The Random Ebooks Questions Post

[elf]

Ask your questions! Get answers! Maybe even useful answers!

Ask anything! Ask about ereaders, or filetypes, or conversion methods, or where to find books, or which authors don't like ebooks, or what software works on which computers, or anything else ebook-related. Preferably, put the question, or part of it, in the subject line. That way, the questions will be easy to find, and new readers who show up can see if their question has been asked before.

Feel free to post links to your journal where you've spelled out your questions in detail (or just make a new post here; it's totally fine to make a long post about "thinking about ebook readers; what's the pros & cons of these two?")

Answer questions! If you know about a certain aspect of ebookery, jump in with answers!

Comments

AO3 bug with epub files?

[jumpuphigh]

I've been having this random problem where some AO3 fics that I've downloaded as epub open just fine in calibre but then give me a page error on my ereader (Sony 650). If I delete from reader and then run it through the convert books setting (from epub to epub) and reload on my reader, it works just fine. Have you come across this issue at all?

Eventually, I'll file a bug report with AO3 but if there is more data that I could give them, it would be helpful.

book reviewers?

[zvi]

Do you know of any websites which either regularly include ebooks in their review selections or are primarily focused on ebooks. I know that STTB occasionally reviews ebooks, but, frankly, they don't review enough and theirs are almost all M/F of one kind or another.

I'm specifically looking for people who review spec fic and non-traditional romances.

.lit file reading?

[fizzyblogic]

I don't have an ebook reader yet (still saving up), so I read ebooks on my laptop (running Windows XP) and I have some .lit files a friend gave me but I'm sort of floundering about programs to read them. I have a Firefox extension to read epub files in the browser, and looked around for a lit one but couldn't find any. Should I go with Microsoft's Lit reader? Should I get Calibre and convert the files, and if so what's best to convert .lit files to in Calibre? Are there any other conversion programs to recommend?

I'm very, very new to ebooks, and tend to get overwhelmed when I try to research on Google. /o\

[eva]

OK. Buy a reader now or wait for more functions and cheaper devices? (Note: I'm in Germany, so not all readers popular in the US are readily available here. For example, you can get a Kindle from Amazon, but it is shipped via amazon.com, and while the cheaper one costs about 100 € by itself, there are 40 € of shipping and import fees added.)

html and Calibre?

[stormcloude]

Cataloguing html books in Calibre just seems to turn them into zip files. Can I just put those on my ereader or do I need to convert them to something else first? If I need to convert them, what is the best format?

Also if I have two entries for the same book in Calibre is there a way to merge them?

[transcendancing]

I have a Kindle ebook, using Kindle for PC. Can someone tell me how to find out what page is what so I can reference my assignment properly? *fretful* WTFpolarbear are 'locations'?

If someone can help me with this I'd be deeply grateful and would give you all the internets. *hopeful*

[havocthecat]

No questions, just a thank you on my part for putting up such a great resource for ebook fans. I really appreciate it!

[beatrice_otter]

I don't have an e-book reader yet, and probably won't for some time; I just use my laptop and Calibre. The majority of the e-books I have (and will be purchasing for some time) are a) Baen free books or b) fanfic downloaded from AO3 and ff.net or c) classics downloaded from Project Gutenberg. When I do get around to buying an ebook reader, I obviously have no idea what kind of ebook reader I will be getting. So there's a good chance I'll have to either convert using Calibre or go back and re-download all my ebooks.

So the question is this: what format should I be downloading the ebooks in, that would either be a format I would likely use or easily convertible into whatever format I end up needing?

Sigil, coding, and breaking files into bits

[adelheid]

I have a file with multiple titles that I would like to be able to break up into the separate titles, provide with tables of contents, and if at all possible, correct the typos (okay, I'd correct the typos if I cared enough, which I doubt I ever will.)

Before I download Sigil (and start learning coding - eek!) I'd like to know how much of that Sigil will be able to do/help me do. Can someone give me a brief rundown? Thanks!

[beatrice_otter]

Is there a problem with the latest Combined Tools Package (i.e. deDRM stuff) from Apprentice Alf? Because I went to update my plugins (de-DRMing on my Nook books wasn't working any more) and I couldn't get any of the plugins to install. Either Calibre didn't see them at all even though they were there, or it said they didn't have a top-level py file.

[boundbooks]

Question! I'm working on a primer for how (and why) to browse Archive of Our Own for non-fannish readers. I know that most of the people here are probably fannish, but would it be appropriate to post it here in addition to my own journal? I think it might be a useful post for people who haven't considered fanfiction in the past, or even a post for people who do read fic to link to people who don't read fic.

Basics: What can and can't I do with readers?

[brightwanderer]

If I buy a Kindle, can I buy books from big stores other than Amazon? From Waterstones or Blackwell for example? If I buy a Sony or other reader not tied into a name, can I still buy things from Amazon or can you only read their books on a Kindle? What about the DRM-free stuff on Amazon?

I want to be able to get fantasy and YA books, predominantly - all sorts, indie and published and old and new - and really I'd prefer to just log onto Amazon and go for it. But I don't like the proprietary nature of the Kindle and its restrictions.

Instapaper trouble

[haikitteh]

I'm having some trouble with Instapaper grabbing all the docs in a folder. I've got a lot of pages marked - 28! - and it seems to grab about half of them and leave the rest (leaving off the earliest saved).

I couldn't find any info on whether there's a limit to the number of pages it would grab on the FAQ.

Anyone else had this trouble, or have a fix for it?

[fred_mouse]

Does anyone have links for discussions of software that can be used for document conversions that doesn't reference fan fic? I need to be able to point a work mate at useful information, and I'm not really willing to get into a discussion of the whys and wherefores of what I do in my own time.

[yhlee]

Are the options for reading PDFs still dismal on current ereaders? My iRex DR800, which I loved because I could read full-sized PDFs (either by changing font size or using selection zoom) and epubs, and which was pretty much perfect, appears to have died, and at this point looking for another one is probably not such a hot idea. I could do without the epubs if only I could read PDFs. I read them on my laptop sometimes, but the experience is not very good.

DeDRMing Kindle Books

[strina]

I downloaded the tools zip from Apprentice Alf's blog post, installed the Calibre plugin, customized it with my Kindle's serial number, and started importing books to convert. It worked on literally half of them (16 of 31); the rest said that the incorrect key had been given. I've redownloaded the books to make sure they're authorized to that Kindle. I've tried running the Python script to get my Kindle PID instead of just the serial number and it fails, but if I'm not typing my sn# correctly, WHY DID CONVERTING WORK AT ALL.

I am so very confused.

Downloading and reading a Nook/epub ebook with FBReader and or Calibre on my laptop?

[pauamma]

If the Nook format is actually epub as it seems to be, and since (I think) FBReader and Calibre (the ebook readers that exist for my FreeBSD laptop) seem to support that, does that mean I can buy Because Internet from whichever palatable retailer will let me download it to a non-US billing address (which seems to mean Penguin US or Barnes and Noble as Penguin UK wants over twice the Penguin US price, Books-a-million sells to US customers only, and I don't trust Apple, Google, or Amazon to supply an unencumbered format that I could get onto my laptop)? Or do I have to find another source/way to do it?