Handling Omnibuses

Needlehawk · 12-20-2012, 12:13 AM

I've been using Calibre to manage my library, and for the most part it's a godsend. However, I'm having some trouble managing series. I've got a number of "omnibus" epubs that are multiple books in a series. However, I haven't found any way to designate a single epub as (for example) number 1 through 3 in a series.

Even worse, I have at least one omnibus that contains the books from multiple series. It looks like I could put the second series in a user created column, but that still doesn't leave me a way to give it multiple index numbers of either series.

Are there any plug-ins that give this functionality, or are there upgrades planned to handle omnibus ebooks?

DoctorOhh · 12-20-2012, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Needlehawk

I haven't found any way to designate a single epub as (for example) number 1 through 3 in a series.

There is no easy way, some folks handle 1 through 3 by giving the series the index number of 1.23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Needlehawk

Are there any plug-ins that give this functionality

I have taken to using the EpubSplit plugin to break out the books separately, then treat them as single books.

evolutionary · 12-20-2012, 03:54 AM

I use the EpubSplit plugin, too.

In fact I think the whole concept of 'omnibuses' is broken for ebooks anyway. They made sense for physical books as a way to save space and an aid to portability, but for obvious reasons neither of these considerations apply to ebooks. I find one file per book much easier to organise

BetterRed · 12-20-2012, 04:20 PM

To handle collections such as anthologies, I create an empty book for each item with the appropriate name, author etc, I put a file system link to the anthology folder in a Custom Long Text Column.

I also use this technique for journals that don't publish articles as discrete publications

I tried ePub Split and found it a bit tedious, and I don't have everything as an EPUB, especially monthly/quarterly journals.

BR

jersysman · 12-21-2012, 11:03 AM

I think, for what the OP is looking to accomplish, EpubSplit would be able to solve his issue since he is dealing with books and not periodicals or journals.

Needlehawk · 12-21-2012, 05:01 PM

Hi all. Thanks for all the suggestions!

Quote:

I have taken to using the EpubSplit plugin to break out the books separately, then treat them as single books.

I had considered breaking them out. Since I'm a computer professional, it might be good practice in creating EPubs. (I would probably use Sigil to do this). I just wondered if there was a way to do it with the original anthologies.

Quote:

To handle collections such as anthologies, I create an empty book for each item with the appropriate name, author etc, I put a file system link to the anthology folder in a Custom Long Text Column.

This is an interesting idea. I'll have to give this some thought.

Again, thanks for the input! I really appreciate online communities like this that are very helpful!

DoctorOhh · 12-22-2012, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Needlehawk

I had considered breaking them out. Since I'm a computer professional, it might be good practice in creating EPubs. (I would probably use Sigil to do this).

For ePub omnibus, trilogies etc... the ePubsplit plugin is quicker and simpler than using Sigil. No ePub creation knowledge required.

Needlehawk · 12-22-2012, 02:23 PM

Hey DoctorOhh, thanks again for all your help yesterday over in the PlugIn forum. I spent WAY too much time having fun with kiwidude's plugins yesterday.

I'm an old procedural programmer back in school to upgrade my skills, so taking apart and looking at epubs has been one fun way to practice. That being said, after using some of the plug-ins yesterday, I have to agree that the plugins make working with Calibre a whole new world.

What I'm actually leaning toward doing FIRST, is taking some of the cheap "50 greatest novel" type of books, splitting them out, then making them part of a "series" with the original book name. It should be a fun exercise in playing with ePubsplit.

DoctorOhh · 12-22-2012, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Needlehawk

I spent WAY too much time having fun with kiwidude's plugins yesterday.

kiwidude has created a great number of plugins. I use most all of the ones he has created.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Needlehawk

What I'm actually leaning toward doing FIRST, is taking some of the cheap "50 greatest novel" type of books, splitting them out, then making them part of a "series" with the original book name. It should be a fun exercise in playing with ePubsplit.

Sounds like fun.

FYI for everyone else reading through here the ePubsplit plugin is created by JimmXinu.

Good Reading.

Needlehawk · 12-22-2012, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

kiwidude has created a great number of plugins.

Yes. Yes he has. As I said, I'm a poor student right now, but as soon as I'm out and working again, I intend to throw him some paypal love. He obviously deserves it.

