Trek Kindle eBook "Update"

[BritishSeaPower]

Hey, so I'm posting this here for a number of a reasons, the main one being that I've not seen this before for any eBook and the second that I've noticed myself and others have complained about major issues with some of the earlier Trek eBooks. (I believe A Stitch in Time was the most egregious according to the board. Though I forget which one now, one of the Post-Insurrection books had no paragraph breaks.)

Anyway, this morning I got an e-mail from Amazon alerting me that there was an update available for Voyager: The Farther Shore. The thing that caught my eye was a two point bullet list stating the reason for the update: "Typos have been corrected and Significant editorial changes have been made."

Significant editorial changes strikes me as a rather large blanket. I don't recall any major issues. Perhaps no chapter call outs or something minor. Still, it is curious. Anyone get a similar note about other books? Or perhaps know what exactly changed in Farther Shore?

 

[Zedferret]

I expect editorial changes refer to fixing the typesetting, justification or layout rather than story editorial.

 

[Thrawn]

I've seen "updates" for a couple of other titles, but not that one. Either way, it seems to be becoming fairly standard practice.

If games can have patches and movies can get director's cuts, I don't see any reason to freak out about this, though I suppose it would be nice if they were a little clearer on what's changing.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

I'm not so much alarmed or even worried about massive changes to content, more curious as to what changed. (If it were literally any other book I might even give it a go. ;-) )

You're right in comparing them to Game patches, it just cropped up as weird. Weirder still that I'd get an e-mail about it.

 

[bfollowell]

I pointed this out back in November, generally, not this ebook specifically (see my link below). It seems to have started sometime last fall. BritishSeaPower, you were part of the discussion way back then so, at least then, you were aware that these changes were being made, even if you weren't aware of the extent of the changes.

Most of the changes seem positive but some are really strange, ex. newer versions of ebooks having a title page for a cover where an older version had a real cover image for a cover. The text formatting has been really cleaned up in most of them though. I can't say that I've seen any book published after 2007 that has been updated though. So far it's only pre-2007 titles.

- Byron

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=193105

 

[BritishSeaPower]

Huh, I completely forgot about that thread, bfollowell. I looked through the book and it seems that the improvements are the "Sign Up for Pocket" pages, a better cover image and chapter breaks that correspond to the print pages.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I found the kindle version of Stone and Anvil had about three chapters in the middle in the wrong order. Really confuses the story. I had to compare it to a print copy to figure out what should be where. I reported it to Amazon, who said they'd notify the publisher. That was about six months ago, and so far no update.

Edit: Doh. Its After the Fall, not Stone and Anvil. I'll actually get a title right some day soon.

 

[Thrawn]

Huh. Just in case I ever happen to read that on Kindle, do you happen to remember which chapters?

 

[bfollowell]

I found the kindle version of Stone and Anvil had about three chapters in the middle in the wrong order. Really confuses the story. I had to compare it to a print copy to figure out what should be where. I reported it to Amazon, who said they'd notify the publisher. That was about six months ago, and so far no update.

Well, it looks as if Stone & Anvil has already been updated as part of the program I mentioned back last November. So, either the changes you mentioned have already been made or they were missed and are still there in a cleaned-up prettier version. The version you mentioned that had the chapters out-of-sequence, did it have the "Thank you for purchasing this Pocket Books ebook - Signup Here" page in the front and back of the book? If not, you were definitely reading and older version and a newer one is available. You may just try re-downloading to see if they send the newer version.

- Byron

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Huh. Just in case I ever happen to read that on Kindle, do you happen to remember which chapters?

Just checked the email i sent amazon about it, and I'm mis-remembering titles again (second time this week) - it was After the Fall, not Stone and Anvil.
Either way, pages 219-237 have been moved to after the subsequent chapter (the chapters aren't numbered in that book).

 

[CaffeineAddict]

I found the kindle version of Stone and Anvil had about three chapters in the middle in the wrong order. Really confuses the story. I had to compare it to a print copy to figure out what should be where. I reported it to Amazon, who said they'd notify the publisher. That was about six months ago, and so far no update.

Well, it looks as if Stone & Anvil has already been updated as part of the program I mentioned back last November. So, either the changes you mentioned have already been made or they were missed and are still there in a cleaned-up prettier version. The version you mentioned that had the chapters out-of-sequence, did it have the "Thank you for purchasing this Pocket Books ebook - Signup Here" page in the front and back of the book? If not, you were definitely reading and older version and a newer one is available. You may just try re-downloading to see if they send the newer version.

