How do you manage short stories?

travger · 05-03-2011, 02:10 PM

I started to wonder, maybe somebody has come up with simpler setup, but that's my ideas so far:

One story could be in several anthologies/magazines, + standalone file.

So I enter anthology/magazine into 'Books Library', tag it as Anthology and enter toc into comments field.
In second, 'Shorts Library', go all the stories as empty books, just metadata (+occasional standalone). Into custom column goes name of the anthology (so I can sort them next to each other).

I'm not sure about if story is between-the-books short or prequel. Shouldn't it belong with rest of the series?
Will custom column work if story is in several collections? Maybe tag it with anthology's name would be better...

If you think about any pitfalls or difficulties this setup might have, or just have better way, please feel free to share.

travger · 05-06-2011, 12:06 PM

Nobody keeps track of shorties??

kiwidude · 05-06-2011, 12:29 PM

Like many aspects of Calibre you can do it any number of ways and no-one can argue definitively that one is better than the other

For standalone short stories, I add a tag of "Short" to whatever other tags it may have like Science Fiction etc. If it is related to a series, I add it with a sequence of .1, .2 etc in the appropriate place. I don't bother with custom columns etc.

If the book is instead an anthology covering multiple authors - well quite frankly it is a pita to try to categorise as you have found. It could cover multiple genres, multiple authors, multiple series etc. So I just give it an Anthology tag and don't bother with any of the rest of the issues. If I really cared about a short story from within it appearing in a series I might make a copy using Sigil to have a separate book with just that story in it to manage as per the above.

theducks · 05-06-2011, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travger

Nobody keeps track of shorties??

I just set the Title to: story_title (from source)

If you use the source ISBN, you can download the cover (or you can set the source name and download the entire metadata, the reset the title to the above).

travger · 05-08-2011, 01:02 PM

Thank you for sharing.

I have not much anthologies (yet), so idea of keeping track which stories are in several does not abhor me. Maybe I'll change my mind in the far future...

Lady Fitzgerald · 05-08-2011, 02:45 PM

What would be nice if an empty book could be used to list title, author, tags, etc. for each short story in an anthology, then link to the source book when loading to a device or reading on the internal reader. Then each story could be sorted by title, author, tag, whatever, in the library view. I imagine the empty books would have to be created manually since I'm pretty sure there isn't consistant metadata available on line for this, if at all. A custom column could be added to show the source book of such entries.

I have quite a few anthologies. Many of those have short stories that fit into separate series that are not part of the anthololgies. I also have serial anthologies that have serial short stories within, some by the same author and others by multiple authors, and they don't always appear in each anthology in the series. They sometimes also fit into series not part of the anthologies. It gets pretty complicated at times.

Is there a way for empty books to link to real books or is this something that needs to be formally requested?

Lady Fitzgerald · 05-09-2011, 06:05 PM

Bump bump

kiwidude · 05-09-2011, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Is there a way for empty books to link to real books or is this something that needs to be formally requested?

No and yes.

netseeker · 05-09-2011, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Bump bump

Really? Two babies under manufacturing process?

travger · 05-11-2011, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

I also have serial anthologies that have serial short stories within, some by the same author and others by multiple authors, and they don't always appear in each anthology in the series. They sometimes also fit into series not part of the anthologies. It gets pretty complicated at times.

Is there a way for empty books to link to real books or is this something that needs to be formally requested?

I was mostly thinking about duplicates - years ago I found the same Bradbury story in 4 of my paperbacks, but organizing is even more important (and easier with ebooks).

I think that every library is an entity by itself and won't know what happens in others, so everything must in the same library to have any chance for linking.

It would be extremely nice to be able simply to click on the link and send/save/view book details/open the anthology.
And vice versa maybe?

speakingtohe · 05-11-2011, 11:22 AM

Probably not what you are asking, but maybe a custom column for series that has the book name as the series and each story in that series numbered by order you want
Helen

Lady Fitzgerald · 05-11-2011, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Probably not what you are asking, but maybe a custom column for series that has the book name as the series and each story in that series numbered by order you want
Helen

For me, that wouldn't work (this is not to say it wouldn't for others). First, I don't really have any room for any more columns; I keep two offscreen as it is. It also would complicate author, etc. searches, especially when using the tag editor.

travger · 05-12-2011, 06:29 AM

Had a thought - maybe some kind of link could lead to author info also...? It would be the same for all his books, just like anthology info is same for all the stories. Actually this should be lot easier (of course I'm now specialist, after all I learned some basics of html just recently

). Maybe a pop-up page like that little floating cover, only bigger?

I am running out of monitor-space, too!

'Collections' column is not one of those that can be hidden away and be useful. I suppose I can use view manager and show different columns for different purposes...

and try some more combinations on the search bar...
If I can find a search combination that gives me all the stories + anthology, then the result should be manageable (few collections have 50+ stories, right?).

