Can I Sideload Converted Books to Kindle?

[Desertway]

I have a bunch of ePubs. I know I can convert them to Kindle format with Calibre. After that, would I be able to load them so that they integrate with the books purchased from the Kindle store?

Also, how often has Amazon actually pulled books off of client's Kindles? Was that just an isolated incident?

K3 is looking tasty.

[carld]

Yes, you can load them on your Kindle without any problem, they won't be backed up on Amazon's servers though.

Amazon deleted that version of 1984 because the seller didn't own the rights in the US, it's not something I'd worry about as long as you aren't buying pirated Harry Potter books or something.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by carld

Yes, you can load them on your Kindle without any problem, they won't be backed up on Amazon's servers though..

Yep. And I don't believe they work with Whispersync, etiher. There's no problem reading them, though. I have plenty of books that I didn't buy from Amazon on my Kindle and I've never had a problem.

[AnemicOak]

Yes, you'd convert the ePub's (provided they aren't DRM'd) to Mobi format and put them in the Kindle's "Documents" folder. They'll show up listed with all your other books. They won't be syncable with other Kindles/Kindle Apps you might have like books on Amazon's cloud are, but will work the same as far as actually reading a book.

Amazon did this a couple of times IIRC (Harry Potter, some Ayn Rand, and some Orwell that the folks selling didn't have the right to do) as I recall they made it up to folks although I don't recall the details. '1984' was the one that got a lot of attention and they've said they won't do it again. They even go so far at this point that if a publisher makes corrections to a book (for typos and stuff) Amazon will email you and won't update your copy unless you email them back OKing it.

[Desertway]

Thanks much for the responses.

[jer989]

I was going to start a new thread about this, but this thread seems to be pretty close to what I'm curious about. I have a K3 on order (shipped actually) - and haven't used a Kindle in the past (so pls. bear that in mind).

My questions are:

1) if you sideload non-Amazon ebooks (ebooks in .mobi or .prc Mobipocket format, converted in Calibre) via USB, assuming the metadata in the file is correct, will the books show up on the home screen properly and sort properly (that is, will the Author and Title be sortable, as opposed to what Amazon says about transferred personal documents, which is that they are shown on the home screen only by their filename?)

2) I assume that a PDF that is loaded via USB would be listed on the home screen under it's file name (or is there a filename convention that can be used so that the Kindle can extract the Author and Title from the filename?)

3) For either sideloaded ebooks or PDF's, can you still make notes, highlights, etc. (I realize that only Amazon titles would have the ability to sync last page read, be archived by Amazon, etc.)

- oh, and would a sideloaded (i.e. non-Amazon purchased) ebook still have the progress bar on the home screen?
thanks!

[carld]

1. Yes, books containing metadata will show up and sort like any other.

2. I *think* PDFs show up just like other files, but my K1 doesn't support PDF, so I don't know for sure.

3. Yes.

[rangepig]

And something I was wondering (I posted another thread about this a few days ago):

How much data is Amazon collecting about the sideloaded non-Amazon titles when my Kindle phones home?

--Jim

[jer989]

Originally Posted by rangepig

And something I was wondering (I posted another thread about this a few days ago):

How much data is Amazon collecting about the sideloaded non-Amazon titles when my Kindle phones home?

--Jim

God only knows - but I would think very little of anything since they'd (probably) have to rely on the metadata in each of the files being 'correct' (and you couldn't identify an ebook file by something like it's checksum/hash since most people who are sideloading ebooks onto their Kindle are probably tweaking the metatdata, cover images, formatiing - so I would think the checksum would then change because of that).

Who's to say that I don't, for example, have 100 copies of the same Bobbsey Twins book on my kindle, but have changed the metadata, etc, in Calibre to make it look like they're all different books from various authors (you know, I in order to hide my Bobbsey Twins book addiction - please don't judge me....)

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by rangepig

And something I was wondering (I posted another thread about this a few days ago):

How much data is Amazon collecting about the sideloaded non-Amazon titles when my Kindle phones home?

--Jim

You're not the only one that wonders about this. I'm curious if I'll be able to decipher much of the communication sniffing the WiFi once I get it. Of course, if I was sending stuff like that, I'd encrypt it so I'm not very hopeful I'll figure anything new out.

I will say this much: I've had many books on my Kindle that were not purchased through Amazon and are not available anywhere legally without DRM. These books usually had the metadata clearly set so it would be quite trivial to figure out that I had removed DRM from books. I've never heard a peep out of them about it. Now, that doesn't mean they aren't gathering stats on our reading habits and how many or what type of personal files we're keeping on our Kindles. If they are, I've never heard it leaked from Amazon employees or anything. I think they have to tread lightly with this sort of thing if they don't want massively bad PR.

[carld]

Originally Posted by rangepig

And something I was wondering (I posted another thread about this a few days ago):

How much data is Amazon collecting about the sideloaded non-Amazon titles when my Kindle phones home?

--Jim

If I were to guess, and I would, I'd say none.

[rcuadro]

Originally Posted by jer989

2) I assume that a PDF that is loaded via USB would be listed on the home screen under it's file name (or is there a filename convention that can be used so that the Kindle can extract the Author and Title from the filename?)

- oh, and would a sideloaded (i.e. non-Amazon purchased) ebook still have the progress bar on the home screen?
thanks!

PDF's are funny... If they have metadata it will show as that... if it doesnt then it may just show up as booktitle.pdf of if it was word doc converted it may show up as worddocname.doc.
quite annoying


Yes, any side loaded book will have a progress bar both on the home screen and as you read it

[carld]

One note about personal documents, you could add them to Calibre, set the Metadata and send them to your Kindle if you wanted to be able to sort them like regular ebooks.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jer989

I was going to start a new thread about this, but this thread seems to be pretty close to what I'm curious about. I have a K3 on order (shipped actually) - and haven't used a Kindle in the past (so pls. bear that in mind).

My questions are:

1) if you sideload non-Amazon ebooks (ebooks in .mobi or .prc Mobipocket format, converted in Calibre) via USB, assuming the metadata in the file is correct, will the books show up on the home screen properly and sort properly (that is, will the Author and Title be sortable, as opposed to what Amazon says about transferred personal documents, which is that they are shown on the home screen only by their filename?)

2) I assume that a PDF that is loaded via USB would be listed on the home screen under it's file name (or is there a filename convention that can be used so that the Kindle can extract the Author and Title from the filename?)

3) For either sideloaded ebooks or PDF's, can you still make notes, highlights, etc. (I realize that only Amazon titles would have the ability to sync last page read, be archived by Amazon, etc.)

- oh, and would a sideloaded (i.e. non-Amazon purchased) ebook still have the progress bar on the home screen?
thanks!

PDFs can have metadata. Kindle will use it if it is there, otherwise it is just the file name. You can add metadata with calibre or a PDF editor.

You can highlight/annotate any sideloaded content including PDFs (the latter only on K3).