Current Project on Ebook Library
Jan. 5th, 2010 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amalthia posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fanfic_ebooksSince I learned how to use Macros in Microsoft Word 2007 I've been slowly but surely creating LRF/Mobi/and epub versions of my absolute favorite stories hosted at the Ebook Library as well as most of the stories posted recently. This is the reason for long delays between updates besides the holidays. My current project is converting all the Top Ten most read fics at the archive, however that will not take long since many already have all four ebook formats.
My question/challenge to the community is does anyone have any specific conversion requests for stories already listed on the archive that are currently only in RTF format?
For anyone that adds a request I'll honor it if you leave feedback/review at the author's post at the Ebook Library. :)
Leave a link here leading to your review of the story and I'll get it converted in the order in which it was requested. :)
My question/challenge to the community is does anyone have any specific conversion requests for stories already listed on the archive that are currently only in RTF format?
For anyone that adds a request I'll honor it if you leave feedback/review at the author's post at the Ebook Library. :)
Leave a link here leading to your review of the story and I'll get it converted in the order in which it was requested. :)
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 09:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 06:01 am (UTC)actually, RTF doesn't work perfectly on the PRS-505. :( it won't create a Table of Contents or allow images. Which actually yeah aren't that important. :) But I do like my cover art and the majority of the fics I read on my device are in RTF as well which is why I recommend the PRS-505 to people because it's rather easy to get fics to the device and all you need is a Word Program.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 07:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-07 07:28 am (UTC)I find the Table of Contents work for me for the stories longer than 50k words but for the shorter stories it doesn't matter at all. :)
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Date: 2010-01-06 10:29 am (UTC)Also, is there a way to export/copy/steal/use your macros?
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Date: 2010-01-07 06:04 am (UTC)I think at this point I'm not sure anymore which stories are the most epic of epic stories. :) Almost all the stories on the archive are over 20k words and a lot are over the 100k mark. I guess I could do a search for stories over 300k words and start there.. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-06 05:43 pm (UTC)Even though I have always been a bookworm and still plan to read books, I am loving my ebook reader for the portability, the flexibility and the speed of acquisition. I suspect much fanfic will find its way onto the device, so big hugs to you for doing this!
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Date: 2010-01-07 06:03 am (UTC)I put up all three major formats for the story so you should be good to go. :)
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Date: 2010-01-07 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-08 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 04:00 am (UTC)Unless you've got ePub, what I'm doing is mostly downloading the RTF, a little cleanup in TextEdit, save as html, edit html with TextWrangler to remove any empty paragraph tags or double linebreaks, add a tag with attribute class=chapter where I want the chapter breaks, save the html, import to Calibre, clean up metadata (add summary to "comments", add tags for fandom and pairing), convert to ePub with Calibre, send to iPhone.
I can send you the ePub formats for those fics I converted if you're interested? I'm sure they're not perfect but they're pretty decent. The fics are almost all ones I read before, but I do plan to leave some comments for the authors at your site. Wouldn't it be great if, when people published on LJ or in a fest, they would provide an ebook? (For that matter, wouldn't it be great if ebooks were standardized enough that authors would only need to bother with one format?)
Anyway! Thank you!
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Date: 2010-01-19 04:12 am (UTC)I'd love if authors provided ebooks to go along with their stories. Some share a PDF which is like pouring salt over a open wound. :( PDFs are just horrible for ebook devices.
I think the best bet is for someone to create a script for the major archives that give users the options to print to ebook instead of just print to a printer and the options box will let the user pick font, margins, and etc..but the script would automatically fill in comments, tags, author, title...I think that would be beyond awesome and a big step forward. (Plus it would not have to rely on thousands of people learning how to convert stories it would require a small handful to implement the scripts on the archives and etc...
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Date: 2010-01-19 04:28 am (UTC)I agree about PDF's! So good for some uses, so bad for others -- including basically anything other than printing on standard size paper.
That would be a great idea for the fic archives! Although, 99% of what I read is from my friends list and hasn't made it to any archive yet.
