Book "Reviews" for formatting/readability

[sawdin2]

How can I check "reviews" of e-books before purchasing? Specifically, for older titles there are often numerous options in the same format (e.g., epub) for the same title. I'm sure that some options are better than others in terms of formatting, spacing, missing text, etc. Which sites tend to provide "formatting reviews"? Any tips or suggestions regarding how NOT to purchase a book with bad formatting?

TIA

PS...I had a Nook tablet in the past but will be purchasing a dedicated ereader in the near future. Looking at Kindle Oasis, Kobo Aura One (and hopefully an updated version of KA1) and the Onyx Boox Nova when it comes out. I use Calibre to make a copy of purchased books in epub format using Alf's tools.

[Sirtel]

If a book has really awful formatting or major errors, it's usually mentioned in Amazon customer reviews (for the Kindle version, of course). Bad formatting is often a matter of taste. Some people want spaces between paragraphs, others don't and so on. Missing text is actually quite rare.

I always fix the formatting myself in the Calibre editor if I don't like it. There's no reason not to purchase a book I want to read only because it's not formatted the way I want. That can be easily fixed. The only exceptions to this are bad conversions from PDF, mostly seen in self-published books, but I encountered it once in a Google Play tradpub too (returned it and bought the Kindle version). With those I won't bother and usually return them. Fortunately it is rare.

[fjtorres]

Look to the samples.
Most ebook stores let you download a free sample; typically, 10% of the book.
That should let you see for yourself what the formatting is like. Also the writing style.
Plenty of books go off the rails, plotwise, near the end, so you might still end up with a turkey but in general samples are representative of the book's quality.

You might also want to check the dates for the book, if available. A deep backlist title first published before the ebook era and released early in the current, Kindle age is more likely to have issues since most of those were scanned and OCR'ed to varying degrees of proofing.

Again, the free sample is your best protection.

Finally, if you're really worried, skim around the book right after your first download it.
Most good ebookstores will let you return an ebook for a short time after purchase.

Most recent release ebooks are generally clean and well-proofed and well-formatted whether tradpubbed or Indie. Its the minimum expected to play the game.

Bottom line: samples are your best friend.

[sawdin2]

Thanks Sirtel and fjtorres....

[HarryT]

I must admit that I never look at samples, and these days very VERY rarely come across books with formatting so egregious as to cause me to notice it. On a very few occasions I might make a minor adjustment such as reducing the spacing between paragraphs, or something like that, but such occurrences are rare indeed.

I only buy "traditionally published" books, so I don't know if my generally good experiences also hold good for independent authors.

[sawdin2]

As an example, I had recently downloaded a copy of W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage". The text basically ran together. That is, there wasn't any space between paragraphs, the type seemed crowded, etc. After the comments I received earlier, I looked at various examples on Amazon that were specifically for Kindle. Some looked just like the version I had, while another looked much better and was "free". I downloaded and imported to Calibre and the formatting came over perfectly. I'll just have to look at each version available and pick the best one.

However, how difficult is it to increase/decrease space between paragraphs, change line spacing etc. in Calibre? I came across one version that included an Introduction and comments by three different authors, but the text was poorly formatted.

Thanks to all for comments and suggestions.

[HarryT]

The easiest way to do it is to specify the indentation and paragraph spacing in Calibre's conversion options. On a more sophisticated level you can edit the book directly in Calibre's editor, although that obviously requires at least a basic understanding of CSS and HTML.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by sawdin2

As an example, I had recently downloaded a copy of W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage". The text basically ran together. That is, there wasn't any space between paragraphs, the type seemed crowded, etc. After the comments I received earlier, I looked at various examples on Amazon that were specifically for Kindle. Some looked just like the version I had, while another looked much better and was "free". I downloaded and imported to Calibre and the formatting came over perfectly. I'll just have to look at each version available and pick the best one.

That holds true mostly for well-known classics and older books with many different editions available. For most new books there usually is only one version available, and generally it's exactly the same version for epub and Kindle both. If you read mostly older books, then it might be rather time-consuming indeed to pick and choose.

[theducks]

I'm in Sirtel's camp
I fix formatting in Calibre/Sigil, to my taste (everybody else is wrong )

The only time I DO complain, is erratic formatting. One chapter has drop caps, another, big caps or none, differing indents (when no other reason)

[dwig]

Originally Posted by theducks

I'm in Sirtel's camp
I fix formatting in Calibre/Sigil, to my taste (everybody else is wrong )
...

+1, everybody else is wrong. If they are very wrong, as they often are, I fix the book before reading it. If their trangressions are minor then I let it slide.

[Tarana]

Amazon, Kobo and B&N have all given me refunds for formatting so bad that it was almost unreadable. All 4 books also had numerous other errors. The most notable example was when LOTR first came out. It was terrible.

For minor stuff, I use Calibre to fix problems (Ok, I'm still learning). I've tried to use Sigil, but with limited success. Long story there, but the learning curve is a bit too high for me.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I must admit that I never look at samples, and these days very VERY rarely come across books with formatting so egregious as to cause me to notice it. On a very few occasions I might make a minor adjustment such as reducing the spacing between paragraphs, or something like that, but such occurrences are rare indeed.

I only buy "traditionally published" books, so I don't know if my generally good experiences also hold good for independent authors.

For the past few years new release tradpub ebooks are produced in parallel with the print editions so there's no reason for formatting to be significantly different between print and digital. On the Indie side the enhanced formatting tools and templates at KDP ensure clean layouts. They even provide manuscript and cover templates for print editions.

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834230

There are also several businesses that sell custom templates for a variety of fiction and non-fiction formats at modest prices.

Like this one:

https://www.bookdesigntemplates.com

It is actually more work to produce a bad format than a clean one.

But as they say, no system can be made foolproof because fools are endlessly creative.

[drjenkins]

Originally Posted by theducks

I'm in Sirtel's camp
I fix formatting in Calibre/Sigil, to my taste (everybody else is wrong )

The only time I DO complain, is erratic formatting. One chapter has drop caps, another, big caps or none, differing indents (when no other reason)

I agree. As long as the formatting is consistently bad I can fix it with regex find and replace, and/or CSS changes.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by sawdin2

However, how difficult is it to increase/decrease space between paragraphs, change line spacing etc. in Calibre? I came across one version that included an Introduction and comments by three different authors, but the text was poorly formatted.

Originally Posted by HarryT

The easiest way to do it is to specify the indentation and paragraph spacing in Calibre's conversion options. On a more sophisticated level you can edit the book directly in Calibre's editor, although that obviously requires at least a basic understanding of CSS and HTML.

I like to use Sigil. Calibre's editor is very similar to Sigil. If you'd like to experiment with cleaning up formatting with either of those, I've found this blog to be very helpful. At least it showed me some of the basics and what they're for: http://www.jedisaber.com/eBooks/formatsource.shtml

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Tarana

For minor stuff, I use Calibre to fix problems (Ok, I'm still learning). I've tried to use Sigil, but with limited success. Long story there, but the learning curve is a bit too high for me.

I ran into some really bad formatting on a Dean Koontz book I got via Overdrive (which surprised me). I actually corrected the formatting in Calibre in that book so I could read it. (And deleted the book before the returning it to the library.)

Calibre has had enough tools to fix what I need fixed. I tried Sigil a couple times but I'm too dense to figure it out. Calibre is easy (once you figure out that some books need some of the Styling features removed before you'll get a clean conversion).