System for organizing fic?

[scribblesinink]

I'm wondering what system, if any, people might use for organizing fic downloaded from the internet. Do you use Calibre? A folder structure? Something else?

I've only just started figuring things out, and while Calibre seems great for "real" ebooks, with the automated meta data, and sorting and saving by author, I tend to lean toward sorting by fandom first for fic. I'm currently using a folder system for that, which I copy onto the reader, but I can see how it might grow unwieldy if it gets big enough.

So, curious to hear what systems people have devised....

And a possibly handy tip: I recently discovered EPUBReader, which seems like a very useful plugin for Firefox.

Comments

[cyprinella]

I use Calibre and use the tags to denote fandoms.

[lastdance]

I do the same. Works great for me.

[scribblesinink]

Thank you for sharing your method. I now have much food for thought :)

[finch]

Yep, this.

[scribblesinink]

Thank you for sharing your method. I now have much food for thought :)

[scribblesinink]

That does seem to be the easiest solution to the problem,doesn't it? I'm just not entirely sure it'll be useful in the long run.... Must think on this some more! Thank you for sharing your method.

[cyprinella]

I use Calibre and use the tags to denote fandoms.

[wide_worlds_joy]

Personally I organize it into folders. I typically use genres, all erotica goes into one folder, all the fiction ebooks go into another, all the pagan related non-fic goes into a third, and so on. I make sure that the author is listed in the name of the file so it would be "Bates, Harry - The Day the Earth Stood Still.txt". If there is a lot from one author (like Pratchett, Terry) or if it's about one world (ie, The Forgotten Realms) everything goes into that folder, then broken down by author.

I intalled calibre, and it duplicated the entire 2 gb of my books on my hdd. All I wanted was to convert the .lit books into .txt so I could read them on my NDS, but it duplicated everything....

Anyhow...

[scribblesinink]

Thanks for your input. That sounds like a sensible system too, so between all the comments I got, and the various options of Calibre and the reader, I have much food for thought and further experiments.

I intalled calibre, and it duplicated the entire 2 gb of my books on my hdd.

Yeah, that's one of my issues with whether to use Calibre or not. Seems you're either stuck with Calibre's folder system, or end up with duplicates...

[maryavatar]

I still use Mobipocket, even though I no longer have a pocket PC. The PC version is very easy to use and you can import html files directly into it. I generally use the 'genre' tag to record fandom, so I can see all the stories in a particular fandom by title and author.

I'm a little nervous about getting an iPad - I have so many html, pdf, pdb and prc e-books to convert to epub. I once make the mistake of trying to batch convert my whole ebook storage folder, and after six hours my PC finally froze up and refused to carry on.

[scribblesinink]

Thanks for your input. I'll make sure to look into Mobipocket as well as Calibre.

I once make the mistake of trying to batch convert my whole ebook storage folder, and after six hours my PC finally froze up and refused to carry on.

Ack! Poor machine... :) Maybe you can do them in small batches?

[maryavatar]

Yep. I really should have considered that before I hit the process button, but I must have been having a senior moment. 3.5GB of assorted formats and images in 650 sub-folders... insane.

[amalthia]

I use Calibre and a seperate folder system. I use the tags to say what fandom the fic is and I organize my folders by fandom too so it wasn't hard to work with Calibre. I currently have over 1000k fan fiction stories in Calibre and it's working rather well with them. :)

Calibre will also allow you to fix the metadata for the stories. Though not with RTFs you'll have to do that inside an RTF file. Not sure what ebook device you're using though?

[scribblesinink]

Thanks for your input. I now have much food for thought. Between Calibre's options and my Reader's options, I definitely need to do some more experimenting on what works best for me.

I use Calibre and a seperate folder system.

Don't you end up with several copies of the files on your computer that way?

Not sure what ebook device you're using though?

I have a Bebook Neo, which I think is the same as the Onyx Boox. So far, I've experimented with ePub, and home-made PDF's optimized for the 6" screen.

[amalthia]

Don't you end up with several copies of the files on your computer that way?"

Yes, it's kind of mirrored but I like having the backup. The thing is I can take my fan fiction folder with me on my usb stick, edit the files, re-arrange them and etc...I can't take my Calibre library with me and do the same without messing up the file structure and totally fucking things up.

You have to edit files through calibre that are in your library.

I tend to go back and re-edit the HTML or add images to stories when I find out someone made a cover art for it. So for me I need the flexibility. But I'm running an archive and etc...You'll find what works for you with time and practice. :)

[elf]

I don't use Calibre. I plan to start, sometime soon, but not looking forward to it; I have fanfic on three different drives and many MANY ebooks, and am not sure whether or not I'd want them all in there. Calibre was not actually designed as an ebook database program.

I put a fandom abbreviation in the metadata with the title, so that when they're on my Reader and I sort by title, they sort by fandom & title. Most of my ebooks are either RTF (because I want to start reading NOW, and that takes the least formatting from a webpage) or custom-made PDFs to fit the 6" screen.

I'm also planning on getting PRS+ soon, and I gather that'll let me sort them by folders on the reader. I think I'd still put the fandom prefix in the title; I don't want to have to create a folder for each fandom on my Reader, especially when I pick up or drop fics.

[scribblesinink]

Thanks for your input. I now have much food for thought. Between Calibre's options, my Reader's options (I have a Bebook Neo, which I think is the same as the Onyx Boox), I need to do some more experimenting on what works best for me.

I put a fandom abbreviation in the metadata with the title, so that when they're on my Reader and I sort by title, they sort by fandom & title.

That certainly sounds like a very sensible thing to do, regardless of what other methods I may come up with!

[amalthia]

I put the fandom in the file name too for small fandoms. (for me small fandoms) It's a good practice that I kind of wish I had started sooner.