- Byron

Turns out it was After the Fall, not Stone and Anvil, but yes, it does have the pocket ebooks "sign up here" pages.
I've tried re-downloading the kindle book, and the issue is still there.

 

[Data's Cat]

Hey, so I'm posting this here for a number of a reasons, the main one being that I've not seen this before for any eBook
<snip>
Anyone get a similar note about other books?

I send out a daily newsletter for free and bargain Kindle books to a rather large mailing list, and due to all those free books (and a few paid ones), I have almost 4000 Kindle books (no clue when I'll EVER be able to read them all).

I'm also in some of the authors' beta groups- they send me books to read before they are published, and ask for feedback.

Updates happen very frequently. They are usually for correcting typos, and grammatical and formatting errors.

 

[Thrawn]

Huh. Just in case I ever happen to read that on Kindle, do you happen to remember which chapters?

Just checked the email i sent amazon about it, and I'm mis-remembering titles again (second time this week) - it was After the Fall, not Stone and Anvil.
Either way, pages 219-237 have been moved to after the subsequent chapter (the chapters aren't numbered in that book).

I wonder - would it be useful to have a thread that tracks eBook errors in Trek books? Off the top of my head, the first DTI book doesn't display italics, and Distant Shores is missing two stories.

 

[JWolf]

The more recent Trek eBooks have been quite good in terms of not having errors. I'm glad someone at S&S decided it was time to stop the crap and make proper eBooks.

 

[Csalem]

I got Slings and Arrows book 6 on Kindle recently and had a terrible formating issue with italic. There was no space between previous word and italicised word.

 

[JWolf]

I got Slings and Arrows book 6 on Kindle recently and had a terrible formating issue with italic. There was no space between previous word and italicised word.

I bought Slings and Arrows back before ePub and KF8. I bought it in MS Reader format. I do not recall having an issue with italics. But then, maybe it was remade for KF8 using PDF as the source. I have seen some eBooks made from a PDF source have that very issue with italics.

As for downloading updated Trek books, I would not do it. All the errors I noticed while reading have been fixed. Without reading again, no way to be sure that S&S fixed all the noticeable errors.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

I got Slings and Arrows book 6 on Kindle recently and had a terrible formating issue with italic. There was no space between previous word and italicised word.

Oh yes, that whole range is replete with errors. The last chapter of Part 6 also had a fun formatting error where scenes inside a chapter are not separated from each other - as they normally would be with stars, a space or a bar, they just run it into each other. Many times it's not very obvious when they do and characters who are in two different locations appear to be in the same location.

Updates happen very frequently. They are usually for correcting typos, and grammatical and formatting errors.

Indeed. But I've never been e-mailed to let me know said changes had occurred, that's the bigger oddity. (At first I assumed it was because I had maybe reported this book to Amazon, but my records indicate I did not.)

 

[DimesDan]

I got Slings and Arrows book 6 on Kindle recently and had a terrible formating issue with italic. There was no space between previous word and italicised word.

I bought Slings and Arrows[/i] back before ePub and KF8. I bought it in MS Reader format. I do not recall having an issue with italics. But then, maybe it was remade for KF8 using PDF as the source. I have seen some eBooks made from a PDF source have that very issue with italics.

As for downloading updated Trek books, I would not do it. All the errors I noticed while reading have been fixed. Without reading again, no way to be sure that S&S fixed all the noticeable errors.

While discussing formatting issues and lack of italics, isn't that rather ironicly amusing.

 

[Data's Cat]

Updates happen very frequently. They are usually for correcting typos, and grammatical and formatting errors.

Indeed. But I've never been e-mailed to let me know said changes had occurred, that's the bigger oddity. (At first I assumed it was because I had maybe reported this book to Amazon, but my records indicate I did not.)

I get emails from Amazon letting me know about the updates.

While discussing formatting issues and lack of italics, isn't that rather ironicly amusing.

I thought so.

 

[JD]

I got Slings and Arrows book 6 on Kindle recently and had a terrible formating issue with italic. There was no space between previous word and italicised word.

Oh yes, that whole range is replete with errors. The last chapter of Part 6 also had a fun formatting error where scenes inside a chapter are not separated from each other - as they normally would be with stars, a space or a bar, they just run it into each other. Many times it's not very obvious when they do and characters who are in two different locations appear to be in the same location.

The EPub version of Immortal Coil I got for my Nook had the same problem. It was confusing as hell.