"The Life of Samuel Johnson" on eBooks
As demonstrated in class last night eBook conversions are not perfect.
Whether it is the mentality of "it's not my job" or "I'm not a fish" the proofing step should not be overlooked. The name Penguin Classics implies top-notch publishing integrity and editorial quality, and "The Life of Samuel Johnson" by James Boswell did not receive it.
The Kindle eBook edition of Boswell's work costs $12.24. So I opted for the free sample, which gives you approximately 10-15% of the book (usually Front Matter and beginning of a first chapter). Even from this small sample I detected multiple format and content issues such as: "principles'ofwhich, asBoswellrecords, Johnsonhad'Muchexperience'. Boswell's famousimage" or "He was from the beginning '$$$$, a king of men."
I can only imagine it continues throughout the Kindle version.
The Nook eBook edition is free. And although it's not the same edition as the Kindle, format and content was horrible, one such example is:
"Ovre reus e7riavecrTaTai9 7rpa£eo-i ttolvtus tvecrTi S^Awcris dper^s rj Ka/aas, aXka 7rpay/xa fipayy ttoAAcckis, kcli pv)fJ"
This happened throughout the text, in large batches as above and in hidden in words or short sentences.
The best way to proof eBook conversions is looking off a hard copy of the text to see how the content is suppose to be presented - borders, indentations, spacing, grammar, spelling, font, size, etc. - and making the correct adjustments for the eBook to appropriately represent the original text on a different platform. Not having a hard copy of Boswell's book, I could only detect the obvious errors (as noted above) - but there could have been more had I been comparing eBook to book.
Since these errors (format, missing content, special characters) appear in some way on three different devices (Nook, Kindle, iPad) it leads me to believe that Penguin sent a corrupted InDesign or PDF file to get converted to ePUB. Penguin then did not thoroughly proof the final ePUB version but instead sent the final file for submission to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and possibly other vendors, who accepted the file for resale.
"The Life of Samuel Johnson" on eBooks is broken.
Whether it is the mentality of "it's not my job" or "I'm not a fish" the proofing step should not be overlooked. The name Penguin Classics implies top-notch publishing integrity and editorial quality, and "The Life of Samuel Johnson" by James Boswell did not receive it.
The Kindle eBook edition of Boswell's work costs $12.24. So I opted for the free sample, which gives you approximately 10-15% of the book (usually Front Matter and beginning of a first chapter). Even from this small sample I detected multiple format and content issues such as: "principles'ofwhich, asBoswellrecords, Johnsonhad'Muchexperience'. Boswell's famousimage" or "He was from the beginning '$$$$, a king of men."
I can only imagine it continues throughout the Kindle version.
The Nook eBook edition is free. And although it's not the same edition as the Kindle, format and content was horrible, one such example is:
"Ovre reus e7riavecrTaTai9 7rpa£eo-i ttolvtus tvecrTi S^Awcris dper^s rj Ka/aas, aXka 7rpay/xa fipayy ttoAAcckis, kcli pv)fJ"
This happened throughout the text, in large batches as above and in hidden in words or short sentences.
The best way to proof eBook conversions is looking off a hard copy of the text to see how the content is suppose to be presented - borders, indentations, spacing, grammar, spelling, font, size, etc. - and making the correct adjustments for the eBook to appropriately represent the original text on a different platform. Not having a hard copy of Boswell's book, I could only detect the obvious errors (as noted above) - but there could have been more had I been comparing eBook to book.
Since these errors (format, missing content, special characters) appear in some way on three different devices (Nook, Kindle, iPad) it leads me to believe that Penguin sent a corrupted InDesign or PDF file to get converted to ePUB. Penguin then did not thoroughly proof the final ePUB version but instead sent the final file for submission to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and possibly other vendors, who accepted the file for resale.
"The Life of Samuel Johnson" on eBooks is broken.
posted by allison at
10:45 AM
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