Sabardeyn · 12-26-2012, 08:50 AM

Dealing with Omnibus and Anthologies can require different handling. Besides splitting the stories into separate files, you can try the following:

Stories from a single series can be entered as the next book in the series normally. So if you had books 1-2 individually and then an omnibus of books 3 & 4, you would enter it as the third book. What should be the 5th book now becomes book 4. While accurate, it does skew things if you're trying to keep track of the titles, book sequence and order.

Anthologies, since they contain the works of multiple authors and series, require a slightly different approach. Don't provide any series info (unless the anthology is a series itself - "Years Best Fiction 1975").

For both book types, enter the titles, authors (if applicable), series and series index within the comments associated with the book. Doing so allows you to find these types of books via Search, but not if entered as fieldname:"search term(s)" (because it will only search the named field - not the comments field).

todwatts · 12-26-2012, 12:02 PM

Guess I'm just simple minded ... or lazy ... but I love omnibus collections. Load once, read for a good long while.

I am a stickler for keeping series in order ... except (and here's the lazy part), if I have an Omnibus starting from book 1, containing three books, I'll name it "Harry Bosch [123]. If the omnibus starts from say, book 7, containing five books ... I'll name it "Jack Ryan [7891011]

Hey, I said, I was lazy ... my Series listing is just for my benefit. There are a lot of Jack Ryan books ... but obviously (to me anyway) Jack Ryan [7891011] is an omnibus, containing 5 books, starting from book 7.

Way to much work to give it more thought or effort. My only goal is to read the books in order ...

theducks · 12-26-2012, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by todwatts

Guess I'm just simple minded ... or lazy ... but I love omnibus collections. Load once, read for a good long while.

I am a stickler for keeping series in order ... except (and here's the lazy part), if I have an Omnibus starting from book 1, containing three books, I'll name it "Harry Bosch [123]. If the omnibus starts from say, book 7, containing five books ... I'll name it "Jack Ryan [7891011]

Hey, I said, I was lazy ... my Series listing is just for my benefit. There are a lot of Jack Ryan books ... but obviously (to me anyway) Jack Ryan [7891011] is an omnibus, containing 5 books, starting from book 7.

Way to much work to give it more thought or effort. My only goal is to read the books in order ...

If you name it [7.11] ( I chose.11 to tell me the end. Calibre does not accept more than 4 decimals)
it will properly place itself after 6 and before 8 (Yes, i have back filled missing books with an omnibus that bridges the single book title)

todwatts · 12-26-2012, 01:04 PM

theducks>> 7.11

Yes, that would work. I've just always "reserved" the "decimal" nominclature to indicate a novella or short story that bridged between two series books ... say, Robb's Remember When which is In Death [17.4], meant to be read between Imitation in Death (In Death [17]) and Divided In Death (In Death [18]).

Your system would be just a good as my Series [5678910] system. Both a lot easier that splitting up the omnibuses.

Sabardeyn · 12-26-2012, 04:41 PM

Todwatts,
Now see, I use tags where you use the decimals. I've got Anthology, Omnibus, and Short Stories for that purpose.

Speaking of which, anyone have a better term for Short Stories by a single author (as opposed to Anthology)? I don't really like Short Stories or Collection as they're a bit too loosely defined.

12-20-2012, 12:13 AM	#1
Needlehawk Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Present - Nook Color/Future - Nexus 7	Handling Omnibuses I've been using Calibre to manage my library, and for the most part it's a godsend. However, I'm having some trouble managing series. I've got a number of "omnibus" epubs that are multiple books in a series. However, I haven't found any way to designate a single epub as (for example) number 1 through 3 in a series. Even worse, I have at least one omnibus that contains the books from multiple series. It looks like I could put the second series in a user created column, but that still doesn't leave me a way to give it multiple index numbers of either series. Are there any plug-ins that give this functionality, or are there upgrades planned to handle omnibus ebooks?

12-26-2012, 12:02 PM	#12
todwatts Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Illinois Device: Kindle	Guess I'm just simple minded ... or lazy ... but I love omnibus collections. Load once, read for a good long while. I am a stickler for keeping series in order ... except (and here's the lazy part), if I have an Omnibus starting from book 1, containing three books, I'll name it "Harry Bosch [123]. If the omnibus starts from say, book 7, containing five books ... I'll name it "Jack Ryan [7891011] Hey, I said, I was lazy ... my Series listing is just for my benefit. There are a lot of Jack Ryan books ... but obviously (to me anyway) Jack Ryan [7891011] is an omnibus, containing 5 books, starting from book 7. Way to much work to give it more thought or effort. My only goal is to read the books in order ... Last edited by todwatts; 12-26-2012 at 12:04 PM.