I spent a bit of time today messing with a Merlin fic that wasn't on your archive (but which I think is my favorite Merlin fic of all time -- do you know the fratboy!Arthur fic?) So I was wondering, did you approach the authors for permission to publish their stuff, or was it more instigated by them? I'd be willing to ask the author and pass along what I put together, if she agrees. Only thing is, I think there might be art associated with it, and I don't know how to incorporate it (I think you can't for my viewing setup.)
I'll look though my book list and send you an email with the ePub's I created. :)
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Date: 2010-01-19 04:39 am (UTC)I'm hoping more authors wake up one day and realize how much LJ sucks as a place to archive their fics...but until then..I've been looking into something like ?style=mine but instead ?style=ebook or something the hard part is I can't muck about with their code. so anything posted to LJ and only LJ it looks like merging by hand is the best method for getting the stories in a single file.
I haven't read that Merlin story you mentioned 99.9% of the merlin fic I do read is cannon fic.
Now as for my approach to authors, lets just put it this way. If I had to wait for them to come to me the archive would have at most 15 stories. I've had to contact 99.9% of the authors on the website. I think Vathara and Bayre are the only two authors that are currently uploading their own fics. The hard part is that most authors don't know how to use FTP, HTML, efiction, and Calibre to convert their fics, let alone all four. And most don't think to write and let me know if I have permission to host their works. So I have make almost all contact. (with of course a very few exceptions)
This is the big challenge i've also had with finding admins to help me run the archive. I'm adding as much as possible but I'm just one person and it does take a lot of work to contact the author, merge stories, convert to RTF/LRF/Epub/Mobi, and then upload to the site.
Now as for artwork, I normally incorporate the art into the story if I'm converting to LRF/Epub/Mobi. I do write to the artists to ask permission most of the time, but when I first started I kind of forgot to do that with a lot of fics. So I don't sweat it. I think the general consensus is artists like to be asked permission too. :) I've never had an artist say no to keeping the art with the story.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 05:39 am (UTC)http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/
It actually builds in a print button -- if only it would build in an ebook button!
Speaking of which... the Mac also has a "print to PDF" function -- that would be another place to build in a converter. (people are trying: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26329 )
As for that Merlin fic -- you should give it a chance! I'm not too deep into Merlin, but I'm glad I watched the first season of it just to have a context for that fic. Just in case -- part 1 of 3 is here: http://moonythestrals.livejournal.com/59414.html . Or, I could email you the ePub. ;)
And actually -- it seems that fic doesn't have art after all. It has some links I didn't check if I kept, but they don't seem that important. The artwork actually seems to have been done by the person who turned it into a podfic. Maybe I'll ask the author if she's willing for her fic to be in your archive...
no subject
Date: 2010-01-19 05:42 am (UTC)I've tried readability but it won't save what you view as is...I tested so many options online and coudl not find anything. it was frustrating. Bookit comes the closest but the creator went awol and it won't convert the selected text into an ebook like it's supposed to.
New Here - Glad I Found My Way Here
Date: 2010-03-03 08:08 pm (UTC)Re: New Here - Glad I Found My Way Here
Date: 2010-03-04 03:19 am (UTC)The key for accurate and consistent conversions is to somehow convert your Word docs to html (Filtered) and clean up the code. I have to have the tutorial done by a certain date for class so I hope to have it done in April. This month has a lot of assignments due. The tutorials in this LJ should help though.
If you're not creating table of contents or embedding images you may be able to clean up your Word files, upload those to Calibre and convert the doc to mobi...It's easy and quick. You'd have to switch out the ^l in word to ^p between each paragraph though.
Re: New Here - Glad I Found My Way Here
Date: 2010-03-04 03:23 am (UTC)It's not the best tutorial ever but I realized if I'm going to say easy I should have qualified that I work in document production and it's part of my job to format Word Docs so they can be converted to PDF so I have to know all the hidden characters and that made it easier to create macros.
But as for getting to the area to create macros with MS Office 2007, the one with the tabs, there is a Developers Tab which has a record macros button under it. You'll have to use the help file to find out how to active it if you don't already have it. I believe it's under Word Options...