Errors in eBooks

[JWolf]

This is for those of you reading you Star Trek books as eBooks.

What I would like is if you could report any errors in the eBooks you are reading. I am fixing the eBooks I read after I am done. But there is a chance I could miss some errors. I will also post errors that I find in case others are doing the same.

Thanks.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I fix my hardcopy errors with Liquid Paper.

 

[JWolf]

That's one thing I didn't think of. Please also include errors found in print editions as they probably are in the eBooks as well.

 

[JWolf]

I just started reading Cast No Shadows by James Swallow in ePub (eBook) and I've found some errors.

Chapter 1
Cart-wright

Chapter 4
Cart-wright

 

[JWolf]

So what is wrong with wanting error free eBooks?

 

[JoeZhang]

Whoops, I deleted because I thought "Do I want the argument?" but then Jwolf posted so I better put my post back so he doesn't look like he's talking to himself - my original post was:

Must make the piracy process a lot smoother having other people proof-reading before you upload. I think you must have brassballs as big as a planet, the way that you are so open using the same user name for both activities.

 

[JoeZhang]

So what is wrong with wanting error free eBooks?

Nothing, I have a problem with the way you steal income from the writers here by uploading their books to the internet as soon as they are released. I think it takes a special type of person to be, on the one hand, constantly complaining to authors about the QC in books and on the other, be involved in the process of piracy.

It's like that Chris Rock stand-up routine when he talked about neighbours who would steal your TV and the come around and say "so I hear you got robbed?".

 

[Art Vandelay]

I just started reading Cast No Shadows by James Swallow in ePub (eBook) and I've found some errors.

Chapter 1
Cart-wright

Chapter 4
Cart-wright

That goes to show that e-book conversions are all done automatically, without proof-reading. If a proper noun that is in no dictionary is syllabicated in the print version because it happens to be near a line break, the hyphen stays in the e-book. If all hyphens were eliminated automatically, we'd be having stuff like "tenyearold conflict" or "wellliked counsellor".

They need to hire proof readers, not just dump the print files into e-book format.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Not going to happen any time soon.

The more recent CSI books are better though, and they're also done by Pocket/S&S.

 

[ATimson]

That goes to show that e-book conversions are all done automatically, without proof-reading. If a proper noun that is in no dictionary is syllabicated in the print version because it happens to be near a line break, the hyphen stays in the e-book. If all hyphens were eliminated automatically, we'd be having stuff like "tenyearold conflict" or "wellliked counsellor".

Or they just need competent layout people - that's why the soft hyphen exists (to say "you can put a hyphen here if it's at the end of a line, but otherwise don't").

 

[OmahaStar]

Must make the piracy process a lot smoother having other people proof-reading before you upload. I think you must have brassballs as big as a planet, the way that you are so open using the same user name for both activities.

Wait, seriously? How do you know he's doing that?

 

[label]

Nothing, I have a problem with the way you steal income from the writers here by uploading their books to the internet as soon as they are released.

I'm of two minds here.......on the one hand, we should obviously support authors we enjoy so as to encourage them to write more.

However, the publishers make it almost impossible to do that anymore with how outrageous they price a lot of eBooks any more.....they basically gouge people who want to buy eBooks, sometimes charging several dollars more for the eBook copy, even though it clearly costs less. An example : I can buy the 4 book paperback set of A Song of Fire and Ice series for ~$20 @ Amazon. The publishers want $30 for the eBook version. Needless to say, that is complete and unadulterated rubbish and I flat out refuse to pay it. So, I bought the paperback version and downloaded and am reading the eBook version.

So, my wife and I both now buy whichever copy is cheaper, and if the hard copy is cheaper - which happens more and more now - then I go out and download the book and read it in eBook format anyway.

I refuse to allow the publishers to gouge me, but I also refuse to be a person who steals.....unfortunately because of the publishers greed, I'm forced to go this route than the more desired approach of just paying for the eBook at a reasonable price. I sincerely can't wait till most of the publishers either go bankrupt or are forced to adapt, scale back and provide eBooks at a reasonable price, not these outrageous ones that are prevalent right now.

 

[bfollowell]

Must make the piracy process a lot smoother having other people proof-reading before you upload. I think you must have brassballs as big as a planet, the way that you are so open using the same user name for both activities.

Wait, seriously? How do you know he's doing that?

I wondered the same exact thing. I'm not condoning the behavior and defending him or anything like that. I'm just saying, if he's uploading pirated ebooks to one of those slimy, low-down, thieving pirate sites, what the heck were you doing there to find out?

