LJ multichapter fanfic onto your ereader easily?

[photoash.livejournal.com]

I have a kindle touch and I am trying to figure out an easy way to get LJ Multichapter fics into one epub/mobi file. I already use the epub conversion website so that I can easily get all the chapters into epub - but I can't find a way to actually combine them into one epub file.

I have tried Sigil and I can't figure out how to make it do this even reading the FAQ it just keeps saving one chapter at a time, even when I try to copy and paste multiple chapters from the files.

Does anyone have a good way to do this or am I stuck either doing large amounts of c&p or just naming a ton of epubs as Series: # - Title/Chapter... or using Instapaper to capture them all if they are unlocked and not age protected and get them that way which is messy but does work too.

Also while I'm asking - does anyone know if they managed to figure out how to create collections on the Kindle Touch since it's programmed different than the older Kindles?? I had been following that on the mobile reads forum but it's pretty technical discussion :/

Thanks in advance! :)

Comments

[chibifukurou]

squeebook[dot]net is a good way to get multi-part LJ stories into a single into a single ebook.

[photoash.livejournal.com]

OMG that looks amazing!! Does it work like instapaper so it's only on non-age restricted and non-locked posts?? :D

[chibifukurou]

As far as I know it only works on un-locked posts. But I've never had a problem with age restrictions and as you log in with your livejournal ID you should be able to have it make an ebook from any locked posts you have access to with your account.

[photoash.livejournal.com]

I am so happy you have no idea!!! :D I can't wait to get home from work and put this bad boy to work!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

As long as you put in your username and password, it works fine on locked posts. (It doesn't store your password anywhere, so you don't need to worry about that.)

[photoash.livejournal.com]

Wow awesome!!

Any tips on using it? (For multichapter is it if you just go in order when you c&p addresses going from 1st to last that it takes care of things? :) )

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's right. And it shows each URL as it loads it, so you can check it hasn't missed anything.

[amalthia]

there is a firefox plugin that will allow you to copy multiple links at once. I think it's called "copy links." I use that when I use squee book. :)

[whitestar.livejournal.com]

Exactly how does it work?

[chibifukurou]

On the first page you add the story title and authors name.

Then navigate to the second page by clicking on Add Story Chapter(s) the text is in blue near the top of the screen.

Once you're on the second screen you need to click on the Copy Story from URL(s) text. Also in blue, but a little further down the screen. This will bring up a text box and instructions for how to input the URL for each chapter in the story you want to capture.
Once you've input all of the links, hit the load button. This will pull the text into the text box at the bottom of the screen.

Once everything is loaded properly go to the Build eBook and just pick whatever file type you want your book to be in. Then click the *Grabby Hands* button. You're ebook should download within a minute or two. (The limits on length seem to be around 100,000 words. So if the story your downloading is bigger than that you might want to use a different program.

[whitestar.livejournal.com]

OMG, that's amazing! :DDD Thanks so much! I can see I'm going to be converting A LOT of fics, lol ^_^

[em615.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Thank you!

[brytewolf.livejournal.com]

Second this so hard.

[chosenfire28.livejournal.com]

I usually copy/paste each page into a word document and save it as a PDF. Then I use calibre to convert it to a mobi a file. It's taking the long way around but I really like how it turns out :D

[xcziel.livejournal.com]

This is how I work, too, only I'm converting to epub for my Nook ( I like to try to keep the art and dividers within the fic, if it's at all feasible).

I don't know if anyone else does this, but for single file fics I like the Safari Reader, which gives you just the text, cuts off comments, etc. and lets you save fic as a pdf directly to the desktop (or wherever) - convert in calibre and voila. It's especially nice for Dreamwidth, since it eliminates the LJ character limit problem. : )

[amalthia]

I also most of the time merge the stories by copying and pasting one chapter at a time into a new Word document. The results are generally more consistent in my experience.

[the-darkglow.livejournal.com]

I cobbled my own system together from separate components found online and code I wrote. I've been meaning to make it presentable and post it somewhere but it hasn't happened yet (and I wouldn't hold my breath).

First, I use a GreaseMonkey script I wrote in Firefox. It turns most LJ links into the "light" format and "reply" mode to make conversion easier and avoid a long stream of comments in my ebooks. Basically, it appends "?format=light&mode=reply" to LJ links (try copy/pasting at the end of an LJ URL to see what it does)... with some exceptions for the non-fic LJs I read and a bit of smarts so links that already have a "?" don't break.

Then I use the FlashGot Firefox extension to download all the chapters (using the Firefox built-in downloader so it can see everything I can without having to re-enter my password). This works especially well if the story has a masterpost: just select all the chapter links, tell it where to download them and they're all there. Otherwise, I have to go to each chapter, hit the "next" link and save the file.

Then I wrote a Python script that chews on the HTML to remove a bunch of things my reader didn't like, things I didn't like, things that were useless on an ereader (like forms and javascript), etc. Oh, I also remove all images (keeping them made things way more complicated so I went the simple route); so if a story relies heavily on included images, this isn't the best way to go. That script is the most complex part of my "system" (and the first one I wrote, actually). If the story is a single chapter, I stop here since my reader does fine with HTML.

If I have a multi-chapter story, I have a bash script (that's a linux/unix command line scripting language) that creates a table of content file and gives it to Calibre's ebook-convert utility to bring it all together into an ePub with the given title and author info. I used to do the last step with MobiPerl back when I had a reader that read .mobi files but swiched reader so I had to create something else.

The only thing that "breaks" this workflow is when an author doesn't post chapters in the order they should be read because the system relies on the number of the post (the number before the .html in the URL) to know in what order the chapters go. Other than that, this works pretty well.

I've been evolving this for almost 4 years in starts and spurts, that's why it's all in different languages and using different tools.

It's creaky, but it works. :)

[kalidris.livejournal.com]

omg, I've been looking for something like that for ages. thaaaaaaaank you :)

[bettybaby63.livejournal.com]

OMF this is the answer to my prayers :) thank you!

[lazorsaurus.livejournal.com]

Squeebook probably works well for everyone, but another option is Calibre. It's a program that you can use to read ebooks on your actual computer which is pretty handy. You can also install the plug-in EpubMerge.

IF you already have a one-click webpage/ebook converter, it can be a bit easier than Squeebooks because you can just highlight the already downloaded chapters and it'll merge for you. Just another option!

[lucifrix.livejournal.com]

Have you figured out a way to get fics from LJ into it easily? The Fanfic Downloader plugin can't handle LJ, so right now I'm stuck copy/pasting the fic into a Word doc, saving as RTF, and then having Calibre convert it (to MOBI format).

[lazorsaurus.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, nothing easier than this. But I found using squee books to be a bit time-consuming and, on top of that, I had some bizarre margin erase things happening on a few fics.

I've found I prefer using the Chrome plug-in dotEpub (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dotepub/okpfiebkkmjcnodegbbbiellepfhoglm) . It saves you from having to copy/paste all the links into Squee. Then when I have those converted and in Calibre, I just highlight and use ePubMerge.

It's not a perfect solution, but I've found it simpler in some ways than Squeebook. SORRY!

[lucifrix.livejournal.com]

Hey, ANY info is great. I really wish I had done more research before buying the Kindle Fire -- it's SHIT for downloading fic -- but now I'll try anything to make it a little easier. Thanks!

[lazorsaurus.livejournal.com]

Glad it's helpful then! Information is always good. I haven't ever used the Kindle, but that's definitely good to know as well. :)

[needtakehave.livejournal.com]

I found your comments very helpful, ty!

[dakaqua.livejournal.com]

this is very helpful. A+