Can subtitle be used as a second series?

[JSWolf]

If a book in a series also is part of another series, is it possible to use subtitle for the second series? If so, what would e the best way to do this? Thanks.

[davidfor]

You would be able to configure it in the driver. That can use a template to set the subtitle to whatever you want.

And that's as far as I'm going to spoon feed you. Honestly, you have been around here long enough to know how to do this and tell us your good idea.

[Quoth]

I'm not sure though how actually on the Kobo, that ONE book can be in two series.
A second Collection based on Subtitle is trivial. Books can be in multiple collections on Kindle and Kobo.

But a collection and a series are not quite the same thing. I have a Collection that has multiple Series, and is sorted on the Kobo by Series. Any of those books can be in a different collection, but I can't see how a book, actually on the Kobo screen, can be in two different series.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I'm not sure though how actually on the Kobo, that ONE book can be in two series.
A second Collection based on Subtitle is trivial. Books can be in multiple collections on Kindle and Kobo.

But a collection and a series are not quite the same thing. I have a Collection that has multiple Series, and is sorted on the Kobo by Series. Any of those books can be in a different collection, but I can't see how a book, actually on the Kobo screen, can be in two different series.

There are books that are in a series and some of those are in a sub series. For example The Dragonriders of Pern series. Three of the the books are also in the Harper Hall series.

This isn't for me. I'm giving someone else the available options.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There are books that are in a series and some of those are in a sub series. For example The Dragonriders of Pern series. Three of the the books are also in the Harper Hall series.

This isn't for me. I'm giving someone else the available options.

My personal choice is go for long series names so sort by series still works.

I.e. Dragonriders of Pern: Harper Hall as the series name.

[DevonHess]

DNSB's method is good, but I don't love the idea of breaking up the series.

Personally I think the most elegant method is this.

Title: Harper Hall: Dragonsong
Series: Dragonriders of Pern

I don't think doing anything fancy is necessary.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DevonHess

DNSB's method is good, but I don't love the idea of breaking up the series.

Personally I think the most elegant method is this.

Title: Harper Hall: Dragonsong
Series: Dragonriders of Pern

I don't think doing anything fancy is necessary.

From my point of view, I am not breaking up the series and a series sort will show the Harper Hall sub-series within the series. Now if you used:

Harper Hall 01: Dragonsong
Series: Dragonriders of Pern xx

One issue for me is that the 3 Harper Hall books overlap Dragonquest and White Dragon making series numbering fun. And that is a sadly common habit with many authors who have multiple series set in the same universe.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My personal choice is go for long series names so sort by series still works.

I.e. Dragonriders of Pern: Harper Hall as the series name.

I did pretty much the same when I ran into a main series that was then broken down into 3 sub-series within it, but I used a comma instead of a colon. It's become an unconscious choice just out of habit because of Windows not letting you use colons in a file name.

But that method worked out well for me.

[DevonHess]

Originally Posted by DNSB

From my point of view, I am not breaking up the series and a series sort will show the Harper Hall sub-series within the series. Now if you used:

Harper Hall 01: Dragonsong
Series: Dragonriders of Pern xx

One issue for me is that the 3 Harper Hall books overlap Dragonquest and White Dragon making series numbering fun. And that is a sadly common habit with many authors who have multiple series set in the same universe.

Do you mean that the 3 Harper Hall books aren't even sequential relative to the main series? That's really annoying. In that case i might just ignore the subseries all together.

I use the series tab more than I sort by series, so I guess different methods for different use cases.

The only real fix would be if ePub natively supported multiple series. I also wish they supported series entries with no number, which I run into often.

[geek1011]

If you have multiple EPUB3-style series entries in the OPF, it should be trivial to modify my NickelSeries mod to put the second one in the subtitle.

