Preparing a Kindle Library

[denmarks]

I am getting a Kindle next month. In preparation I have converted my ePub books. I now have a Calibre library of MOBI and PDF files. I have downloaded missing covers. I have a few questions.

Can I assume that when I plug in my Kindle it will appear in Calibre and allow transfers?

Are downloaded covers added to the actual ebooks and will they appear on the Kindle?

Can I set up collections in Calibre that will appear on the Kindle.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by denmarks

Can I assume that when I plug in my Kindle it will appear in Calibre and allow transfers?

Yes.

Are downloaded covers added to the actual ebooks and will they appear on the Kindle?

Not automatically. You need to select the cover in the Calibre metadata editor, and then do a "Mobi to Mobi" conversion. That will attach the cover to the book.

Can I set up collections in Calibre that will appear on the Kindle.

Use a Calibre plug-in, yes. Personally, though, I just manage my collections on the Kindle itself - it's easy enough to do.

[denmarks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes.
Not automatically. You need to select the cover in the Calibre metadata editor, and then do a "Mobi to Mobi" conversion. That will attach the cover to the book.

Is there a way to verify the cover has been added after doing the conversion?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by denmarks

Is there a way to verify the cover has been added after doing the conversion?

Sure. