The global Find & Replace function can be handy…but it can also lead to serious (and sometimes amusing) errors.
The Nook edition of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace replaced every appearance of the word kindle with the word Nook, resulting in gems like this:
As soon as she heard his voice a vivid glow Nookd in her face, lighting up both her sorrow and her joy. (P. 3171)
You can find more Nookd bloopers on Poynter.
Similar errors could occur if, for example, you change your protagonist from a man to a woman and use Find & Replace to change all occurrences of his to her. You could end up with references to hertory, hertorical fiction, antihertamines, and more.
To be on the safe side, manually approve each replacement. Yes, it takes more time, but it could save you a lot of embarrassment.
Kendra Albert points out another issue in the Nookd debacle: “The great democratizing factor of the ebook formats – that anyone can easily distribute – can also mean that readers can never be quite sure that they are viewing the texts as the author intended.” Digital books serve a useful purpose…but nobody can come into your home and change the text of printed books without your knowledge.
Have you made (or seen) any interesting Find & Replace bloopers?
Well all this confusion over whether something is cubbyholed or ignited is very amusing!! But I love printed books so I more than likely will never own an e-reader.
I was so pleased today to hear my 6-year-old grandchild excitedly telling me about her experience at reading day in the library! Another generation of bookworms I hope!! ha