Hi Technohead and welcome to MobileRead!
Yes, the ebook library software can be extremely frustrating and many people have had troubles with it at some point. Thanks for your tips -- I'm sure they will be helpful to others trying to use the software for the first time.
Many people around here use Calibre to manage their ebooks and don't bother much with the sony software except to buy books. This is the link for Calibre in the MR wiki --
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Calibre
Enjoy your 505!