I'm sure there could be an innocent reason but it does look suspicious.

 

[JoeZhang]

Jwolf is actually pretty well known in ereader circles, you don't have to go anywhere illegal to come across him - however, the membership of legal sites often overlaps with illegal ones. Someone who knows I am into Star Trek PM'd me a site (it's irrelevant what the site was, so no don't ask), I took a look and there he was.

 

[bfollowell]

Jwolf is actually pretty well known in ereader circles, you don't have to go anywhere illegal to come across him - however, the membership of legal sites often overlaps with illegal ones. Someone who knows I am into Star Trek PM'd me a site (it's irrelevant what the site was, so no don't ask), I took a look and there he was.

Like I said, perfectly logical, and innocent, explanation. Without that though, it did sound a little suspicious.

Still, someone somewhere was surfing illegal sites or they never would've found him to PM you the information.

Personally, I find it best to resist temptation if I steer clear of those sites.

- Byron

 

[antonio107]

When I read A Stitch in Time, lowercase L's and lowercase i's and uppercase I's were often mixed up interchangeably by the scanning machine. Enough of a nuisance that I wrote a complaint to the Kobo people, who have kindly not even taken the time to reply to me and tell me to go to Hell.

In the other DS9 relaunches I've read so far, any Italicized word for Bajoran or other alien things, or the parts where someone's thinking, always cause a space to go missing. So if there was a foreign word righthereit gets scrunched with the words around them.

They're annoying, but not enough so as to damage the experience. But enough that I should be paying HALF of what the print books cost, not one dollar less or the exact same price.

 

[bfollowell]

I don't know if this is so much an error as a preference thing but I've never cared for the way ellipsis are often used. I know the three dots are called an ellipsis. I'm not sure what the four dots in a row are called. Consistently, S&S uses an ellipsis with a period at the end to make-up the four dots and that's not the same thing as four dots in a row. The first three will look properly spaced with one dot bunched up at the end. I'm not sure how it looks on other readers but it doesn't look quite right on my Kindle. I always search these out and replace them with four periods. This is an issue in almost every single Star Trek ebook out there.

Also, as far as ellipsises (ellipsi?) go, sometimes they actually use the proper ellipsis character, sometimes they use three periods, sometimes they use three periods with spaces in between them. Sometimes there are spaces before or after the ellipsis or both, sometimes there aren't. I always search out all these variations and replace them with the proper ellipsis character with no space before or after. This issue is hit or miss throughout the TrekLit line. Some ebooks are perfect, by my standards, others are not.

Again, this is a very minor and, admittedly, picky issue on my part but I've noticed a lot of variation and thought I'd mention it.

- Byron

 

[ATimson]

I don't know if this is so much an error as a preference thing but I've never cared for the way ellipsis are often used. I know the three dots are called an ellipsis. I'm not sure what the four dots in a row are called.

It's called "an ellipsis followed by a period because it's at the end of a sentence".

 

[bfollowell]

I don't know if this is so much an error as a preference thing but I've never cared for the way ellipsis are often used. I know the three dots are called an ellipsis. I'm not sure what the four dots in a row are called.

It's called "an ellipsis followed by a period because it's at the end of a sentence".

You know, you're probably right. Some of the simplest things seem to escape me sometimes.

Still, I've never seen it look like an ellipsis followed by a period in a print book. It just looks like four equally spaced periods, and that's definitely not what you get when you put an ellipsis and a period together in an ebook, at least on a Kindle.

Like I said, extremely picky, I know….

^ See what I mean?! I was trying to be funny there ^, but it looks perfect on my screen. It must be a Kindle thing.

- Byron

 

[antonio107]

I don't know if this is so much an error as a preference thing but I've never cared for the way ellipsis are often used. I know the three dots are called an ellipsis. I'm not sure what the four dots in a row are called.

It's called "an ellipsis followed by a period because it's at the end of a sentence".

You know, you're probably right. Some of the simplest things seem to escape me sometimes.



^ See what I mean?! I was trying to be funny there ^, but it looks perfect on my screen. It must be a Kindle thing.

- Byron

it's when elipsis runs in italics that I find it's the screwiest. Like how I tried to demonstrate in your post I quoted:

Still, I've never seen it look like an ellipsis followed by a period in a print book. It just looks like four equally spaced periods, and that's definitely not what you get when you put an ellipsis and a period together in an ebook, at least on a Kindle.

Like I said, extremely picky, I know....