# MISSPELLINGS AND BAD EDITING ON KINDLE BOOKS



## eamc (Oct 19, 2009)

There are some blatant misspellings and bad end-of-line editing on several Kindle books.  I would like to call these to Amzon's attention, in the hope that they can get the publishers to correct the mistakes and issue an update to purchasers.  I find that my "feedback" messages are not answered. Otherwise, I am totally satisfied with my 300 Kindle books.  How can I get through to Jeff Bezos?


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## RobertKindle (Nov 22, 2011)

I think contacting the publisher would be the best choice for contact.


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## KindleChickie (Oct 24, 2009)

eamc said:


> There are some blatant misspellings and bad end-of-line editing on several Kindle books. I would like to call these to Amzon's attention, in the hope that they can get the publishers to correct the mistakes and issue an update to purchasers. I find that my "feedback" messages are not answered. Otherwise, I am totally satisfied with my 300 Kindle books. How can I get through to Jeff Bezos?


Highlight the errors then call kindle customer service and ask for a refund. No need to get through to Jeff Bezos until you first start at the proper level for complaints. If you do not get satisfaction when speaking with customer service then you can ask for their supervisor and start going up the ladder from there.


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## kindlegrl81 (Jan 19, 2010)

I would send an email to Kindle customer service, the author and the publisher.  Hopefully one of them will look into the problem and get it fixed.  If nothing else Kindle CS should be able to refund the price of the book.


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## DawnB (Sep 10, 2010)

It is best to call Kindle support, they will ask you for location info etc...

Just the week I called Kindle CS because 2 chapters were missing from the book "Book of all Things" by David Michael Slater. (The book had the chapter titles but the words were from the previous chapter, so basically a chapter was repeated 2 extra times under different chapter titles) Kindle CS confirmed this using Kindle for PC on there end, then gave me a credit for the book & removed the book so until the publisher could fix it. I emailed the author to let him know of the errors (he was very grateful). Hopefully the book will get fixed soon.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

eamc said:


> There are some blatant misspellings and bad end-of-line editing on several Kindle books. I would like to call these to Amzon's attention, in the hope that they can get the publishers to correct the mistakes and issue an update to purchasers. I find that my "feedback" messages are not answered. Otherwise, I am totally satisfied with my 300 Kindle books. How can I get through to Jeff Bezos?


Are you using the specific product feedback form that is on each page? I've always gotten at least an automated response when I use that. And Amazon does notify me from time to time that there is a new edition of a book I've purchased.

Betsy


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## PaulGuy (Jul 9, 2009)

Yes the book I'm currently reading has a lot of errors. The nature of the errors leads me to believe there are problems with the OCR software being used to convert these from print media. I'm not sure that's how its done but it sure looks that way to me based on the errors I'm seeing.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

PaulGuy said:


> Yes the book I'm currently reading has a lot of errors. The nature of the errors leads me to believe there are problems with the OCR software being used to convert these from print media. I'm not sure that's how its done but it sure looks that way to me based on the errors I'm seeing.


This happens much too often.

You can get your money back from Amazon, but instead I would make my extreme displeasure known to the publisher and demand a refund from them. Publishers are putting out ebooks without even the slightest copyediting.


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## RJ Locksley (Oct 21, 2011)

PaulGuy said:


> Yes the book I'm currently reading has a lot of errors. The nature of the errors leads me to believe there are problems with the OCR software being used to convert these from print media. I'm not sure that's how its done but it sure looks that way to me based on the errors I'm seeing.





JRTomlin said:


> This happens much too often.
> 
> You can get your money back from Amazon, but instead I would make my extreme displeasure known to the publisher and demand a refund from them. Publishers are putting out ebooks without even the slightest copyediting.


This makes me sad. I'm about to start a copy-editing gig for a small publisher doing precisely this - cleaning up files which have been run through OCR software. You can't just skip that stage.


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## eamc (Oct 19, 2009)

The various comments have been useful.  I know about the ease of returning a purchased book for credit, but I like the books I purchase, and want to keep them.  Writing to the publishers is a lot of work:  I am quite willing to write, but usually find it very difficult to obtain a publisher's email address.  As an example, I have a Kindle book published by Simon & Schuster that misspells a word 46 times in the course of the book, but "contact" is difficult.  Does anybody have an idea on how to track down a customer service email address without lengthy searching?  Some email addresses are purchasable, but I don't find many free ones.  It would help if Amazon could do this.


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## Tatiana (Aug 20, 2010)

eamc said:


> The various comments have been useful. I know about the ease of returning a purchased book for credit, but I like the books I purchase, and want to keep them. Writing to the publishers is a lot of work: I am quite willing to write, but usually find it very difficult to obtain a publisher's email address. As an example, I have a Kindle book published by Simon & Schuster that misspells a word 46 times in the course of the book, but "contact" is difficult. Does anybody have an idea on how to track down a customer service email address without lengthy searching? Some email addresses are purchasable, but I don't find many free ones. It would help if Amazon could do this.


