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Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

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Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#101

Post by [deleted] »

jordigh wrote: post #97
furyg3 wrote: post #10

Amazon is probably trying to correct publishers who copy+paste their hardcopy texts (from InDesign or wherever) into eBook format, taking with them artifacts from the print designer, like forced hyphenation. These artifacts from the print world are not useful in eBooks, since the reader is automatically breaking up lines based on the screen size, font, etc. http://indesignsecrets.com/field-guide-to-indesign-hyphens.p…

> she has a Btw, the author's name appears to be "Graeme", which seems to always be male: http://www.behindthename.com/name/graeme

[deleted]

Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#102

Post by potench »

I wonder if Amazon's automated system would flag something like "Riddley Walker" where, in the future, words have changed meaning and are spelled phonetically. (1) Maybe Amazon could have an editors community similar to Stackoverflow where they can influence and override the automated curating system.

1. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddley_Walker

Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#103

Post by ijk »

spdustin wrote: post #85
mst wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think that the author insulting someone who have paid for his book is not something intelligent, nice or professional. That's fairly straight up UK english hyperbole. Calling the author stupid and unprofessional because you're unfamiliar with the way UK english works is a trifle unfair. Edit: I'm specifically talking about being unfamiliar with that style of hyperbole here. I am not defending the hyphenation. Tha…

He didn't say the author was stupid, nor did he say he was unprofessional. He said the author's behavior wasn't nice. And it isn't. There's no question in any English reader's mind (US or UK) that the author's heavy-handed use of hyphenation is grammatically incorrect. The buyers of the book DID have their intelligence insulted, and on closer examination, it appears that those customers are actually correct. I see no…

I'm still not sure the bookstore is the best place to go for grammar enforcement, rather than suggesting he hire an editor. But Amazon's foray into supporting hands-off self-publishing is at war with their need to have a minimum quality level to avoid scaring off customers. An actual working rating system would help, if anyone had managed to invent such a thing.

I'm also of the opinion that if I'm reading a book with such egregiously awful editing, I'd stop reading it, rather than ask for corrections. If the editing is bad, are the ideas any better?

Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#104

Post by sireat »

Amazon is rather hard-headed about their Kindle formatting.

I suppose it stems from early issues with even well-known books being horribly mis-formatted for Kindle. Ok enough hyphens for now.

At least you English writers can count your lucky stars that it is possible to publish ebooks at all on Amazon.

If you have published a regular book on Amazon in a language not deemed to be worthy of Kindle support you are SOL: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A9FDO0A3V0119

Rather a short list isn't it? And the list is not growing despite sideloaded books displaying perfectly fine on Kindle in the not supported languages.

Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#105

Post by mst »

spdustin wrote: post #85
mst wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think that the author insulting someone who have paid for his book is not something intelligent, nice or professional. That's fairly straight up UK english hyperbole. Calling the author stupid and unprofessional because you're unfamiliar with the way UK english works is a trifle unfair. Edit: I'm specifically talking about being unfamiliar with that style of hyperbole here. I am not defending the hyphenation. Tha…

He didn't say the author was stupid, nor did he say he was unprofessional. He said the author's behavior wasn't nice. And it isn't. There's no question in any English reader's mind (US or UK) that the author's heavy-handed use of hyphenation is grammatically incorrect. The buyers of the book DID have their intelligence insulted, and on closer examination, it appears that those customers are actually correct. I see no…

I have edited my comment to make it clearer that you weren't replying to anything I actually said. Hope that helps.

Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#106

Post by [deleted] »

jgrahamc wrote: post #47

So, I looked through the preview of the author's "High Moor" which is available on Amazon.co.uk and I see things like: "One of them picked up what looked like a dog's hind-leg and put it in a white plastic bag." "With the two-week Easter holiday just over a month away, ..." "The woman's white hair was hidden by a red-head scarf, ..." "The door of one of the expensive motor-homes opened ..." Seems to me Amazon may hav…

[deleted]

Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#108

Post by pluma »

otherusername wrote: post #25
scrrr wrote: post #16

Off topic, but has it occurred to anyone that the overuse of the term 'war on x' might impair what the word 'war' really stands for?

"Early examples of war as metaphor in US political discourse include J. Edgar Hoover's "war on crime" in the 1930s". We've been using it as a metaphor since 1930's. It hasn't impaired the "real" usage of the word "War" so far. I doubt it will in the future.

To be fair, the US has always been at war with Eastasia.

Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#109

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

moron4hire wrote: post #99
temuze wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the thing though - the writer should have the artistic liberty to use the punctuation they desire.

Yes, but there is a difference between intentionally using bad grammar to invoke ambiguity, and unintentionally getting in the way of a story because the writer doesn't know better.

Sad that he blew £1000 on an "editor" incapable of tidying up the hyphenation mess.

Re: Hyphen Hate? When Amazon went to war against punctuation

#110

Post by pluma »

jeremyswank wrote: post #20
mattmanser wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole thing's clearly a confusion, with the author being a nonce as he doesn't realize it's to do with line break hyphenates and Amazon customer service being nonces because they don't realize those hyphens aren't line break artefacts and they're just cut/pasting a standard response.

i didn't think a human being could be a 'nonce', or is this some new usage i don't know about?

Unless they're really making claims about the person's sexuality, I'd guess the intended word was dunce, or something similar?
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