Here to help • 19 October 2011 • The SnowBlog

Here to help

          


Dear Amazon, in your Kindle app you have given me the ability to highlight text and share it with my friends on Facebook or Twitter. I have yet to come across a piece of text in an e-book that I want to share with my pals. However, I would please like to be able to share all the typos and mistakes that I'm highlighting with the publisher of the e-book. If you added this as an option, you would be improving the quality of the e-book market as a whole and helping save money for your publishers (who are going to need that money soon). I already have several books marked up ready for you to add this feature. Anyone who edits for a living will probably provide this service for you for free because when we see a mistake we itch to correct it. So you'd even be helping your readers by offering this function.

Thanks,

Rob



Update: There seems to be a bit of a trend in the comments that proofreading is beyond the lay reader. It is best left to professionals and should always occur before publication. OK, then. Shall I revise my suggestion that Amazon let me share highlighted typos with the publishers; instead, what about the idea that I enlist the services of master ninja hackers so that when I highlight a typo, it also gets highlighted on every other Kindle screen? The ignorant are thus educated about bad spelling and grammar, and sloppy publishers are shamed into seeking out the finest paid proofreaders forever more. (Though secretly I still prefer my original idea. It's more neighbourly.  
Rob