Is Shortcovers’ typography up to snuff? ‘Shortchangers’?
Is the typography on Shortcovers, a new e-book service, up to snuff? Joe Clark, in fawny, his Web log, says no.
An example is Sharp Teeth, Toby Barlow’s novel, which Joe describes as "written in free verse about marauding human lycanthropes."
Joe complains of problems in both the paper and electronic editions. In the latter, he writes, "Problems start right away on ‘page 1,’" where a ragged right margin "bespeaks a mindless intermingling of soft and hard returns." And Joe also has issues with failure to use hanging indents.
Those are just some of troubles he sees with Shortcovers, whose owner is Indigo, which Joe calls "Canada’s Walmartesque bookstore near-monopoly."
Among the other complaints, Joe gripes about the use of neutral rather than smart quotes and apostrophes.
What do you think, dear readers?
Moderator’s note: This is a holy cause, as I see it. Within reason—I prefer reflowable formats—an e-book should look like a finished book rather than a manuscript. Yes, it’s harder technically, but definitely worth the extra trouble. Keep baring your fangs, Joe. I hope that publishers and stores will listen! Shortcovers is hardly the only offender. On the positive side, I’ve found Shortcovers a good place for browsing, with plenty of enticing first chapters. - D.R. (aware that WordPress does not always get the quote thing right, as might be shown above—our fault, not Joe’s)
March 12th, 2009 at 10:17 am
If this is Chapters answer to Amazons ebooks it falls very short. As a Canadian I am very disapointed, I wouldn’t buy these ebooks and how come some ebooks cost more than paperback versions. Not gonna fly.