It seems I have two purposes - one is to be able to tell if story is in several anthologies, another is to link stories.
I mean, if AA wrote about dragons in the anthology about dragons and BB has a story there also. Now I want to know if BB has any more stories about dragons and where can I find them. Would be nice to send/save/view without new search.

Sweetpea · 05-13-2011, 02:01 AM

I make no difference between a short story or a novel-length story. And if a short story is part of a series and it's part of an anthology, I'll have the anthology (marked Anthology) and the short story as separate book.

Lady Fitzgerald · 05-13-2011, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by netseeker

Really? Two babies under manufacturing process?

At MY age?

05-03-2011, 02:10 PM	#1
travger Evangelist Posts: 485 Karma: 270594 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: palm tx, Windows7, Galaxy A5	How do you manage short stories? I started to wonder, maybe somebody has come up with simpler setup, but that's my ideas so far: One story could be in several anthologies/magazines, + standalone file. So I enter anthology/magazine into 'Books Library', tag it as Anthology and enter toc into comments field. In second, 'Shorts Library', go all the stories as empty books, just metadata (+occasional standalone). Into custom column goes name of the anthology (so I can sort them next to each other). I'm not sure about if story is between-the-books short or prequel. Shouldn't it belong with rest of the series? Will custom column work if story is in several collections? Maybe tag it with anthology's name would be better... If you think about any pitfalls or difficulties this setup might have, or just have better way, please feel free to share.

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05-06-2011, 12:06 PM	#2
travger Evangelist Posts: 485 Karma: 270594 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: palm tx, Windows7, Galaxy A5	Nobody keeps track of shorties??

05-06-2011, 12:29 PM	#3
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,726 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	Like many aspects of Calibre you can do it any number of ways and no-one can argue definitively that one is better than the other For standalone short stories, I add a tag of "Short" to whatever other tags it may have like Science Fiction etc. If it is related to a series, I add it with a sequence of .1, .2 etc in the appropriate place. I don't bother with custom columns etc. If the book is instead an anthology covering multiple authors - well quite frankly it is a pita to try to categorise as you have found. It could cover multiple genres, multiple authors, multiple series etc. So I just give it an Anthology tag and don't bother with any of the rest of the issues. If I really cared about a short story from within it appearing in a series I might make a copy using Sigil to have a separate book with just that story in it to manage as per the above.

05-08-2011, 01:02 PM	#5
travger Evangelist Posts: 485 Karma: 270594 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: palm tx, Windows7, Galaxy A5	Thank you for sharing. I have not much anthologies (yet), so idea of keeping track which stories are in several does not abhor me. Maybe I'll change my mind in the far future...

05-08-2011, 02:45 PM	#6
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	What would be nice if an empty book could be used to list title, author, tags, etc. for each short story in an anthology, then link to the source book when loading to a device or reading on the internal reader. Then each story could be sorted by title, author, tag, whatever, in the library view. I imagine the empty books would have to be created manually since I'm pretty sure there isn't consistant metadata available on line for this, if at all. A custom column could be added to show the source book of such entries. I have quite a few anthologies. Many of those have short stories that fit into separate series that are not part of the anthololgies. I also have serial anthologies that have serial short stories within, some by the same author and others by multiple authors, and they don't always appear in each anthology in the series. They sometimes also fit into series not part of the anthologies. It gets pretty complicated at times. Is there a way for empty books to link to real books or is this something that needs to be formally requested?

05-09-2011, 06:05 PM	#7
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	Bump bump

05-11-2011, 11:22 AM	#11
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	Probably not what you are asking, but maybe a custom column for series that has the book name as the series and each story in that series numbered by order you want Helen

05-12-2011, 06:29 AM	#13
travger Evangelist Posts: 485 Karma: 270594 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: palm tx, Windows7, Galaxy A5	Had a thought - maybe some kind of link could lead to author info also...? It would be the same for all his books, just like anthology info is same for all the stories. Actually this should be lot easier (of course I'm now specialist, after all I learned some basics of html just recently ). Maybe a pop-up page like that little floating cover, only bigger? I am running out of monitor-space, too! 'Collections' column is not one of those that can be hidden away and be useful. I suppose I can use view manager and show different columns for different purposes... and try some more combinations on the search bar... If I can find a search combination that gives me all the stories + anthology, then the result should be manageable (few collections have 50+ stories, right?). It seems I have two purposes - one is to be able to tell if story is in several anthologies, another is to link stories. I mean, if AA wrote about dragons in the anthology about dragons and BB has a story there also. Now I want to know if BB has any more stories about dragons and where can I find them. Would be nice to send/save/view without new search.

05-13-2011, 02:01 AM	#14
Sweetpea Grand Sorcerer Posts: 9,707 Karma: 32763414 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Krewerd Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4 Color; Samsung Galaxy Tab S6	I make no difference between a short story or a novel-length story. And if a short story is part of a series and it's part of an anthology, I'll have the anthology (marked Anthology) and the short story as separate book.

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