Here are the relevant parts:

Spoiler:

NickelSeries@a06f1ac/metadata.h:13-25

    // series is a map of the element ID to its series name and index. The
    // series index is returned as-is and may not be a number, but both the name
    // and index will not be empty.
    //
    // Sources:
    // - Calibre: meta[name="calibre:series"][content]          source =  ns_metadata_t::calibre
    //                                                          series =  [content]
    //            meta[name="calibre:series_index"][content]    index  =  [content]
    // - EPUB3:   meta[property="belongs-to-collection"][id]    source =  [id]
    //                                                          series =  text
    //            meta[property="group-position"][refines=#id]  index  =  text
    //            meta[property="collection-type"][refines=#id] text   == "series"  || none
    QMap<QString, QPair<QString, QString>> series;

NickelSeries@a06f1ac/nickelseries.cc:60-127

static void ns_update_series(Volume *v, QString const& filename) {
    nh_log("hook: updating metadata for '%s'", qPrintable(filename));


    NSMetadata meta(filename);
    if (!meta.error().isNull()) {
        nh_log("... error: '%s', ignoring", qPrintable(meta.error()));
        return;
    }


    if (!meta.series.isEmpty()) {
        QString series;
        QString index;


        for (QString id : meta.series.keys()) {
            series = meta.series[id].first;
            index  = meta.series[id].second;
            nh_log("... found metadata: id='%s' series='%s' index='%s'", qPrintable(id), qPrintable(series), qPrintable(index));
        }


        if (meta.series.contains(NSMetadata::calibre)) {
            series = meta.series[NSMetadata::calibre].first;
            index = meta.series[NSMetadata::calibre].second;
        }


        nh_log("... using ('%s', %s)", qPrintable(series), qPrintable(index));


        bool ok;
        double d = QVariant(index).toDouble(&ok);
        if (ok) {
            nh_log("... simplified series index '%s' to '%s'", qPrintable(index), qPrintable(QString::number(d)));
            index = d
                ? QString::number(d)
                : QString();
        }


        nh_log("... Volume::setSeriesName('%s')", qPrintable(series));
        Volume__setSeriesName(v, series);


        nh_log("... Volume::setSeriesNumber('%s')", qPrintable(index));
        Volume__setSeriesNumber(v, index);


        if (Volume__setSeriesNumberFloat) {
            nh_log("... Volume::setSeriesNumberFloat('%s')", qPrintable(index));
            Volume__setSeriesNumberFloat(v, index);
        }


        if (Volume__setSeriesId) {
            nh_log("... Volume::setSeriesId('%s')", qPrintable(series));
            Volume__setSeriesId(v, series); // matches the Calibre Kobo plugin's behaviour for compatibility
        }
    }


    if (!meta.subtitle.isEmpty()) {
        QString subtitle;
        for (QString id : meta.subtitle.keys()) {
            subtitle = meta.subtitle[id];
            nh_log("... found metadata: id='%s' subtitle='%s'", qPrintable(id), qPrintable(subtitle));
        }


        if (meta.subtitle.contains(NSMetadata::calibre))
            subtitle = meta.subtitle[NSMetadata::calibre];


        nh_log("... using '%s'", qPrintable(subtitle));


        nh_log("... Volume::setSubtitle('%s')", qPrintable(subtitle));
        Volume__setSubtitle(v, subtitle);
    }
}

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DevonHess

Do you mean that the 3 Harper Hall books aren't even sequential relative to the main series? That's really annoying. In that case i might just ignore the subseries all together.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by DevonHess

The only real fix would be if ePub natively supported multiple series. I also wish they supported series entries with no number, which I run into often.

For most series, not having series numbers strikes me a a bit silly though there have been series such as those put together by publishers where the series number simply indicates the publishing order.

[PeterT]

My approach was maybe a tad convoluted (like many of my solutions).

I added a custom text column "#subseries" with heading "Sub Series"
I added a custom column built from other columns "#subshelf" with heading "Subseries Shelf" and formula "{#subseries:'test($,strcat(field('series'),' - ',$),'')'}"

Then in the Kobo driver configuration I had both "series" and "#subseries" listed in the "collections column".

This allowed books from Discworld to end up in either just "Discworld", or both "Discworld" and "Discworld - Witches" and kept the series number as being the series value within the main series.

I realize that this won't help those with two distinct real series but intersecting books.