David Spence: A humble suggestion re: SP21 errata

[David Spence]

Though it's great for almost everything blackjack and Spanish 21, this forum seems a bit ineffective for errata for Katarina's book, since it's hard to know what's already been reported.

So my humble suggestion is this: create a publicly editable page on www.spanishcountess.com expressly for readers to post errors they find. It wouldn't be the official errata page, of course, but might be considered "unofficial errata." A simple organization by page number would make it relatively easy to tell which errors have already been reported.

David

[Don Schlesinger]

> Though it's great for almost everything blackjack and
> Spanish 21, this forum seems a bit ineffective for
> errata for Katarina's book, since it's hard to know
> what's already been reported.

> So my humble suggestion is this: create a publicly
> editable page on www.spanishcountess.com expressly for
> readers to post errors they find. It wouldn't be the
> official errata page, of course, but might be
> considered "unofficial errata." A simple
> organization by page number would make it relatively
> easy to tell which errors have already been reported.

Thanks for the suggestion, David. I've urged Kat to create an official Errata page, on her site, consisting of everything that has been pointed out so far. I don't think she's gotten around to including everything, yet. Then, when readers find something, it should be simple enough to refer to the page, to see if the typo/error has already been catalogued, as, logicially, these things should be listed in numerical order, by page number.

Don

[21forme]

> Thanks for the suggestion, David. I've urged Kat to
> create an official Errata page, on her site,
> consisting of everything that has been pointed out so
> far. I don't think she's gotten around to including
> everything, yet. Then, when readers find something, it
> should be simple enough to refer to the page, to see
> if the typo/error has already been catalogued, as,
> logicially, these things should be listed in numerical
> order, by page number.

> Don

It would also be nice if those of us who reported errors are sent an updated, corrected book. It's starting to get a little messy. Just a suggestion...

[BJinNJ]

I noticed that the Sales Rank for the book at LuLu is up
from about 5300 to 3600, too.

Somebody is buying this book. It's a keeper.
Good for Mrs. Walker.

BJinNJ

BTW
I did check the online Errata page before I posted those
last two. More eyeballs are better than less, No?

[Don Schlesinger]

> It would also be nice if those of us who reported
> errors are sent an updated, corrected book. It's
> starting to get a little messy. Just a suggestion...

Although all corrections are gratefully accepted and very much appreciated, I'm not sure that it's practical or feasible to send free books to everyone who reports errors.

Don

[Michael Low]

[Katarina Walker]

Technical books with numbers and computer data always have errors. Typos like "to many" instead of "too many" are not important in a technical book. It's typos and errors in the data that are important.
Computer programs are even worse. How many bugs are in Microsoft Word? Heaps. Even after >15 years on the market. Do you expect Bill Gates to send you a free copy? A software company would go broke that way. If that was the expectation, we'd still be in the 18th century, as no mathematical scientist would be able to publish anything without it costing them a huge a mount of money, as the cost of replacement is so much greater than the small profit margin from a sale.
Things of a technical nature, whether they be books or code, always have bugs or errors.
The amount of data errors in my book of 208 pages, and myriad table and figures is actually quite low for this kind of book.
The data errors make no financial difference to the reader. (If they did, I wouldn't have made so much money from playing myself over the years.)
There is no such a thing as a technical book without typos or data errors. Google "Errata", and you will see what I mean.
Someone clever accessed my book before I intended to release it (I had wanted to do one more proof read), and before I knew it, it seemed like everyone had a copy.
If I was to send every person a free copy that had a typo or data error, I would be sending every single person who had ever bought the book, and every single person that will ever buy the book, a free copy.
So would every other technical writer in the world.
My profit per book (a few dollars) does not compare the cost of sending a person a free copy (around $15). Therefore, it would involve me spending 3 years coding and writing for the book, only to essentially be paying for people to buy my book. (If i sold 10,000 copies, it would cost me $100,000.) There wouldn't be any technical books in the entire world, if authors were obliged to do that.
I didn't want to write this book. I wanted to keep it all to myself, and not share the info. It was my husband that talked me into it. He wanted me to get some recognition for my work.
Imagine spending three years working on something (6 months just to get the code working, 12 hour days), and then having to pay $100,000 so that 10,000 people can read your book and benefit from it? That doesn't make sense, economically or morally.

[21forme]

I'm sorry if you took offense at my comment. What I did not suggest is sending EVERYONE a new book - just those of us who reported errors. In either case, never mind...

You have an amazing talent to be capable of producing a book like this. You're husband had the right idea!

[Katarina Walker]

I'm a real feisty one.
In a book based on a computer program, there will always be errors, because all computer programs have bugs. Fortunately, none of the past or future errors will cost anyone any real money.
If you don't play the redoubling game, it won't affect you anyway.