Amazon Ebooks and errors

Amazon Ebooks and errors asked 197 days ago by Naomi - 3 answers

I got given a Kindle recently by a friend. I love it, especially having moved across the other side of the world to a country whose first language is not English.

However, all the Ebooks that I have bought off Amazon so far have had errors. And these are the top of the Amazon price range.

Sometimes it's just a random comma or full-stop somewhere in a sentence or word, but other times it's spelling errors. It seems like when there's a spelling error that the shape of the letters resemble the correct spelling - like the paper book has been scanned by a computer programme that recognises words but hasn't been proofread by a human.

The worst error is in the book I'm currently reading - which is riddled with the aforementioned errors - about one every page or two. However it also suggests "Other titles by John Grisham" on the contents page. The book is by Tanizaki Jun’ichirō not John Grisham and the list of books mentioned are by Tanizaki Jun’ichirō. This seems like more than just a formatting error.

Am I just having a spate of bad luck with the titles I've ordered, or is this a frequent problem for others too? Is it the down side of Ebooks?

Eric M. says:

Hi Naomi, for what it's worth, I've seen this too-- particularly in older titles. Here's what I THINK is going on: older books, where the manuscript isn't available in electronic form, are being scanned and mistakes are introduced during that process. (And along the way, some editors/publishers are just making outright mistakes, like the Grisham mistake you mention above.)

I've seen this problem in some older books, like I said, but I haven't seen it at all any new titles that I'm reading. I am assuming that it's because newer books are handled electronically from start to finish (i.e. the author emails the manuscript, the editors work with it on-screen instead of on paper, etc).

If I were you, I'd drop a note to the publisher of the book you're reading with the egregious Grisham mistake. That seems like something that should be addressed!

Joseph A. says:

Hello,
As an author, I feel bad about this situation but I believe that generally, steps are being taking to address such errors in the future. On line publishing is now receiving better attention with regards to editing, unlike in the past. Letting the publisher be aware of this may hasting up corrective measures which are much easier and cheap to do with eBooks. You may also advice the publisher to send fresh copies to all those who bought the defective copy. This way, the message in the eBook would be more understandable and at the same time, the publishers credibility would be upheld. Cheers.

Naomi (who asked the original question) says:

Thanks guys, informative. I think I will contact the publisher of the Junichiro. The best editions I've seen are from Project Gutenburg and are free! Sadly all the books I've purchased (old or modern) have had errors. Think I'll also send Amazon some feedback via their Kindle feedback address. It will be interesting to see what comes from it.

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