As many other people here, I read a lot of fantasy, and that means: series. Lots of them. The Kindle ignores series, and everybody already knows of the plugboards to put a series name and title into the title field.
This creates another problem. Sometimes a series' name is so long, that the title is cut off the screen before you can actually see the index, or the title of the book.
If you are using "Firstname Lastname" in Calibre's Author field, you could put the series name there (smaller print, much more room), but I don't. I highly prefer "Lastname, Firstname", not only for sorting, but also for display. Unfortunately, the Kindle sees this, and "helpfully" reverses the display and ditches the comma.
If you put the the series in the author field and the index in the title, Calibre sends this:
[1] Homeland
Salvatore, R.A. (The Dark Elf Trilogy)
However, Kindle displays this:
[1] Homeland
R.A. (The Dark Elf Trilogy) Salvatore
If you are using "Lastname, Firstname" in the Author field, and still want the series displayed on the Author line on the Kindle (and preserve the display of "Lastname, Firstname as much as possible), then you can do this.
Code:
Source Template: {author_sort:re(\, ,_)} {series:|(|)}
Destination Field: Author field.
Template: {series_index:|[|]} {title}
Destination Field: Title field.
It will replace the comma and space with an underscore, add the series (in parentheses) to the Author field, and the index (in brackets) to the Title field.
It will display like this:
[1] Homeland
Salvatore_R.A. (The Dark Elf Trilogy)
Obviously, you should sort by Author if you use this, or the series will not be kept together. If you sort by title, all books starting with [1] will appear first, then the ones with [2], and so on.
If you want to sort by title, without being disturbed by the index, you should put the index into the Author field as well:
Code:
Source Template: {author_sort:re(\, ,_)} {series:|(|} {series_index:||)}
Destination Field: Author field.
It will display like this:
Homeland
Salvatore_R.A. (The Dark Elf Trilogy 1)
Should you want a hash (#) before the series number, use this:
Code:
Source Template: {author_sort:re(\, ,_)} {series:|(|} {series_index:|#|)}
Destination Field: Author field.
If you wish to be able to sort by title AND keep the series together, then you will have to start you title with Series Series_Index in the "old fashioned" way, but then you must accept that part of the title can become cut off.
Hope this is of some use to anyone.