How can I help?

[amberle-chan.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I've only found out about this community today, and there are a couple of things I'm curious about.

I've owned a Kindle for more two-and-half years. I originally bought one so I wouldn't waste any more paper on printing fanfics. In all that time, I've converted tons of fics for "The Sentinel", "NCIS," and "Starsky & Hutch" fandoms using Mobipocket.

When I was reading through the list of fics available, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of ebooks in these fandoms. I was just wondering if you advertise in those communities at all to let the authors know that they can have their fics converted to ebooks so people can read them on their readers?

I was also wondering if there was any way I can help get the fanfics I've converted onto the site.

Thanks!

P.S. Sorry about the tags; I wasn't sure which ones I should use.

Comments

[amalthia]

Hi! it's so great to meet you. :)

I don't really read NCIS or Starsky & Hutch or the Sentinel much so I don't know who the authors are, where the communities are located, and if anyone's written novel length fan fiction. For older fandoms the biggest roadblock is finding the author's contact information.

I think NCIS is new enough that finding the authors should not be a problem.

To get stories onto the site, I first I have to contact the author to gain permission, then convert the story into RTF, MOBI, and EPUB.

I'm pretty much the only one doing all this at the moment so that's why the only categories that are gaining new stories are the ones I'm currently reading.

I'm also a bit picky on how the ebooks are created in that the metadata has to be correct, the paragraphs need to be indented (like published ebooks aka not have blank paragraph spaces between the paragraphs), and the author and title have to be listed on the story itself. Stuff like that. The RTFs I'm more flexible about because that format can technically be edited by anyone, whereas editing a mobipocket or epub isn't so easy.

The hard part I had when I switched from only making LRF/Mobi format to including epub is that the HTML codes that work for Mobi do not work on epub. I have more information on how I format ebooks here. Ebook Formatting Tutorial It says it's geared towards epub but honestly what works for epub will work for mobi.

So I think I've pretty much driven away anyone that's been interested in helping and I'm not lying it's a lot of work to keep track of permissions, special requests, and formatting.

But I'm always willing to take on new admins. If you'd like to see your fandoms represented I'd be more than happy to have you on board and you can focus on those fandoms.

If I haven't totally scared you away email me at amalthia at gmail.com I'd love to see an example of how you made your mobipocket versions. It shouldn't be difficult to convert the mobi to epub in Calibre.

I'll add a tag to your post. :)

[taylorgibbs.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a lot of work. Do you have a template set up that will code that? if not, that may save some time and energy for you.

[amalthia]

I've been using macros to do most of the formatting. :) Which actually saves me a whole lot of time there. The hard part is actually getting the stories into a single file.

[taylorgibbs.livejournal.com]

That makes sense :)

p.s.

[amalthia]

The other option is if you let me know what stories you really loved I'd also be willing to contact the authors and ask permission. :) So far I haven't gotten any specific requests so I've just been adding what interests me.

Re: p.s.

[amberle-chan.livejournal.com]

I thought I could perhaps help with supplying .mobi files of stories I've already converted (at least 100), but what you wrote above does sound complicated.

There are lists of authors' names at sentinel fic find (http://community.livejournal.com/sentinelficfind/) and ncis fic find (http://community.livejournal.com/ncisficfind/), most with links to their websites.

I've got to say that I do wish fan fic authors were more aware that having their stories archived in one file would be easier on those with ereaders. Copying and pasting multi-chaptered/multi-file stories into one file is a pain!

Re: p.s.

[amalthia]

I think authors are becoming more aware because more fan fiction readers and other fan fiction authors are now reading on Kindles and other devices. :)

Um, I was actually hoping you'd send me exact story links...Like your top five stories for each fandom. And the story would have be over 20k words long. I used to try adding shorter stories but now I don't bother because I still have a backlog of new fics to add to the archive from authors that have already given permission.

I'm trying to think of an easier way to track author permissions and requests as well as an easier way to coordinate with other admins on the site. But I'm at a loss as to how to make this less complicated. Though I think most people are familiar with uploading fics to efiction archives. What's challenging is finding people who know how to convert, use FTP, and know how to use efiction.

The reason I think I'm going to have to be firm on how stories appear on the archive is because now that the A03 has the ability to export stories into HTML/EPUB/and MOBI the only thing that'll set the stories on the Ebook Library apart from those stories is the artwork embedded and that I indent paragraphs instead of leaving a blank space between paragraphs.

I think at some point the Ebook Library will no longer be as used because if more authors post to the A03 archive and once they have user preferences implemented so people can choose how the stories look then the Ebook Library will be less needed.

Re: p.s.

[taylorgibbs.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could (for now) put the stories you've transferred online in a place like Megaupload or something like that. You could then advertise on the various LJs. I know I'd love more fanfic for my Kindle. I read mostly NCIS, but would love to read more Sentinel as well.

Someone uploaded a bunch of NCIS PDFs recently and they were very well received.