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12-20-2012, 03:54 AM	#3
evolutionary Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 152194 Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Edinburgh Device: Sony PRS-T1, Google Nexus 10	I use the EpubSplit plugin, too. In fact I think the whole concept of 'omnibuses' is broken for ebooks anyway. They made sense for physical books as a way to save space and an aid to portability, but for obvious reasons neither of these considerations apply to ebooks. I find one file per book much easier to organise

12-20-2012, 04:20 PM	#4
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,544 Karma: 26954694 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	To handle collections such as anthologies, I create an empty book for each item with the appropriate name, author etc, I put a file system link to the anthology folder in a Custom Long Text Column. I also use this technique for journals that don't publish articles as discrete publications I tried ePub Split and found it a bit tedious, and I don't have everything as an EPUB, especially monthly/quarterly journals. BR

12-21-2012, 11:03 AM	#5
jersysman Wizard Posts: 1,747 Karma: 3761220 Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Pennsylvania Device: T1 Red, Kindle Fire, Kindle PW, PW2, Nook HD+, Kobo Mini, Aura HD	I think, for what the OP is looking to accomplish, EpubSplit would be able to solve his issue since he is dealing with books and not periodicals or journals.

12-22-2012, 02:23 PM	#8
Needlehawk Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Present - Nook Color/Future - Nexus 7	Hey DoctorOhh, thanks again for all your help yesterday over in the PlugIn forum. I spent WAY too much time having fun with kiwidude's plugins yesterday. I'm an old procedural programmer back in school to upgrade my skills, so taking apart and looking at epubs has been one fun way to practice. That being said, after using some of the plug-ins yesterday, I have to agree that the plugins make working with Calibre a whole new world. What I'm actually leaning toward doing FIRST, is taking some of the cheap "50 greatest novel" type of books, splitting them out, then making them part of a "series" with the original book name. It should be a fun exercise in playing with ePubsplit.

12-26-2012, 08:50 AM	#11
Sabardeyn Guru Posts: 644 Karma: 1242364 Join Date: May 2009 Location: The Right Coast Device: PC (Calibre), Nexus 7 2013 (Moon+ Pro), HTC HD2/Leo (Freda)	Dealing with Omnibus and Anthologies can require different handling. Besides splitting the stories into separate files, you can try the following: Stories from a single series can be entered as the next book in the series normally. So if you had books 1-2 individually and then an omnibus of books 3 & 4, you would enter it as the third book. What should be the 5th book now becomes book 4. While accurate, it does skew things if you're trying to keep track of the titles, book sequence and order. Anthologies, since they contain the works of multiple authors and series, require a slightly different approach. Don't provide any series info (unless the anthology is a series itself - "Years Best Fiction 1975"). For both book types, enter the titles, authors (if applicable), series and series index within the comments associated with the book. Doing so allows you to find these types of books via Search, but not if entered as fieldname:"search term(s)" (because it will only search the named field - not the comments field).

12-26-2012, 01:04 PM	#14
todwatts Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Illinois Device: Kindle	theducks>> 7.11 Yes, that would work. I've just always "reserved" the "decimal" nominclature to indicate a novella or short story that bridged between two series books ... say, Robb's Remember When which is In Death [17.4], meant to be read between Imitation in Death (In Death [17]) and Divided In Death (In Death [18]). Your system would be just a good as my Series [5678910] system. Both a lot easier that splitting up the omnibuses.

12-26-2012, 04:41 PM	#15
Sabardeyn Guru Posts: 644 Karma: 1242364 Join Date: May 2009 Location: The Right Coast Device: PC (Calibre), Nexus 7 2013 (Moon+ Pro), HTC HD2/Leo (Freda)	Todwatts, Now see, I use tags where you use the decimals. I've got Anthology, Omnibus, and Short Stories for that purpose. Speaking of which, anyone have a better term for Short Stories by a single author (as opposed to Anthology)? I don't really like Short Stories or Collection as they're a bit too loosely defined.

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