Over the years, I had ignored the discussions on sub-series, until recently I decided to read all of the Discworld books.
I decided to experiment and see what I could do on my Kobo to handle sub-series and came up with the following approach.
Custom Columns in calibre
Code:
Lookup name: subseries
Column heading: Sub Series
Column Type: Text, column shown in the tag browser
Description: Sub Series for a book. Used as part of a calculated column for shelf definitions.
Code:
Lookup name: subshelf
Column heading: Subseries Shelf
Column Type: Column built from other columns
Description: Provide for a subseries shelf (first used for Discworld books)
Template: {#subseries:'test($,strcat(field('series'),' - ',$),'')'}
Device Driver Settings (for Kobo)
Code:
The Kobo from v2.0.0 supports bookshelves. These are created on the Kobo. Specify a tags type column for automatic management
series, #subshelf
Metadata Plugin
Code:
Format: ePub
Device: KOBOTOUCH
Source Template: {series:re(([^\s])[^\s]+(\s|$),\1)}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}
Destination Field: title
The effect of this is for
Code:
Title: Equal Rites
Series: Discworld
Sub Series: Witches
Series Index: 3
I end up with a book titled
D - 03 - Equal Rites located on both the
Discworld and the
Discworld - Witches shelves.
This way when I sort by title on the Kobo shelves, I can either go to the
Discworld shelf and see ALL books in sequence, or I can go to the
Discworld - Witches shelf and see books
D - 03 - Equal Rites,
D - 06 - Wyrd Sisters, ...
Books with only a main series just end up on a shelf for that series, and of course books with no series end up on no shelves.
(I suppose with shelves, I no longer need to prepend an abbreviated version of the series name to the books in it, but old habits die hard)