Any issues with e-books from Penguin?

Bitgod · 06-11-2010, 09:12 PM

So I just got done reading Blood Oath that I purchased from Amazon on my iPad, and I had to only give it 3 stars when I reviewed it on Amazon.

The story was good, but I was a bit miffed at paying $11.99 for a book that was full of typos and format issues. "full" is relative, I didn't count them, but I'm not talking 1, 2, or 3 issues. There were at least a dozen I think. If you look at the samples for both Amazon and iBooks, you can see a mistake on the first page of text, where there's a bold capital A at the end of the first sentence. I can live with 1 or 2 mistakes, no one is perfect, but if I'm going to get the same quality as someone scanning a book at home...then why would I want to pay for that?

I'd certainly say this was the most mistake-prone book I've purchased and I'll certainly think twice about buying any more Penguin books, *especially* at higher-than-average prices. Has anyone else run into issues with Penguin books?

AnemicOak · 06-11-2010, 10:29 PM

I've run into issues (lots of errors) with books from every publisher I can think of. Can't really say one is worse than another though. Many books I bought have been pretty much OK (maybe one or two errors), but on occasion I do get a bad one.

One thing Penguin will do time and again that bugs the hell out of me is skip putting the prologue in the table of contents.

AlexBell · 06-12-2010, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bitgod

I'd certainly say this was the most mistake-prone book I've purchased and I'll certainly think twice about buying any more Penguin books, *especially* at higher-than-average prices. Has anyone else run into issues with Penguin books?

I reviewed 'Interventions' by Noam Chomsky in the 'Hall of Shame' thread in the General Discussions forum, and came to the conclusion that ePenguin had put so many typos in it deliberately so as to turn people off ebooks and back to their print books.

Unfortunately I could not find a way of giving feedback to ePenguin. I'm convinced that the only recourse we have is to bombard those responsible for releasing this rubbish with feedback that we are angry about it, and demanding refunds.
If you come across a way of getting feedback to Penguin please let me know.

Tony Cole at tony@ebookanoid.com has a blog on this topic. Could I suggest that you get in touch with him?

Regards, Alex

jaxx6166 · 06-19-2010, 02:34 PM

Bitgod,

Penguin had this issue when ebooks first started to become mainstream. I spent a good few hours of time going back and forth with the Sony store and FW for their shoddy formatting. The worst offender was a SM Stirling book I picked up...it had flat out missing text. And a couple of really weird spacing errors with just about any other nastiness you could think of.

A couple of emails to the distributor kind of helped light a fire under their ass for some of the books and they were fixed within a couple weeks or two. You'd think that these places would have a Q/A department.

If you bought it on iBooks, I'd send a nasty email to Mapple. They seem to be the king of the sheep right now.

Every publisher has their issues, but I think Penguin has been the biggest offender..

HarryT · 06-19-2010, 03:03 PM

I've bought a number of "Penguin Classics" eBooks which have been absolutely fine.

06-11-2010, 09:12 PM	#1
Bitgod Enthusiast Posts: 36 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Sacramento Device: iPad / PRS-600 / iPhone 3G	Any issues with e-books from Penguin? So I just got done reading Blood Oath that I purchased from Amazon on my iPad, and I had to only give it 3 stars when I reviewed it on Amazon. The story was good, but I was a bit miffed at paying $11.99 for a book that was full of typos and format issues. "full" is relative, I didn't count them, but I'm not talking 1, 2, or 3 issues. There were at least a dozen I think. If you look at the samples for both Amazon and iBooks, you can see a mistake on the first page of text, where there's a bold capital A at the end of the first sentence. I can live with 1 or 2 mistakes, no one is perfect, but if I'm going to get the same quality as someone scanning a book at home...then why would I want to pay for that? I'd certainly say this was the most mistake-prone book I've purchased and I'll certainly think twice about buying any more Penguin books, especially at higher-than-average prices. Has anyone else run into issues with Penguin books?

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06-11-2010, 10:29 PM	#2
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	I've run into issues (lots of errors) with books from every publisher I can think of. Can't really say one is worse than another though. Many books I bought have been pretty much OK (maybe one or two errors), but on occasion I do get a bad one. One thing Penguin will do time and again that bugs the hell out of me is skip putting the prologue in the table of contents.

06-19-2010, 02:34 PM	#4
jaxx6166 Wizard Posts: 1,222 Karma: 769316 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Eternal summer Device: 350, iPad, PW	Bitgod, Penguin had this issue when ebooks first started to become mainstream. I spent a good few hours of time going back and forth with the Sony store and FW for their shoddy formatting. The worst offender was a SM Stirling book I picked up...it had flat out missing text. And a couple of really weird spacing errors with just about any other nastiness you could think of. A couple of emails to the distributor kind of helped light a fire under their ass for some of the books and they were fixed within a couple weeks or two. You'd think that these places would have a Q/A department. If you bought it on iBooks, I'd send a nasty email to Mapple. They seem to be the king of the sheep right now. Every publisher has their issues, but I think Penguin has been the biggest offender..

06-19-2010, 03:03 PM	#5
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I've bought a number of "Penguin Classics" eBooks which have been absolutely fine.

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