Cable Forum - Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

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Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

- not to put too fine a point on it, I'd like to know why there are any discrepancies!

To explain:

Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon is very firmly in my top ten of favourite novels, and as I now have an Amazon Fire (which didn't exist when the novel was first released, of course) I decided to get the e-book version.

(As well as the entire Honor Harrington series, plus Harry Potter, plus a number of others...)

An accepted literary practice is to denote a character's inner thoughts by using italics in order to distinguish said thoughts from the narrative, and Altered Carbon is no exception to this - I for one prefer this literary device. The central character, Takeshi Kovacs, frequently quotes from the writings of Quellcrist Falconer, who might best be described as a political activist poet/revolutionary, and the quotes are, quite properly, in italics - at least they are in the printed version.

So why the hell are there several sections of text in the e-book version which should be in italics, but are not?!

Call me a purist - meh, I've been called worse. Call me a nitpicker - okay, I'll answer to that too; long ago I wanted to be a scientist and I'd like to think I've retained most of the mindset necessary for that...such as a keen eye for detail. But in this digital day and age, I don't believe exactitude and perfect fidelity are too much to ask.

The original manuscript for Altered Carbon is, surely, in a digital format - so why is it so difficult, apparently, to deliver an exact reproduction thereof via the e-book? To see plain text where there should be italics may be a trivial niggle to most, but to me it's highly annoying - especially as I have effectively bought two copies of this and several other books (I don't begrudge the extra cost per se because the convenience of holding an entire library in your hand is worth it). I want to know why this happens at all.

Sidenote: this also happens in Woken Furies - but not, bizarrely, in Broken Angels, even though I bought all three as part of a collection.

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Agreed. We can put a man on the moon but then can't do something as simple as this :mad:

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramrod (Post 35973451)

Agreed. We can put a man on the moon but then can't do something as simple as this :mad:

Unfortunately, we can’t put a man in the moon, anymore - the technology we had to do so (Saturn V) isn’t made any more, and we don’t have any current heavy lifting bodies capable of getting a manned mission to our satellite, land, and get back. ;)

Anyhow, completely different tech - that’s like saying we have nuclear power, why don’t we have fibre broadband in remote villages; it’s comparing apples and turnips.

The typesetting for a printed book is completely different to that for epub/mobi formats - it’s like the manufacture of bikes and cars - wheels, steering and gears are involved, but different types.

Also, Altered Carbon was first printed in 2002 - ebooks weren’t (mostly) available then, so it probably had to be scanned and reformatted for ebooks; newer books it tends to be done all at once.

I found this informative.

https://www.millcitypress.net/author...books-vs-books

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh (Post 35973468)

Tell that to Elon Musk

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramrod (Post 35973451)

Agreed. We can put a man on the moon but then can't do something as simple as this :mad:

Or did we :erm:

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hom3r (Post 35973576)

Tell that to Elon Musk

He’s going round the moon, not on it. The heavy lifter to do that won’t be available for about five years.

https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-w...s-to-the-moon/

Quote:

Maezawa, who is 42, will the first paying customer to hitch a ride to space on the Big Falcon Rocket, SpaceX’s next-generation rocket. While the rocket and spaceship are still years away from flight, Musk estimated that the circuit around the moon could happen as soon as 2023. He stressed that the vehicle would only carry passengers after several uncrewed test flights were completed.

“We have to set some kind of date [to work to],” Musk said to the assembled crowd. “If everything goes 100 percent right, then this is the date. But there are many uncertainties.”

FYI, the Falcon Heavy Lifter was five years behind schedule.

I hope we get people back on the moon in my lifetime - I remember the first moon landing (I was 12 years old), and I’d like to see more of them.

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

I was three and a half when Eagle landed, and I remember it! :p:

Thanks for the link, Hugh; that does explain it. But a better method is needed, really.

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

I'm currently reading all of Spike Milligan's war memoirs on my ereader, they have NOT translated to this electronic version at all well, many of the words are wrong, never mind the itallics, but they're great, so I 'soldier' on....

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

I just wish the costs were more aligned, it doesn't cost any more to produce duplicates of an e-book once the master has been finalised, unlike regular books where there are printing costs, paper, binding etc.

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Quote:

Originally Posted by techguyone (Post 35974094)

It does seem odd that books have remained fairly stable in price, whilst the cost of e-books has crept up over the same period.

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Quote:

Originally Posted by techguyone (Post 35974094)

Its the same with buying movies as its cheaper to buy a movie on DVD or Blu-Ray then it is to buy the digital download and yet there are far more costs involved in producing a disc and packaging it then the cost of a digital download.

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

It's also that ebooks have 20% VAT on them, while printed books don't.

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anonymouse (Post 35973693)

I was three and a half when Eagle landed, and I remember it! :p:

Thanks for the link, Hugh; that does explain it. But a better method is needed, really.

The actual differences in ebooks don't bother me too much, but I've also noticed that some ebooks use different phrases or terminology from time to time. I think this is likely because books available in different parts of the world sometimes have different phrases for different objects, and the ebook was converted from a version of the book originally published in a different country.

The annoying thing is when I first thought about posting this, I thought of a few examples. Can I remember ANY of them? Nope.

Re: Discrepancies between e-books and printed versions

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh (Post 35974104)

It's also that ebooks have 20% VAT on them, while printed books don't.

This is a good example of the law not keeping up with technology, an e-book is just as much a book as a printed one.