Huge printing error in my Eberron!

[Incenjucar]

There's been reports like this over on the WotC boards, as well.

Always an extra stumbling block these days.

 

[caudor]

Yeah, I've seen some bad copies of books as well.

Back when I bought the The Complete Priest's Handbook, the pages were in order, but printed upside down relative to the cover. I actually sold it on eBay for a hefty profit.

 

[Grazzt]

There was a thread about this over at rpg.net. Appearantly, close to 40% of the books were misprinted. You might want to see about getting a refund.

I would guess the 40% is a bit too high. It is RPG.net after all.

But, yeah, just out of curiousity, I checked my FLGS, and they have some bad copies too.

 

[nopantsyet]

Oh, now I'm pissed! I hadn't gotten that far in my copy yet and I just checked and I got a bad copy as well. I haven't been able to get rpg.net to come up to check if it's exactly the same as what others have seen, but mine jumps from 128 to 177, continues to 192, then picks up at 145. I am so pissed! It's a small store and they probably got a dozen copies...I am not optimistic that they will have a good copy when I drop by tomorrow.

 

[tarchon]

I read a Piers Anthony Incarnations novel like that once, though I guess in this case, it'd probably be better in the intended order.

 

[Ottergame]

I went and checked my local Hastings when I read about the error. They had close to 25 books on their shelves, ALL of their copies had pages 129-170 (I think) missing.

 

[thalmin]

I'm not sure, but I believe we also had about 30-40% of our shipment with errors. Looks like I will be reordering sooner than I planned.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Its a common publishing error. Pages are either missing or in the wrong place, or sometimes upside down, most likely in sets of 16 or 32 pages which is how they are printed and folded. The flats get inserted in the wrong place or missed. It is actually harder to catch this mistake than you would think because the last of the proofing work is done while the flats are being printed. Usually only the first assembled books are looked at, so if the error comes up after the first assembly it may not be noticed until irate customers bring it to their attention. Nobody has the time to examine each book as it gets assembled, it would be cost-prohibitive. I would not really call it a quality issue as much as a production systems problem; ideally they should have a system in place so that this is not likely to happen at all, but many printers do not have these good systems.

 

[Dogbrain]

Its a common publishing error.

You are claiming that 40% of ALL books are put together in such a miserable and slipshod fashion?????

Sounds to me that it's much more a matter of sloppy work and complete disdain for the customer than "a common publishing error".

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Just to reiterate what Thornir said, that's technically a bindery problem, not a printing problem.

It's not something you would notice on the proofs; and unlikely you'd notice it even on a spot check of the first few books to roll off the bindery.

Definitely the printer's error, they'll be eating the cost to replace those. The sad thing is, there's no tangible way to assess the cost of those errors in terms of lost goodwill.

WOTC will weather the storm; for a small publisher like me, that would have been a public relations DISASTER. Sure, the printer will reprint the books and cover shipping charges, but can you imagine what would happen if 40% of Bad Axe's first hardcover print run had such an error? An error like that could sink a small company, if goodwill with the retailers and customers is broken.

Ugh! My heart goes out to WOTC, and Keith Baker!

Wulf