[GUI Plugin] Amazon Send to Kindle via Email with "Series" support

[brynstntn]

Amazon Send to Kindle via Email with "Series" Support workaround

The same can be accomplished using metadata plugboards, but this plugin packages the workflow into an easy-to-use toolbar button.

This is a fairly niche plugin, but it builds on calibre's existing "Sharing books by email" functionality to make it more useful for Kindle users. Amazon's software on the kindle isn't great at organizing books, this helps a bit.

Email settings are still configured in calibre's built-in "Sharing books by email" section

The plugin adds a calibre toolbar button that emails selected books to your Kindle's Send to Kindle email address, using a configurable filename template that puts the series name and number first. Template comes pre-configured.

Why this matters

When you send books to your Kindle using calibre's built-in Connect/share → Email to functionality, the books generally arrive under their individual titles. If you send an entire series, they can end up scattered throughout your Kindle library and out of reading order.

For example:

Oathbringer
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance

This plugin lets you name the files using a calibre template that puts the series and number first:

The Stormlight Archive [01] - The Way of Kings.epub
The Stormlight Archive [02] - Words of Radiance.epub
The Stormlight Archive [03] - Oathbringer.epub

This makes it easier to keep a series together and find the next book in the correct reading order, especially when your Kindle library contains multiple series.

Amazon may derive a book's displayed name from the attachment filename or the title metadata embedded in the EPUB, depending on the file. To account for this, the plugin updates both the filename and the metadata in the temporary copy it sends.

Your calibre library is left untouched. Only the temporary copy prepared for emailing is renamed and updated.

GitHub: https://github.com/matthewbstanton/c...send-to-kindle

[kovidgoyal]

You can use the existing metadata plugboards feature for this already.

[brynstntn]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can use the existing metadata plugboards feature for this already.

Fair point! I honestly didn't realize metadata plugboards could rename the actual file when sending to Kindle, too. Guess it does when it is a kindle.com email.

If you feel the plugin should be removed due to duplicate functionality, that's fine with me.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by brynstntn

Fair point! I honestly didn't realize metadata plugboards could rename the actual file when sending to Kindle, too. Guess it does when it is a kindle.com email.

If you feel the plugin should be removed due to duplicate functionality, that's fine with me.

Sharing by email
The Plugboard modifies the Metadata . You can have a template specifically for by email.

AFAIK it does not modify the file name. But why do you need that? Unless you jailbreak a Kindle and use something like Koreader, I don't think you can even see the filename
Before Amazon buried the ability to set collections, I used Kindle collections to set the series name and the plugboard to prefix the title with the index.

[brynstntn]

Originally Posted by theducks

Sharing by email
The Plugboard modifies the Metadata . You can have a template specifically for by email.

AFAIK it does not modify the file name. But why do you need that? Unless you jailbreak a Kindle and use something like Koreader, I don't think you can even see the filename
Before Amazon buried the ability to set collections, I used Kindle collections to set the series name and the plugboard to prefix the title with the index.

Honestly, it is hard for me to tell what Amazon is doing here. Sending books to Amazon Send to Kindle Service (email) doesn’t always seem to honor the title from the metadata when they do the conversion. They seem to often need the filename to be named as well, for their converted title. I really do appreciate that Amazon offers this, but they do a poor job documenting this for us “prosumers”

It looks like the email template by Calibre for kindle renames based off the title metadata already, or the plugboard updated version. Makes me realize the plugin isn’t solving much, maybe simplifies the setup for newcomers a little