The confusion of editing

Reviews of many books, often include comments on grammar and punctuation especially on Kindle and other ebook readers. Yes much of this is due to the author, mea culpa; however, the publishing industry, word processing software, and scholarly guides need to take there share of the blame. Reading existing books does not help. There are differences in various English version, but even then, two books, from the same author, from the same publishing house, can have different grammar treatments and punctuation. This is particularly complex in recorded speech, where so called correct grammar can make the written view ridiculous for example:

"He's bad...,", the character hesitated, then said, "really bad, or is he?".

or

"He's bad," the character hesitated, then said, "really bad, or is he?"

I have seen both. The second example uses US English placing of the comma inside the speech marks, UK English should be outside, allegedley. I know which I prefer and I have seen grammar guides that say both are correct and neither are correct.

For me I am trying to communicate my plot and descriptive material. I want my readers, what few I have, to be lost in my story, but also to follow how I am hearing my characters speak; therefore, I am guilty of using punctuation to force pauses or continuations, where they may not be grammatically correct.

The final problem is the conversion software for e-books and even printed books losing punctuation. Even PDF submissions seem to lose data. Without reading and editing and submitting and proof reading again on each version of each device it's impossible for a one man band to do it. No one is paying me and the cost of professional editing is unlikely to be recovered from book sales.

I have resorted to reissuing versions especially on Kindle but getting Amazon to notify readers that downloaded that the version has been updated is a slower process. Paper versions are even harder with Lulu for example insisting on a review and proof copy.