Free and bargain romances in July 2013

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by laurla

waaaayy off topic...
but I just have to say... I finally (at Mother's Day) got all of my ebooks backed up and run through calibre.... now with this buying spree I've been on lately (no thanks to all of you!!), I have a new crap TON of books piled up that I need to download and put through calibre and I soooo don't want to take the time. But... so many of the new titles I have are filling out series that I realllyyy want to read... Arrgghh! I'm such a mess.

Okay, got that off my chest Now I'm off to go calibre-ing maybe...

I download as I buy. I don't take chances of it not being available when I need it. Sometimes a book slips through though like today I found a book I bought that wasn't in my library but Amazon said I owned it. So I downloaded and added it. This has happen twice in the last two months. So I'm scratching my head either I was lax last year at sometime, Amazon forgot to send the book when I bought it or my books are disappearing.

Time to do a big backup this weekend on my three sources!

[library addict]

Originally Posted by laurla

waaaayy off topic...
but I just have to say... I finally (at Mother's Day) got all of my ebooks backed up and run through calibre.... now with this buying spree I've been on lately (no thanks to all of you!!), I have a new crap TON of books piled up that I need to download and put through calibre and I soooo don't want to take the time. But... so many of the new titles I have are filling out series that I realllyyy want to read... Arrgghh! I'm such a mess.

Okay, got that off my chest Now I'm off to go calibre-ing maybe...

The initial organization is the most time consuming, but buying sprees can take time to add. I always at least download them as I buy and add them to my temp for calibre folder. Then it may take a few days (or week or more sometimes) for me to get them actually added, the metadata fixed, and the book the way I want before I send them to my Sony. Plus I make multiple back-ups faithfully.

I also tend to take a closer look at the freebies I grab from this folder before I actually add them to Calibre to ensure it is something I truly want to read. I've tried to be more meticulous about what freebies/on-sale books I get this year, but sometimes it's just easier to grab them and look later.

[laurla]

Originally Posted by library addict

The initial organization is the most time consuming, but buying sprees can take time to add. I always at least download them as I buy and add them to my temp for calibre folder. Then it may take a few days (or week or more sometimes) for me to get them actually added, the metadata fixed, and the book the way I want before I send them to my Sony. Plus I make multiple back-ups faithfully.

I also tend to take a closer look at the freebies I grab from this folder before I actually add them to Calibre to ensure it is something I truly want to read. I've tried to be more meticulous about what freebies/on-sale books I get this year, but sometimes it's just easier to grab them and look later.

You and Blossom are both right... I need to at least download them to my hard drive until I get around to getting them into Calibre.... I was so focused for several months on getting my initial organization that I didn't actually read much. Really - from at least 3 books a week to maybe one or two every couple of weeks... now I'm reading again and letting the organization slide. Oh, where is the balance???

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by laurla

You and Blossom are both right... I need to at least download them to my hard drive until I get around to getting them into Calibre.... I was so focused for several months on getting my initial organization that I didn't actually read much. Really - from at least 3 books a week to maybe one or two every couple of weeks... now I'm reading again and letting the organization slide. Oh, where is the balance???

I can do both. For me instead of tags I use multiple libraries. One for books I bought, One for Kindle Freebies, One for Books to read, One for books I've reads and one for freebies from other places. I use the copy/move feature in Calibre alot to move my books between libraries. It works for me and I can have custom columns that relate to each library.

The books to read & The books I've read library would be duplicates from other libraries but this is where I do my conversion and clean up. All other have the original version only. Once I read a book it goes to my read library but the original version stays in what library it belongs such paid, Kindle freebie or Other Freebie library.

So it's like this

Originals:

• Paid Library (I kept track each format and what store it is from)
• Kindle Freebies (I use tags and custom column for books I am may be interested in)
• Other Freebies (Same as Kindle but for other stores I have a column to list the store it's from)

Final versions:

• 2B Read (I use columns to mark converted or clean up book done and load into Dropbox. I also use tags for genre. This is also where I fix the metadata and covers)
• Read Library (Books I've read, I use the Goodreads plugins to keep track of, date read, ratings, pages and word counts)

This works for me and takes little to no work to maintain.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by laurla

You and Blossom are both right... I need to at least download them to my hard drive until I get around to getting them into Calibre....

I learned the hard way that the Smashwords freebies only stay in your library while they're free.

I was just adding them to my "bookshelf", figuring I'd go back and download them later when I had time. The author stopped offering them for free, and when I went to get it from my bookshelf, it asked me to pay for it!

So...now, I download as I go!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I learned the hard way that the Smashwords freebies only stay in your library while they're free.

I was just adding them to my "bookshelf", figuring I'd go back and download them later when I had time. The author stopped offering them for free, and when I went to get it from my bookshelf, it asked me to pay for it!

So...now, I download as I go!

It really is the safest way. Kobo is the same way if you don't save it to your library.

[library addict]

I just have two Calibre libraries: the main one and one I call Calibre Vault. All of the books in the main library are on my reader. I only move the books to the vault if I want to keep them, but don't think I will reread any time soon. Also, most of my non-fiction books are there.

I've toyed with the idea of doing more libraries, but I think the system I have now works well for me. It was a lot of trial and error to get to this point Starting a new Calibre library seemed scary, but really it ended up being super easy. I have a custom column (for date archived) in the first position in that library so I know at a glance which library I am in. (This was added after I accidentally added a bunch of new books to the vault library).

I'm odd in that I only keep the final ePub in Calibre. I also have a digital library folder when I keep my original format and a copy of the final ePub. This folder has sub-folders of my favorite authors, a Miscellaneous folder for authors where I only have one of two of their books, and the Undetermined folder where I keep everything by new-to-me authors until I've read it and decided if I want to keep it or not.

