Is it worth the effort to produce audiobooks?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

RobertDDL kindly tested my mobis with some kind of Kindle checking software and they seem to be fine, so I went ahead and put them up on my site. Here's a quote from the announcement.



Thanks to everyone here for all the help. I think I now have a much better array of things to offer my readers (and listeners.)

rjb

A million thank yous.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

A million thank yous.

You're equally welcome.-)

[arjaybe]

So I thought I'd test my mobis on my tablet, but when I tapped them I got a message that said it couldn't read them. Well, I thought, I guess I need an app for this, so I went searching.

First I saw Kindle Reader and said to myself, This has got to work, right? Kindle. Mobi. Made for each other. So I installed it and went looking for my mobis, but I couldn't find them. Instead I was asked to register with Amazon. Okay. Obviously this doesn't work the way I thought it would, so I registered and was immediately offered several FREE samples. But I still couldn't find my mobis. It turns out Kindle Reader wouldn't open books on my tablet until I first sent them through Amazon. Yeah, I had to send my books away before I could read them. The good news is that I finally got to test my mobis in Kindle Reader and they seem fine. The bad news is that this is a stupid way to read books.

Next I tried Moon+ Reader. I'd heard about it here and figured it must be good. And since it's a third party reader, maybe it will just let me open my mobis and read them without having to first upload them to the internet. It did. After thrashing around in the non-intuitive interface for a while, I was able to load a book from local files. Unfortunately, once in the book I couldn't find any controls to allow me to do anything, even to close the book. I could turn pages, and that was about it. Finally I did something that made my tablet's controls appear and I was able to escape. Well, after enduring some aggressively obnoxious advertisements. Yeah, I know, that's supposed to make me buy the PRO version. I vaguely remember this shareware BS from my rare forays into Windows. I did discover that the books look okay in that reader, too, but it's another stupid way to read books.

I will admit that I have been using Linux for so long that it's possible that I'm spoiled. I'm used to applications that just do what they're asked to do, so it's probably my own fault that I wasn't ready to deal with these things. If I were more experienced with the way things are done in those other systems, I probably wouldn't have been so lost.

Anyway, I did eventually get to test my mobis, and now I can purge those stupid applications from my tablet. Can anyone tell me whether they will leave any bits behind to further confound me in the future, or will they obediently disappear completely?

cheers

rjb

[GrannyGrump]

@arjaybe --- I have never been a 'Nix user, but I will comment that I have seen reference in Lifehacker (used to be a great site for tech tips, now more a general e-zine) to using Kindle Previewer in WINE.
https://lifehacker.com/5406505/54065...inux-with-wine

Is that how you were using it? The reason I ask, is that I open MOBI books stored on my hard-drive that I created which have never been through the Amazon system. You should be able to do the same to access the MOBI files you have created.

I don't understand why it gave you such hassles!

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

@arjaybe --- I have never been a 'Nix user, but I will comment that I have seen reference in Lifehacker (used to be a great site for tech tips, now more a general e-zine) to using Kindle Previewer in WINE.
https://lifehacker.com/5406505/54065...inux-with-wine

Is that how you were using it? The reason I ask, is that I open MOBI books stored on my hard-drive that I created which have never been through the Amazon system. You should be able to do the same to access the MOBI files you have created.

I don't understand why it gave you such hassles!

This adventure was on my Android tablet. I can read the mobis on a couple of ereaders that I have installed on my Linux (MX Linux) desktop, but I wanted to see what they looked like in a "real" Kindlesque reader. I've never used WINE. Just never had a reason. Well, that's a lie. I tried it once just to see, but couldn't think of why I'd need it. Anyway, I got some experience in the world of tablet apps.-)

I read Lifehacker regularly. They have a good article once in a while.

[GrannyGrump]

Well, we can always count a day better spent when we learn something new!

(I can't hack Lifehacker any more, I hate what they did to their interface several years ago, makes it TOO hard to find the bits I want to see...)

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

This adventure was on my Android tablet. I can read the mobis on a couple of ereaders that I have installed on my Linux (MX Linux) desktop, but I wanted to see what they looked like in a "real" Kindlesque reader. I've never used WINE. Just never had a reason. Well, that's a lie. I tried it once just to see, but couldn't think of why I'd need it. Anyway, I got some experience in the world of tablet apps.-)

I read Lifehacker regularly. They have a good article once in a while.

I tend to read Skillet and Gizmodo.

[ekbell]

I find that reading books on the android tablet works much better using a combination of Calibre, Calibre companion and my favored reader apps. The use of Calibre Companion* to download, organize, select and open books allows me to quickly open books with variety of reader apps (other then Kindle) without having to figure out how to open a book from within each app or how to navigate more of an app than the reading interface for the most part.

* Calibre Companion can not be used without Calibre

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

Well, we can always count a day better spent when we learn something new!

(I can't hack Lifehacker any more, I hate what they did to their interface several years ago, makes it TOO hard to find the bits I want to see...)

Come to think of it, I've had trouble searching on that site. Positive I'd seen the article there, and not being able to find it. It's still on my daily sweep, though, for a quick scan in case there's something there. Along with 70 or 80 other sites.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by ekbell

I find that reading books on the android tablet works much better using a combination of Calibre, Calibre companion and my favored reader apps. The use of Calibre Companion* to download, organize, select and open books allows me to quickly open books with variety of reader apps (other then Kindle) without having to figure out how to open a book from within each app or how to navigate more of an app than the reading interface for the most part.

* Calibre Companion can not be used without Calibre

Ooh! I use Calibre on my desktop. It's part of my process for creating ebooks. I also used it to create these mobis. I'm definitely going to see about getting it on the tablet now. Thank you.

Now to remove, expunge and purge those readers.