11-20-2010, 06:34 PM | #1 |
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Spelling errors and such
Im new to the whole ebook world (had my reader for about 4 days), so far Ive only been reading free books, but ive noticed so many spelling and formating errors!!!
Is it that common for their to be mistakes in ebooks? Or is this what I should just expect from free books? (hey it's free so Im not complaining...lol) |
11-20-2010, 07:43 PM | #2 |
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Most of the ones I've read have been pretty good, with the exception of inserting a question mark for characters the device can't handle. However, there was one library book that was replete with real spelling whoppers, as though an e-poltergeist had gone through and global-replaced a couple of the characters' names wrong (Vick was replaced as something like Vise).
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11-21-2010, 12:44 AM | #3 |
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Well, it probably depends on where you got it.
Some are just scanned in and OCRed, not proofread at all. A lot of the ones on archive.org are like this. Unfortunately, even publishers do this. Most of the free ones here are pretty good, as are from Feedbooks and Manybooks. At least the PD stuff, I haven't tried the fanfiction at feedbooks. |
11-21-2010, 06:09 AM | #4 | |
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Last edited by boxcorner; 11-21-2010 at 06:16 AM. |
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11-21-2010, 06:12 AM | #5 |
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Some are worse than others, but I have yet to read any ebook (free or paid for) that hasn't had a lot of mistake in it. I usually send a list of them to the writer if they are contactable, but most don't seem to be interested. One even took it as a criticism of his book.
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11-21-2010, 08:34 AM | #6 |
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Yes, orthography and grammar and, in general, excellence in communication have been cast aside in the name of egalitarian tolerance of the less-abled and the invincibly ignorant. After all, they have opinions too.
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11-21-2010, 09:00 AM | #7 | |
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The funny thing was that, when I downloaded a replacement from gutenberg.org, the problem did not exist! But spelling mistakes don't seem to be as common. I take it, btw we're not talking coloured/colored here - it's not that you're reading UK English books? |
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11-21-2010, 10:48 AM | #8 | |
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I hope you will continue to point out errors, perhaps saying that you feel the author would like to know. |
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11-21-2010, 12:01 PM | #9 | |
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Quote: spelling and formating errors Is it that common for their to be mistakes in ebooks? unquote. I think you mean: spelling and formatting errors Is it that common for there to be mistakes in ebooks? I know we all make silly mistakes from time to time when we write fast, but you might not have noticed that there is an edit button on our messages (bottom right). Last edited by James_Wilde; 11-21-2010 at 12:04 PM. |
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11-21-2010, 12:13 PM | #10 | |
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Last edited by boxcorner; 11-21-2010 at 12:18 PM. |
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11-21-2010, 01:12 PM | #11 | |
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And Im Canadian btw so im well aware of colour vs color etc thanks guys, its fairly disapointing to see that mistakes are common... the free books that i got i was refering to were from amazon and sony so geez. I have a feeling I will be making a fuss once i start to actually buy books, if im paying for something it better not have tons of mistakes! |
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11-21-2010, 01:42 PM | #12 |
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I too ham very gud at spilling and i luv a book wot is well writ.
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11-21-2010, 01:50 PM | #13 | |
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11-21-2010, 02:14 PM | #14 | |
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ether that, or this hole thred is a windup. aparently its fashionable to ommit upper class letters and apostrofes. some people seem to think speling and grammer standards arnt important. i dont agree i think people shud take more care when writing posts. And i think they should be be more consistent to. if a writers book contains mistakes thats diffrent cos there suposed to no better and shood complie with standerds Methinks this thread is going to run and run. Last edited by boxcorner; 11-23-2010 at 04:32 AM. Reason: corected a spilling mustake in the last werd |
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11-21-2010, 03:22 PM | #15 |
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I don't know about traditionally published books with lots of errors, but yes, it is common among indie books that there can be far too many spelling and grammar errors. I understand why that often is, but no that doesn't have to happen.
After I finished writing my last book, I got four people to help me hunt for the errors. Yeah, its a lot of work, but I think that if we want to be taken seriously we have to do the work. Sure, even a traditionally published book will sometimes have one or two mistakes. It's true.... But we should be aspiring for as few as possible. It really draws the reader out of the story, and reflects poorly (my opinion) on the industry/movement. |
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