The 'quality issue' fairy has alighted on one of my books - what to do?

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

The quality issue consists of one instance of a missing 'h' in whimpering.  Bit of a schlep to change it and re-upload but easily doable. However, I am in the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' camp and worry that if I make this small change it will trigger yet another issue. What happens if you tick the 'not an issue' box? Will they keep coming back to you about it, or should I just go ahead and make the change and hope that will be the end of it?
Thanks in advance.

[TimothyEllis]

Make the change. It keeps them happy.

If there were others in the same book, they would have listed them.

It's no big deal if you just fix what they want fixed. And if they now find more, its good to know about them to fix them.

I had 3 books go this way a while back, and nothing since.

[Simon Haynes]

In the years since 2011 I've only had two 'quality issue' complaints, and I fixed them right away. I wouldn't ignore them.

Saying that, I upload new versions all the time with no problem at all.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Thanks. I've checked the "I will fix it' box. But I tend to keep all the drafts of my books 'just in case' and now I will have to decide which is the final one from 2010. I now clearly type FINAL on the final edition of my books, but I didn't do that back then as it was my first ebook 

[Tom Wood]

[Maggie Ann]

So true!

I now also put a date in the name but that comes after "really this is the last one 2.docx"

[TimothyEllis]

It's a hell of a lot easier when you don't do drafts. 

[Tom Wood]

::image::

So true!

I now also put a date in the name but that comes after "really this is the last one 2.docx"

I have a running list of text files labeled 'this is how the story/plot/character development works' in the binder in Scrivener. For a while I tagged the latest as 'THIS ONE' but now I just add dates. Same with texts/messages to myself at 2 AM in the morning.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Only a writer will appreciate the truth of this   

[Post-Crisis D]

Only eight versions?  LOL.

In my current WIP, for example, I have 1,080 files.  Now, eight of those files are for the cover art and type as well as notes but the other 1,072 are the WIP itself.

But, then again, I do things probably way different then most people.  Some day, if any of my work survives and if the contents of any of my hard drives survives, literary archaeologists will have a field day analyzing all my revisions and progress (or lack thereof) and whatnot.

[Simon Haynes]

yWriter puts the current date on epubs and mobi files when it creates them. Easy to tell which I've uploaded and which is newer.

It also keeps backups of the current scene (editor window) in 5 minute increments, as you type. And it saves a date stamped version of the entire project every fifteen minutes for as long as the project is open.

Backups, I have a lot of them...

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

So, I downloaded the current mobi file from my KDP bookshelf and converted it to a Word.docx, made the correction and then uploaded the corrected file, previewed it and clicked publish. Hope that satisfies the quality issue fairy 

[TimothyEllis]

So, I downloaded the current mobi file from my KDP bookshelf and converted it to a Word.docx, made the correction and then uploaded the corrected file, previewed it and clicked publish. Hope that satisfies the quality issue fairy 

How did you convert mobi to word?

[TimothyEllis]

I just got a quality email as well, on my book 3. 8 issues, 7 of which were typos, and 1 where they dont understand the context of the sentence, and so it isn't a problem.

Done the changes, uploaded already.

I suspect someone who 'edits' as they read has just started my series. Books 1 and 2 were re-edited last year, but 3 is 4 years old now, and still reflects my lack of experience back then. No surprise someone found 7 typos after all this time.

But I suspect I'm going to be getting a string of these as this person reads the series, and keeps reporting typos.

All good.

And only finding 7 (of 8, since I found another instance of one of them) is a good indication even back then, I wasn't making too many mistakes.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

So, I downloaded the current mobi file from my KDP bookshelf and converted it to a Word.docx, made the correction and then uploaded the corrected file, previewed it and clicked publish. Hope that satisfies the quality issue fairy 

How did you convert mobi to word?

I used Calibre. Very easy to convert to any file.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I just got a quality email as well, on my book 3. 8 issues, 7 of which were typos, and 1 where they dont understand the context of the sentence, and so it isn't a problem.

Done the changes, uploaded already.

I suspect someone who 'edits' as they read has just started my series. Books 1 and 2 were re-edited last year, but 3 is 4 years old now, and still reflects my lack of experience back then. No surprise someone found 7 typos after all this time.

But I suspect I'm going to be getting a string of these as this person reads the series, and keeps reporting typos.

All good.

And only finding 7 (of 8, since I found another instance of one of them) is a good indication even back then, I wasn't making too many mistakes.

Let's hope that the quality issue fairy is alighting on all the rubbish books that were uploaded at one time. I remember classics that were run through translators and then back into English. The finished books were often gobbledygook. 

[TimothyEllis]

Just checked, and the issues I addressed yesterday are now all flagged as completed.

They even accepted the one where I told them it wasn't an issue.

[notthatamanda]

They are listing quality issues reported, on the same line as the ratings, on the book page. 
Not sure if everyone can see this.  Not trying to pick on this author, but with 500+ reviews, 4+ stars I think she's doing okay.

https://www.amazon.com/Garment-Makers-Daughter-Hillary-Stern-ebook/dp/B01N0LQW7U/ref=zg_bs_7588883011_50?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=86448SSP7K6814BXK8J1

And yes I am off to double check all my book pages.

[TimothyEllis]

I've had 2 more books flagged. The order suggests someone is reading my first series and reporting goofs as they go.

Nothing showing on my books. But I didn't know to check before I did the corrections.

The corrections however, haven't been finalized on their end. I had 7 issues across 2 books. 6 I fixed. 1 wasn't an issue and is now tagged as under review.

So maybe the tag on the product page appears if you go too long without addressing issues.

Mind you, this time I didn't get an email. I found it while adding a new book. Maybe the email is sent after a period on the dashboard without being addressed, and the tag appears on the product page if the email is ignored.