Contacting the publisher would probably be your best option. I did a google search and the "Contact Us" info came up under the publisher, Simon and Schuster. If you click on the contact us link and then choose a topic you can report it under a defective product or eBook. There is room for you to write comments, etc. about the problem you have with their book. I hope this helps.

http://www.simonandschuster.com/about/contact_us


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

eamc said:


> The various comments have been useful. I know about the ease of returning a purchased book for credit, but I like the books I purchase, and want to keep them. Writing to the publishers is a lot of work: I am quite willing to write, but usually find it very difficult to obtain a publisher's email address. As an example, I have a Kindle book published by Simon & Schuster that misspells a word 46 times in the course of the book, but "contact" is difficult. Does anybody have an idea on how to track down a customer service email address without lengthy searching? Some email addresses are purchasable, but I don't find many free ones. It would help if Amazon could do this.


There's a feedback link at the bottom of every book page. Report it to Amazon. They do pass this specific feedback on to publishers. That's what it's designed for -- if it's not a file problem they can fix, they tell the person who uploaded the file.


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## eamc (Oct 19, 2009)

Yes, Amazon says you highlight the error, and then go to MORE on MENU and report the error, but no MORE appears for me. I have asked them and they will answer. How do you suggest reporting on the bottom of each page?   

They also say you can go to the DETAIL PAGE for a book and report. How do I get to the DETAIL PAGE?

Quote:

If you discover an error while reading content, you can report errors using the Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac applications directly from the application.

To report an error, highlight the error, choose "More" from the menu that appears and click "Report Content Error." We'll ask you to identify the type of error, and you can add comments about the problem. To send the report, click "Submit." A customer support specialist will look into the error.

Once you've submitted an error report, you can view your submissions at: kindle.amazon.com

You can also submit errors by going to the Amazon detail page for that Kindle eBook. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link next to "Would you like to report poor quality or formatting in this book?"[/quote]


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## Brad Murgen (Oct 17, 2011)

I have noticed this in a few recent Kindle books, particularly old books that are out of print and have to be scanned from hardback or something.  Many publishers seem to outsource the conversion and don't do enough copyediting afterwards.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

eamc said:


> Yes, Amazon says you highlight the error, and then go to MORE on MENU and report the error, but no MORE appears for me. I have asked them and they will answer. How do you suggest reporting on the bottom of each page?
> 
> They also say you can go to the DETAIL PAGE for a book and report. How do I get to the DETAIL PAGE?


They're talking about the product page for the book on Amazon. Scroll nearly all the way to the bottom and you'll see a section for feedback.

I didn't know about reporting directly via Kindle for PC and Mac, though. . . .that might be new.


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## Steverino (Jan 5, 2011)

DawnB said:


> I emailed the author to let him know of the errors (he was very grateful). Hopefully the book will get fixed soon.


Any indie author would be grateful for such an email. The problem for authors is finding the darn invisible typos -- if you email the author, he or she can fix it, upload a new version in a few hours, and be your friend for life.


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

There's been a lot of this, and the real problem is publishers rushing to take advantage of the ebook boom and not being careful enough with their product. It really is shoddy of them, and even if you can get a refund from Amazon, you ought to complain to the publishers as well, since that's the only way to change this situation. They're making enough income from their ebook sales that it won't hurt them to hire an at-home copy-editor or two.


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## Darlene Jones (Nov 1, 2011)

ebooks aren't the only ones with mistakes. I find it even more disturbing when a print book from a major publishing company has errors. For example "even" instead of "ever." Or a major character sick in his hotel room and not going on the tour and then on the next page he's on the bus with the rest of the group. Where are the editors?


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Most of the cases I'm seeing aren't author errors. They're obviously problems at the publisher's end that occurred during ebook formatting, making it clear the ebook files aren't being checked before uploading.


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## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

Okay, I've got to say something here, even though I'll probably get tomatoes thrown at me. There are going to be typos in every book you buy. Every. One. It doesn't matter if they're trad or indie. I can't tell you how many sets of eyes look at the books that go out to readers, and still there are going to be typos. They go through beta reads, initial edits, line edits (sometimes two or three times) and copy edits. When your average book is 100,000 words, there is bound to be one or two of them that are wrong. It's not that publishers are taking short cuts or that indies (at least the professional ones) are cutting corners. It's just that the whole process is run by humans. Who are not perfect. Instead of demanding money back or being dissatisfied, just send a nice email to the publisher and let them know. They don't want to have errors in their books any more than you want them to be there. And if it happens to be an ebook formatting error, please don't skewer the author in a review. It's not their fault. It's the publisher's fault. Just let the publisher know and let Amazon know. It'll get taken care of. Authors are people too, and we have feelings (just sayin').

