Comments on: Cyber Monday and the Case of the Disappointed Book Buyer

By: Rudy

Rudy — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:16:09 +0000

I have several dozen Open Road books (and bought several dozen more yesterday), and I’ve found them to be in pretty good shape, mostly as good as print books nowadays. I can tolerate a few typos. And I spent 30 years as an editor, so I seldom miss one. I have, however, acquired some backlist pre-digital books from other, Big 6, publishers that were in poor shape (I consider more than a dozen minor typos in a 75,000 word book to be excessive), but what’s really intolerable is missing or out of position sentences, paragraphs, pages, chapters. Some e-books achieve notoriety for such problems; in most cases, the publisher fixes the problems (because of poor sales, I’ll bet, not out of shame).

By: Jessica "JBaby" Moss

Jessica "JBaby" Moss — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:22:46 +0000

I did purchase a few ebooks, but none were from the Big 6. I mostly only buy from indies since I’m mostly against DRM and I’m against ebooks that are more expensive than their dead tree counterparts. I save Big 6 books for Audible. It’s a bit hypocritical I know, but Audible’s DRM scheme has never bitten me in the butt before. Anywho, I had better luck with indies.. Don’t get me wrong there’s a lot of crap out there, but I buy from professional indies. Indies who know that having an editor is essential. I also chose indies who are semi well established. My method of choosing indies has rarely backfired on me. I’m also lucky to have friends who are indie authors. Indies are really good about promoting each other. So it’s easier for me to take a risk on purchasing an ebook from an author I’m not familiar with. Professional indies always hate when you find errors in their books, but they’re always appreciative when errors are brought to their attention.

My indie method won’t work for everyone, but it works for me. I’ve been burned too many times by Big 6 books post Kindle to continue wasting my money and, more importantly, my time on them. I miss the glory days Peanut Press/eReader/Fictionwise. Sure the selection wasn’t vast like it is today, but at least every book you purchased was high quality.

By: George J.

George J. — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:37:34 +0000

It made my day to see that another person is comparably compulsive. If only there were simple ways to correct e-books! Couldn’t such a capability be built into e-reader software? I know that I’d read more e-books if, when necessary, I had an opportunity to correct their spelling and sometimes even their grammar.
As far as completing series is concerned, I keep a list of my incomplete series and every few months check if any of the missing volumes have become available.

By: Xendula

Xendula — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 01:22:27 +0000

I did not buy any ebooks because none of the ones that interest me were on sale in any of the major stores. Too bad, a blanket 50%off of ANY book would have been nice.

Also, Frank, not sure about other readers, but on the Paperwhite, you can highlight text and select to have it sent to the publisher for correction. I do it, but don’t bother explaining in the notes section why that is a typo, missing comma, whatever. They better figure this out on their own. It’s three touches for me, so I don’t mind.

I like the idea of receiving credit for corrections sent in. Hear that, MACMILLAN?! Yes, I am talking to YOU!

By: Greg M.

Greg M. — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:52:22 +0000

I’ve seen some typos from major publishers, but nothing overwhelmingly bad. Or at least not for some time; I got the Winds of War in 2008 and it was chock full of errors. Others have not been as bad. Your milage may vary.

On the other hand, I’ve seen indie and self-pub works that clearly lacked any sort of editing or OCR correction. And then there was the purest art of incompetence in a self-pub science fiction novel that began with the worst description of a space battle I’ve ever read and the misuse of grizzly for grisly. The author even wrote his own introduction saying how happy he was finally living his dream of becoming a “real” writer. How sad.

That said, I bought about dozen ebooks yesterday. They were on sale at Amazon, so probably not from major publishers. Too soon to tell about typos.

By: Frank Lowney

Frank Lowney — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:59:38 +0000

You’d think that digital works could “phone home” with the corrections that readers might be willing to make if they received a rebate on what they bought or a credit toward future purchases.

By: Alexander Inglis

Alexander Inglis — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:18:03 +0000

I purchased a number of mysteries from the Kobo Cyber Monday sale. They are all from the Open Road family of imprints. To date, I have not had nasty issues with these. Perhaps I am just content enjoying the reading.