Edit: Just looked at the link. It has a paperback version. That could be a factor in the tag as well.

[notthatamanda]

I've had 2 more books flagged. The order suggests someone is reading my first series and reporting goofs as they go.

Nothing showing on my books. But I didn't know to check before I did the corrections.

The corrections however, haven't been finalized on their end. I had 7 issues across 2 books. 6 I fixed. 1 wasn't an issue and is now tagged as under review.

So maybe the tag on the product page appears if you go too long without addressing issues.

Mind you, this time I didn't get an email. I found it while adding a new book. Maybe the email is sent after a period on the dashboard without being addressed, and the tag appears on the product page if the email is ignored.

Edit: Just looked at the link. It has a paperback version. That could be a factor in the tag as well.

I didn't realize this was reader reported issues.  I'm going to have to live with them awhile if those start cropping up.  I'm in the process of listening to Read Aloud on my first book and fixing it up a lot.  But to do all books is over half a million words to listen to.  It's going to take a while.  So glad I found read aloud before my last release.

[Rosie Scott]

I didn't realize this was reader reported issues.  I'm going to have to live with them awhile if those start cropping up.

I could be wrong, but I suspect quality issues are going to start popping up more often for most authors. Only within the last two, maybe three months have I noticed the "Report content error" option when highlighting something in a Kindle book. It pops up every time now, the last of the list in the order of "Translate, Wikipedia, Report Content Error". As a reader who highlights a lot, I've never had this option before the last few months, and now it's clearly noticeable. Anyone else notice this? I'm not entirely sure how readers were meant to report errors before--I think through the store page? Given it's now an option in the book itself, it'll likely be used more often at the moment the reader notices an error. A lot of "popular highlights" I've seen in books are errors as it is.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I've had 2 more books flagged. The order suggests someone is reading my first series and reporting goofs as they go.

Nothing showing on my books. But I didn't know to check before I did the corrections.

The corrections however, haven't been finalized on their end. I had 7 issues across 2 books. 6 I fixed. 1 wasn't an issue and is now tagged as under review.

So maybe the tag on the product page appears if you go too long without addressing issues.

Mind you, this time I didn't get an email. I found it while adding a new book. Maybe the email is sent after a period on the dashboard without being addressed, and the tag appears on the product page if the email is ignored.

Edit: Just looked at the link. It has a paperback version. That could be a factor in the tag as well.

If someone reports the error in a paperback and the paperback gets passed on to someone else, they could also report the error, even if it's been fixed in the ebook version. I wonder how that  will work 

[notthatamanda]

And if you fix the errors but no reader bothers to disagree with the quality report, (How would they do that anyway?) will the flagging ever go away?

[PaulineMRoss]

And if you fix the errors but no reader bothers to disagree with the quality report, (How would they do that anyway?) will the flagging ever go away?

Amazon itself checks that you've fixed the error. When you upload the new version and it goes live, the flagging disappears.

[notthatamanda]

Good to know. Thanks.

[Wonder]

I just received a quality warning for the first time. The issue was valid, I fixed it, and marked them as fixed. Amazon accepted the fixes promptly.

Pretty neat system, IMO. I appreciate the chance to address this stuff.

Wonder

[PaulineMRoss]

Pretty neat system, IMO. I appreciate the chance to address this stuff.

I do too BUT my flagged issues were in a 3 book box set. That meant fixing the box set AND fixing the ebook and paperback for each affected individual book. This time I was lucky, since all the typos were in one book, but if it had been all three, I'd have had 7 different books/formats to fix. And they were trivial, trivial errors, nothing that anyone would care about. I can see this becoming a real problem, and authors with a lot of books spending serious time fixing endless minor typos.

[Wonder]

Pretty neat system, IMO. I appreciate the chance to address this stuff.

I do too BUT my flagged issues were in a 3 book box set. That meant fixing the box set AND fixing the ebook and paperback for each affected individual book. This time I was lucky, since all the typos were in one book, but if it had been all three, I'd have had 7 different books/formats to fix. And they were trivial, trivial errors, nothing that anyone would care about. I can see this becoming a real problem, and authors with a lot of books spending serious time fixing endless minor typos.

Yeah, I can see how that would be a problem!

[notthatamanda]

I don't know if this would help but when I do the compilation I do the whole compilation and then take that file and break it up back into the individual books again.  Usually what I do is I finish the corrections in Book 1 I take a break and republish book one, then books 2 and 3, then the whole compilation.  I don't change each file, I'm afraid I'll miss something in one of them.

[PaulineMRoss]

I don't know if this would help but when I do the compilation I do the whole compilation and then take that file and break it up back into the individual books again.  Usually what I do is I finish the corrections in Book 1 I take a break and republish book one, then books 2 and 3, then the whole compilation.  I don't change each file, I'm afraid I'll miss something in one of them.

I'd be more worried about messing up the compile/decompile process if I did that! I keep the individual books and the compilation separate, and if I have to make a change to the compilation, I just make the same change at the same time to the individual ebook and paperback versions. There's no compilation paperback, which makes things easier. One additional complication is that most of my books are also available as audiobooks. I have to think quite carefully about making changes to the ebook because I can't easily change the audio and I don't want to break Whispersync. I'll fix simple typos, but that's it.

[WasAnn]

The quality issues flag on that book isn't new. They started that a couple of years ago. You'll only see that when a large number of issues come in very quickly and if the issue isn't fixed by a certain amount of time. As usual, there's no hard and fast number for Amazon to point to.

When it first started showing up, it was happening to books after a BookBub and often it was a book by Open Road Media (who had some horrendous formatting on their classics for a while).

That seems to have settled down now, but you can get that flag is you get a slew of reports at once and don't fix it in the dashboard within some reasonable period.