I delete books I don't want to keep. I used to keep everything thinking "Well, maybe..." but if I didn't like it enough that I could possibly want to reread it someday it goes. (I make an exception for books within a series I otherwise enjoy).

My Calibre folder and Digital Library folder get backed up regularly, both to USB drives and DVD-Rom.

I was keeping my Digital Library folder in the cloud, but had an incident where some of my books up and disappeared on me. So I moved it out of the Dropbox folder. Now I maintain one of my backup copies there, but not the main version.

A friend of mine keeps a separate, empty Calibre library for all of her print books. Just the idea of setting one up for all of my print books exhausts me! I did a massive purge in my last move since I majorly downsized my house, but I still have several thousand print books. I still keep track of all the books I own, my TBR pile, and Want to Buy lists in various word documents as that's the way I have been doing so since I bought my first computer.

I think it all comes down to finding a system that works for you and that is easiest for you to maintain. Don't be afraid to experiment with it all. If adding & converting books as you buy doesn't work for you, maybe setting aside an hour or two on a regular basis once or twice a month would work.

[apesmom]

As predicted, Amazon's solution to the Shalvis book with the missing Blue Flame freebie was for me to request a refund, which I promptly did, especially price has since dropped from $3.99 to $2.99. I would have prefered to get the version I purchased but oh well . . .

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by library addict

I think it all comes down to finding a system that works for you and that is easiest for you to maintain. Don't be afraid to experiment with it all. If adding & converting books as you buy doesn't work for you, maybe setting aside an hour or two on a regular basis once or twice a month would work.

That is too much work! Seriously I applaud your organizational skills. I agree whatever works best for you is the best way to do it. It's taken me a few years to get mine where it is now. So if you are new to this be patient it takes time to find the right system that works with your habits.

I do have a non calibre digital library but it's the final versions move to Dropbox so I can access them anywhere.

I keep a backup copy of Calibre (10GB) on Dropbox as well but I would never put my main Calibre library on there due to sharing violations that can occur and I don't mean the kind where they removes your books because of copyright. It's a technical term that basically means the hard drive and windows gets confused and you can lose data.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by Blossom

That is too much work!

LOL! And I was just thinking your multiple libraries seems like work. But that's why Calibre is such a great program. It allows customization. I'm sure I don't use it to the full potential since I don't make catalogues or download news.

Originally Posted by Blossom

It's a technical term that basically means the hard drive and windows gets confused and you can lose data.

Maybe that's what happened with me. It was only 3 books and they were backed up elsewhere, but it freaked me out. I have some books on the Sony, B&N, and Kindle apps on my phone, but I never really use my phone to read. I don't have a tablet. So I don't really feel the need to have my entire library accesible from anywhere. I think it sounds like a cool idea, but I wouldn't really use it.

[library addict]

Originally Posted by apesmom

As predicted, Amazon's solution to the Shalvis book with the missing Blue Flame freebie was for me to request a refund, which I promptly did, especially price has since dropped from $3.99 to $2.99. I would have prefered to get the version I purchased but oh well . . .

So did they change the item description, too?

Sony had the book listed when it first released, but when I checked today to see if they'd lowered the price, too, I couldn't find it. I am so far behind in that series. I've only read book 1, though I own all the others from when B&N had their first 50% off sale earlier.

[koland]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Nope, that's here name. Interview with her here: http://calliehutton.com/?tag=tmonique-stevens

Ha - just noticed that her LAST name is spelled wrong in the blog tag.

Obviously, she can't thpell!

[koland]

Originally Posted by library addict

LOL! And I was just thinking your multiple libraries seems like work. But that's why Calibre is such a great program. It allows customization. I'm sure I don't use it to the full potential since I don't make catalogues or download news.

Maybe that's what happened with me. It was only 3 books and they were backed up elsewhere, but it freaked me out. I have some books on the Sony, B&N, and Kindle apps on my phone, but I never really use my phone to read. I don't have a tablet. So I don't really feel the need to have my entire library accesible from anywhere. I think it sounds like a cool idea, but I wouldn't really use it.

You can log into the directory on dropbox.com (the full website) and click the icon to display deleted files and often find something that was mistakenly deleted. You can also restore old versions of files that are updated in the dropbox folders.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by library addict

Maybe that's what happened with me. It was only 3 books and they were backed up elsewhere, but it freaked me out. I have some books on the Sony, B&N, and Kindle apps on my phone, but I never really use my phone to read. I don't have a tablet. So I don't really feel the need to have my entire library accesible from anywhere. I think it sounds like a cool idea, but I wouldn't really use it.

I use Dropbox to add books to the Personal Documents Cloud. Otherwise I have to get off my lazy rear and turn on a computer! This way I can email from Dropbox app to Pdoc cloud using my phone or tablet and it shows up on my Kindle Paperwhite.

So say I am laying in bed and I suddenly get an urge to read a book I bought a long time ago, I can email the book from my phone or tablet to my Kindle within minutes. Sometimes I will sideload a book on my tablet just for reference. It's just easier to navigate through a book on a tablet when searching than a eInk Kindle. If I am away I can grab any book I need from my phone and once I am at a WiFi spot download it to my Kindle.

I only keep a small amount of books on my Kindle. I'd go crazy if I put all my TBR list on there! So it goes into Dropbox instead waiting for when I am ready to add it to my Kindle.

Another thing is all books have to be cleaned up before I put them on my Kindle. I never read anything straight from the archive. I am dyslexic so I have to do some special formatting for my brain before I can read them comfortably.

[danicca]

I didn't realize it's possible to move books from one calibre library to other. I keep my wishlist as one and delete entries when I buy them. If I do the copy/move thing, can I just add the book file ?