Okay...that is all. Please make sure your tomatoes are soft and squishy so they don't hurt.


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## normcowie (Jun 21, 2011)

A lot of good points here. You can always express your displeasure by giving the book a stinging rating. Everyone pays attention to ratings.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Liliana, your point is well made. . .but I don't think people here are too worried about the 'one-off' typo. As you say, they've been around for years.

What is concerning to many, however, is that they seem to be getting more frequent -- indicating somewhat less care taken -- and/or they're not just one-off's any more. That, of course, could just be perception -- I'm probably more aware now where as, previously, I'd probably have not really taken great notice unless the error is particularly egregious. I don't go _looking_ for errors, but if I keep finding similar ones in the same book it kind of raises a flag.

I would also observe that, for periodicals, anyway, editorial staffs have been shrinking and there's more reliance on 'spell check' and 'grammar check' software. It wouldn't surprise me if book publishing houses are doing the same.  Heck, in a few years, it might be that "independently published" books are the only ones edited and proofed by actual humans! 

Also, many backlist tiltles are being converted to ebooks. In cases where this is done with OCR software and there are consistent misspellings of the same words throughout, that's a pretty good sign that NO competent human reviewed the computer output.


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## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

I don't go looking for errors, but inevitably I stumble across them nearly everywhere I read. I just get used to it myself. They will be in newspapers, internet news sites, books, ebooks...everywhere. The point is how many are there and just how jarring are they and how they undermine the readability.  If I'm reading an 80,000 word novel and I stumble on 5 or 8 typos, I don't have a problem since it is such a tiny % of the work. But 5 or 8 in a 300 word article is just sloppy.

OCR, well that's a different kettle of fish which can introduce tons of errors and can render a book almost not worth reading.


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## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

I also think the Kindle highlights errors. The print is bigger and the way it's laid out really makes errors stand out. I do think that NY pubs should be proofing on an ereader, and I know many of them aren't yet. It's a lot easier for the eye to skim over a mistake and fill in the blanks or have your brain put the correct word in when it's it paper form. You can't hide in e-form.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

LilianaHart said:


> Okay, I've got to say something here, even though I'll probably get tomatoes thrown at me. There are going to be typos in every book you buy. Every. One. It doesn't matter if they're trad or indie. I can't tell you how many sets of eyes look at the books that go out to readers, and still there are going to be typos. They go through beta reads, initial edits, line edits (sometimes two or three times) and copy edits. When your average book is 100,000 words, there is bound to be one or two of them that are wrong. It's not that publishers are taking short cuts or that indies (at least the professional ones) are cutting corners. It's just that the whole process is run by humans. Who are not perfect. Instead of demanding money back or being dissatisfied, just send a nice email to the publisher and let them know. They don't want to have errors in their books any more than you want them to be there. And if it happens to be an ebook formatting error, please don't skewer the author in a review. It's not their fault. It's the publisher's fault. Just let the publisher know and let Amazon know. It'll get taken care of. Authors are people too, and we have feelings (just sayin').
> 
> Okay...that is all. Please make sure your tomatoes are soft and squishy so they don't hurt.


Stands next to LilianaHart with a baseball bat (to swat at the tomatoes).

Bad editing and typos happen everywhere. Indie books, trad published books, hospital pathology reports, subway signage.

If you want to be helpful, the best thing to do is either use the feedback form on the amazon page, or e-mail the indie author or the publisher, or let the people at the sign company know.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

I totally agree. But I'm not sure I'd call it bad editing so much as a difference in opinion. LOL
In the field of editing, there will be always be differences in opinion about how the story should go, the characters portrayed, etc. 
That goes for grammar, too. Things are changing, particularly in the field of comma management.  I see a lot of instances where I'd put a comma and I think the editor messed up not including one, but.... I also recognize that this is changing and people are using fewer commas today. Just one example of where you might *think* the author/editor made a mistake, but in fact made a conscious decision (my spelling is atrocious, sorry).

Grammarians would have nothing to debate if everything was so cut-and-dried.
Not to mention that in almost all books on writing, at least 70% of the time I find that I prefer the example of "bad writing" to the example of "good writing." I frequently prefer the intricate sentence to the "Jack went outside. He saw a polar bear. The bear ate him." writing that is held up as the shining example of "good, clear writing." Blech.

That's not to say that errors don't slip through, either. We are all human. Even copyeditors, believe it or not.



scarlet said:


> Stands next to LilianaHart with a baseball bat (to swat at the tomatoes).
> 
> Bad editing and typos happen everywhere. Indie books, trad published books, hospital pathology reports, subway signage.
> 
> If you want to be helpful, the best thing to do is either use the feedback form on the amazon page, or e-mail the indie author or the publisher, or let the people at the sign company know.


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