Minor snag replacing book cover

[BrooksNYC]

I've hit a first-time snag in the process of importing and permanently replacing a book cover. Am wondering if — somewhere, somehow — I may have tweaked a Calibre setting I didn't mean to tweak.

I've followed the usual drill:

1. Opened the book's Metadata, imported the new cover, then closed the Metadata window.

2. Converted the book from my default format (AZW3) to EPUB.

3. Reopened the book's Metadata window. (Now listed: Two copies of the book in two formats.)

Normally, at this point I would:

4. Delete the original AZW3 file, and close out of Metadata.

5. Convert the remaining EPUB file back to AZW3.

6. Reopen Metadata and delete the EPUB file.

However, the software won't let me delete the AZW3 file in Step 4 — there's no "red X" option next to the AZW3 file, so I can't continue with steps 5 and 6.

Screenshot:

https://i.imgur.com/txFofMM.png

Does anyone know where I might have derailed? Kind thanks for your help.

[JSWolf]

Your method is a right mess. Here's how to do it so much easier.

• Copy the cover you want to the clipboard
• Load the KF8 (AZW3) file into the editor
• double click on the cover image in the list of files on the right side
• Paste the new cover over the existing cover
• Find the cover thumbnail and delete it
• Save the eBook and exit the editor

You are done and you didn't have to do any converting

[BrooksNYC]

I'm in no way savvy enough to have invented my "right mess" solution, so must have found it online. (In its defense, that method did work until today.)

Thanks so much for your help. Although I've used Calibre for years, I've never, until now, opened the editor. Had no reason to. (Or didn't think that I did.)

I've now opened several books with the editor using two methods:

• From the main Calibre interface (highlighting the book title, then choosing "Edit Book" from the toolbar).
  
• Opening the editor, choosing File > Open book....then locating the book in my Calibre Library.

Either way, the editor opens and displays two side-by-side panes — both initially blank — although the right-hand pane displays an option to "Run check."

When I run a check, the left-hand pane immediately fills up with a long list of error messages ("Invalid ID," "xyz...does not exist," "Unexpected empty block," etc).

Simultaneously, a brief list (summary?) of error messages appears in the right-hand pane, along with the option to "Try to correct all correctable errors automatically." Without knowing what I'm doing, I'd sooner not risk it.

I've run this check on half a dozen books, and get a similar blizzard of error messages every time.

With that said, I've had no trouble opening or reading books in Calibre. Was happily unaware of any chaos behind the scenes until today. And if undoing the mess is too complicated, I may not bother. Not being able to change a book cover is, let's face it, small 'taters!

Cheers, and thanks again.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by BrooksNYC

• From the main Calibre interface (highlighting the book title, then choosing "Edit Book" from the toolbar).
  
• Opening the editor, choosing File > Open book....then locating the book in my Calibre Library.

Either way, the editor opens and displays two side-by-side panes — both initially blank — although the right-hand pane displays an option to "Run check."

When I run a check, the left-hand pane immediately fills up with a long list of error messages ("Invalid ID," "xyz...does not exist," "Unexpected empty block," etc).

Simultaneously, a brief list (summary?) of error messages appears in the right-hand pane, along with the option to "Try to correct all correctable errors automatically." Without knowing what I'm doing, I'd sooner not risk it.

I've run this check on half a dozen books, and get a similar blizzard of error messages every time.

With that said, I've had no trouble opening or reading books in Calibre. Was happily unaware of any chaos behind the scenes until today. And if undoing the mess is too complicated, I may not bother. Not being able to change a book cover is, let's face it, small 'taters!

Cheers, and thanks again.

The calibre viewer is closer in design to a web browser and will do a decent job of handling garbage input. Many ereaders will not handle them so garbage in gives you garbage out.

My personal preference is to correct any errors before the ebook moves from my Intake library to my Main library. With either the calibre ebook editor or Sigil, I use the Epubcheck plugin and an ePub is not ready to go until Epubcheck reports no errors. Part of this is that I do some cleanup on other peoples' ebook so they can submit them without their ebook being bounced for errors. For many publishers, Epubcheck is their standard error checker.

Once you start editing the CSS and text/html files, you fairly rapidly learn what is and is not acceptable. I will admit some of the discussions in various threads get rather fervent since many of us have rather strong opinions on how an ePub, it's html and stylesheets should be managed.

Just do a backup of your original file to make it easy to revert your changes if the fan gets hit.

[retiredbiker]

The easiest way of all to change a cover is to put the new cover into metadata, either by using "download metadata" or "download cover" from the edit metadata screen. Or if you have the cover already, use "browse".

Once the new cover is in metadata, run Polish, with the update cover option checked. This will take the cover in metadata and write it into the book.

Works for azw3 or epub. No need to convert or edit.

If Polish is not on your visible menu, go into Preferences and add it, it is a standard part of Calibre.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

. . .
Or if you have the cover already, use "browse".

If you have the cover, the simplest way to add it to the book metadata is to drag-drop it onto the Book details panel (usually the right sidebar).

BR

[BrooksNYC]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My personal preference is to correct any errors before the ebook moves from my Intake library to my Main library. With either the calibre ebook editor or Sigil, I use the Epubcheck plugin and an ePub is not ready to go until Epubcheck reports no errors.....

......I will admit some of the discussions in various threads get rather fervent since many of us have rather strong opinions on how an ePub, it's html and stylesheets should be managed.

Just do a backup of your original file to make it easy to revert your changes if the fan gets hit.

Backups, definitely. Thanks for the Epubcheck plugin tip, David. You experts occupy a different galaxy than I do, but if I can screw my courage to the sticking place, I may give this plugin a whirl.

As an aside, I only knowingly deal with ePubs when forced outside Amazon's AZW3 walled garden for whatever reason. (Although Amazon's increasingly draconian DRM guardrails are starting to chafe.) Ninety percent of my reading consists of library downloads, and AZW3s rarely give me trouble. Epub library downloads, on the other hand, can only be accessed via the reliably infuriating Adobe Digital Editions....but that's a topic for another day!

[BrooksNYC]

Originally Posted by retiredbiker

The easiest way of all to change a cover is to put the new cover into metadata, either by using "download metadata" or "download cover" from the edit metadata screen. Or if you have the cover already, use "browse".

Once the new cover is in metadata, run Polish, with the update cover option checked. This will take the cover in metadata and write it into the book.

I'll try this, and many thanks. Didn't know about the "Polish" function, and have added the button to my toolbar.

[BrooksNYC]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

If you have the cover, the simplest way to add it to the book metadata is to drag-drop it onto the Book details panel (usually the right sidebar).BR

Terrific, thanks. Will check it out.

Am greatly obliged to all of you for jumping in to help me. Heel click, and a tip o' the hat.