Fanfic / WIP Question

[laceblade]

I have a question about long-ish fanfics that are works in progress.

Let's say that I'm reading a 200,000+ word fic, which isn't yet complete. I download it to my e-reader, and read it on that.
Then, the author updates the fic with a new chapter.

Is there a way to add this chapter to the existing e-book?
Or is the only way to get it to re-download the entire fic?

If I do re-download the entire fic, does anybody know of an easy way to breeze past those first 55 chapters of 200,000+ words, or am I better off just reading the new chapters on my laptop?

--
Side notes, in case they are useful, although I think the question is applicable to any site/management tool/e-reader:
Using a Kobo Touch, downloading fic from the AO3.org, managing fic with Calibre.

Comments

[elf]

You can use Sigil to edit the ePub directly, and add the new chapter to the end, but that's perhaps a bit complicated. You'd have to

* view page source to get the HTML,
* create a new XHTML chapter in Sigil (that's easy; you right-click the "text" folder & select "create new"),
* copy-paste the "head" section from the previous chapter into the new one,
* copy-paste the HTML text from the new chapter into the "body" section of the new chapter in Sigil.

Otherwise, you can re-download and just save over the file you already have. I don't know if that will let you skip past chapters you've already read, but the chapters are bookmarked; if you remember what chapter you left off on, you should be able to navigate to the new one. And it's possible that if the file contents are the same, you'll just jump to the page you left off on.

ETA: I'm assuming you're talking epubs of fic archived at AO3. I don't know exactly how it works if you're using fanfic downloader for (example) ff.net files; the principles are similar but I don't know if the internal structure is the same.

[laceblade]

The Sigil thing does sound complicated, but I might try it to see if it's preferable to re-downloading!

As for re-downloading, maybe other e-readers have easier navigation to chapters inside of a book. As for my Kobo Touch....*googles* Apparently there is a navigation bar I've never used before! It's little imprecise, with just sliding my finger across a bar, but it's better than what I thought was there!


re: your ETA: I am talking about .epubs, yes.
For other websites with fanfic, I use the program (script?) "Grab My Books," with success thus far!

[elf]

Sigil's a bit complicated at first--it's an epub *editing* program--but it's not too bad once you sort out what's going on with it. (I should probably post a basic intro tutorial soon. Gah. Have no time this week.)

*google* Looks like the Kobo Touch has no chapter listing system? No way to "jump to next chapter" or see a list of them? Wow, that's awful.

[fides]

I think it does (although I haven't used one) - from the Kobo site:

To use the Table of Contents on your Kobo eReader Touch:
1. Tap the middle of your page to bring up the Reading Menu.
2. Tap the Annotations icon.
3. Tap Table of Contents.
4. Tap the title of the chapter you want to go to.

[laceblade]

OMGGGGG, there is a table of contents!

Well now I just feel stupid.
Thank you!
My reading!self thanks you!

[elf]

Don't feel stupid. Most ereader navigation is clunky and non-intuitive... reading straight through is easy; figuring out how they manage bookmarks and a TOC is different on every single reader, and never as smooth as it is for paper books.

Or rather: of COURSE you should've know that the Table of Contents is under ANNOTATIONS; where ELSE would it be, right?

[purplecat]

My preference is to add the new chapter as a new book on the ereader. I find options like adding it to Sigil to be too much effort - I find Sigil quite unintuitive to use and the WSYWIG editor, in particular, quite erratic when dealing with downloaded material so I avoid it where possible. I only turn to Sigil if I decide that I would like to re-read the fic once it's finished and then I might combine all the chapters together.

[fides]

1. Yes but not easily - it requires you editing the internal contents of the e-book. Easier to just download the new version.

2. If you are downloading from AO3 then each chapter goes into the table of contents. Just pull up the table of contents and click the link to whichever chapter you want to go to. (I assume the Kobo has a way of viewing the ToC as it's pretty standard for eReaders).

NB. If you remove the old version and add the new version to the Calibre record (using the edit metadata option) rather than deleting and adding the entire record then you might be able to update the version on your reader without it being seen as a 'new' book.

[amalthia]

If the story you use Calibre I recommend the Fanfiction Downloader plugin. It'll download new chapters and add them to the story. However, the story has to be hosted at a supported archive, like A03 or ff.net.

[marilla_pm67]

Hello,

I use this website and the calibre plugin attached with it : http://fanfictiondownloader.appspot.com/

It's great, if the fiction is in the supported site it's even better. If not, you can ask to add the website and someone, or you can work on a adapter.

If you use the calibre plugin, you can choose
- Update existing Ebook
- Then choose add new chapters

and Voilà - I tested it, it's wonderful, really.

Sam