Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum theory book filled with errors... What to do?

I have this small situation, although the tendency to 'do nothing' seems to be wise right now... :-/

I have an adult student and we're getting along fine. So when he asked me for more books, etc, I offered to go and buy them for him. Since I can also get a discount as a music teacher, I could save him some $$$...

All this is fine, but the theory book I bought is AWFUL. It's got several errors, typos, non cleaned layout (the words actually are ON the staves, not above or bellow, which makes it hard to read) and above all there's NO mention about music rests! NOTHING at all!

I mean ok, one could get away with a few typos (I should know about that), but to actually do NOT have any information about rests?!?!? Come on... It's a basic theory book!

So my question and dilemma:

The publisher is the best known publisher in Greece and they have the biggest line of stores here. My scores are in their stores.

So do I call them to let them know that this book SUCKS? Do I offer a public review? Do I remain silent? It's an AWFUL book, I repeat that! And it cost almost 27$!!! including the teachers discount.

Ideas?

Musicians are not the best writers in the world. Some of the theory textbooks my students are using for their music class in school are just ___________ (fill in with your worst adjective).

Why don't you just teach the theory by yourself? You can make your own worksheets easily with Finale. It's probably better than anything you can buy, really.

time restrains AZN! No wife at home, and multi businesses running...

But really, since it's published it should go through a few proof reads. This is a publisher that has published literally thousands of books, so they MUST know the drill by now! :P

And it's not the language that I'm bothered with, it's the obvious errors and missing info... :-/ This is not about how good a writer the musician is, but how carefully it was proof read...

You could offer to make the corrections for them . . . for a price . . .

I think you absolutely need to let them know about the errors -- but unfortunately it probably won't help YOU out.

Write your own book, and give them first option at publishing it!

Nikolas, my first thought is that I simply would not buy that book again. But then I saw Minniemay's response. I like that idea better.

Return it. If enough people do they'll get the message.

Definitely return the book! There is a difference between simply not liking a book and being able to cite multiple problems with it that should NOT be present.

I'm not sure what your options are in Greece, but that wouldn't fly here in the states...

Oh, I will return it alright. But I think that the people in the company should know that the released a sucky book!

I can't ask them to publish anything, since I have my own publishing company. This is the main problem here. That we are practically rivals in the same country, so anything I say that goes a step too far will look like an aggressive move from musica ferrum... :-/

If anything, it could be seen as a sign of good will and non-aggression...

"I noticed the following serious errors in your text, and I do feel the book would receive better reviews and thus sell more if you correct them, as well as many more that I cannot afford the time to list."

Something to that effect.

"...anything I say that goes a step too far will look like an aggressive move..."

From you, Nikolas? There are some people who post here that I might be worried about (maybe even myself), but hardly from you.

The previous poster's suggestion as to form was pretty good. Mention the most egregious errors, and add that the product was so flawed that you had to return it, and will not be able to recommend it to your students.

I daresay they've already gotten a few of these, and a single glance will tell them the rest.

BTW, this is one reason I like to buy books of all kinds, in person, from stores where I can see them. Many things can go wrong with printing, binding, editing, choice of sizes for papers and types.

Trust to your natural gentlemanly character when you are writing this note, and you will be fine.