) sheet of paper that passes thru the press.
That is a lot a plates to change, so the don't (and the don't keep the plates after the run. In the old days, plates were created by using film negatives. They did not keep those either in many cases).

EPUB can (and usually) gets totally reset, Corrections at any time and the Author does not have a Page count Limit/target, so they may include all the source material that the publisher trimmed.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by Karellen

For example as a major difference, I read Arthur C Clarke's Imperial Earth. The ebook version had an extra 6 chapters that were not included in the paperback I own.

That is a lot of chapters. Did anything important happen? Were they long?

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

Did anything important happen? Were they long?

Absolutely nothing of importance happened. In fact, I could see why they were missing from the pbook. Lots of words about nothing. And they were mixed with the the two chapters either side plus another chapter further along, so it took a bit of untangling to match it to the pbook.

It was about 5 months ago when I read it, but I guess about 20-30 pages of a paperback.

[Karellen]

The Hard Way by Lee Child,

Chapter 59:

In the ebook (Amazon download)

They bypassed a town called Thetford. Much later they blew through a town called Fenchurch Saint Mary.

In the pbook (large format paperback 1st edition. isbn:9780593055007)

They bypassed Cambridge and blew through a town called Fenchurch St Mary.

Chapter 64 (opening paragraph)

In the ebook

They turned off the highway at Newmarket and set out crosscountry toward Norwich.

In the pbook

They turned off the motorway south of Cambridge and set out crosss-country towards Norwich.

[Dr. Drib]

1) I always check the ebook version, when available, with the one in my calibre library and then replace it.

2) Sometimes an author will revise a work and there's no mention of this fact on the cover, but may be buried in the copyright information.

[Uncle Robin]

The ebook I'm currently reading Garden of Heaven was written by author I think of as a personal acquaintance, and when I bought the ebook from Kindle and let her know of some of the typos and errors I'd found, she replied

"This actually has nothing to do with me or my editor. It's the fault of whoever formatted the book for the digital version. Thank you for giving me the screenshot - I'll pass this on to Speaking Tiger."

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

1) I always check the ebook version, when available, with the one in my calibre library and then replace it.

2) Sometimes an author will revise a work and there's no mention of this fact on the cover, but may be buried in the copyright information.

And may not be mentioned at all. Even an author familiar with version numbering for software will happily upload a typo update with no marking.

[Karellen]

I added another difference in my previous post.

I don't go looking for them, so I wonder how many I actually miss. These are just quick glances back at the book checking scene breaks, paragraph breaks or just checking a possible misspelling.

You can't call these type-o's. And you can't call these regional corrections because Cambridge is Cambridge no matter where you are in the world (excluding exonyms). I agree, they are a revision by the author.

Not that it really matters as 99.9% of readers will never realise the differences, but I wonder why and which is original and which is revised. (rhetorical)

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Karellen

The Hard Way by Lee Child,

I'm not persuaded that these are "revisions by the author" in this example. It still looks like you have different versions of the book (UK p-book and a US e-book it looks like).

I say that because "motorway" is not a common word in the US, although it sounds like it should be motorway based on the description. This type of phrase is often changed by publishers for different markets though, sometimes without author input.

Changing details of the locations ("Newmarket" vs "south of Cambridge" could also be a localization thing. I have only Google maps to help with this... but changing from "highway at Newmarket" to "motorway south of Cambridge" could also make sense as part of localization. Looking at a map shows that Newmarket is east of Cambridge not south, so someone in the UK might be following the other descriptions in the scene and think "hey, that doesn't work" vs someone in the US, who likely has no clue, wouldn't notice.

Wikipedia says that there are two separate publishers in the UK (Bantam) and the US (Putnam).

[Karellen]

Nothing to Lose by Lee Child

Pbook- Large format paberback isbn:9780593057032 1st edition
ebook- Amazon

Currently at page 100 and there have been 7 differences I have stumbled across. Some are sentences and paragraphs that have been reworded, others are paragraphs with additional words, or words removed. Typical example...

ebook:

The breakfast rush at the diner was over. A degree of calm had been restored. Reacher ordered coffee. Vaughan said she was happy with tap water. She sipped her way through half a glass and drummed her fingers on the table.

pbook

They got back in Vaughan's old truck and headed for the diner again. The breakfast rush at the diner was over. A degree of calm had been restored. Reacher ordered coffee. Vaughan said she was happy with tap water. She sipped her way through half a glass and drummed her fingers on the table.

In another difference there were two short paragraphs at the end of a chapter that were in the pbook but not in the ebook.

[Karellen]

Hmmm, I am really surprised at how many differences there are in Nothing to Lose by Lee Child. I must be up to about 40 differences at least that I have stumbled across.

Chapter 42
eBook:

She took her foot off the brake again and crept forward. She turned the wheel and headed for the wrong side of the road and the crowd in front of her tracked the move, slow and infinitely fluid. Two or three hundred people, moving as one, like a pool of grey mercury, changing shape like an ameba. Like a disciplined herd. Vaughan reached the left shoulder.

pBook

She took her foot off the brake again and crept forward, slowly. She turned the wheel and headed for the wrong side of the road on a slight diagonal. The crowd in front of her tracked the move, slow and infinitely fluid. Two or three hundred people, moving as one, like a pool of grey mercury, changing shape like an amoeba. Like a disciplined herd. Vaughan reached the left shoulder. The crowd had set itself to head her off, but it was still very solid all the way out into the scrub on the right.

Both versions read fluently, so it never seems as if there is something missing, or that it reads wrong.

[Pulpmeister]

It's called editing for the market, I guess. One notoriously extreme example is an Agatha Christie novel, can't remember the title off the top of my head, where the US edition left out most of Poirot's French, shortened the book drastically, and changed the murderer! (AND the title!) I have seen books where the location was changed to a different country; where a book set in England had, weirdly, the currency in dollars. Where characters names were changed. When Edgar Wallace's 1920s novels were reprinted in paperback in the early 60s, the currency was updated. Fifty quid was a lot of money in 1928; peanuts in 1963. The editors simply added a 0.

Every edition is likely to be slightly different from the other.

Last but not least, there is the typist/keyboard wonk who may, unconsciously, omit a sub-paragraph or two as they peck away.

I'd hate to have to do a variorum edition of any mass-selling novel which ran into many prints, reprints and editions.

Then there's the syndicated serial edition: often cut drastically. The serial edition of "Peyton Place" was about half the length of the book. Anything that might disturb Mum and Dad on the sofa watching "Leave it to Beaver" was carefully excised.