Are eBooks held to a different standard?

I had the opportunity this weekend to spend another day with the fantastic members of The Space Coast Writer's Guild. I always enjoy spending time with a group of writer's that really "gets" it.

As I boarded my plane back to Chicago yesterday morning, I was busy downloading a couple of books to keep me company during my flight home. I was thrilled to see a favorite author of mine had two more books available on Kindle. Yay for me!

Or so I thought....

For the first time in the 18 months that I've owned my Kindle  (And, in fact, for the first time in the more than 12 years I've worked in the publishing industry), I am planning to spend my afternoon working on....

The Letter

The Letter often arrives at a publishing house on ripped up and worn paper. It's occasionally typed but often hand written. Sometimes it's legible, and sometimes it's not.

Usually, The Letter addresses the disappointment a reader feels about a book. Sometimes it's a valid argument. Oftentimes, it's a rant that gets stuck up on a bulletin board or read among colleagues as entertainment. Depending on the publisher, it's taken seriously or it's discarded along with the day's trash.

I have never written The Letter.

Today, that changes. The Letter will be sent to both the Publisher and the Author. If I can find the name, The Letter will also go to the agent of record for this favorite author of mine.

You see, after spending my $7.00 to download a fun novel, I found myself with a product that I couldn't enjoy. I found myself with a product that I couldn't read. I found myself with a product that was unpublishable.

And yes, I'm with all of you who believe a book is a book....not a product. Yesterday, however, I bought a product....and a defective one at that.

My new eBook is so riddled with typos, that I can't even get in to the story. Every four or five words is spelled wrong. In fact, throughout the first three chapters of the book, the word "the" is spelled "die" and that includes the word "them", now spelled "diem". Every Time!

How am I supposed to enjoy the building suspense? How am I supposed to get lost in the story? Several times, the misspellings created words that make no sense. And, in fact, made the story impossible to read.

And so, I will spend my afternoon writing The Letter.

I will include chapter numbers and page numbers. I will include specific examples. But, I'm afraid The Letter will fall on deaf ears at a publishing house so big that it apparently doesn't care about the quality of its eBook program.

This is not the first eBook that I've encountered with spelling, spacing and layout problems. In fact, it's the exception rather than the rule to download an (almost) perfect eBook. But this is by far the worst.

And so I must ask:

Are eBooks held to a different standard?

Has the ease of upload made publishers lazy about quality?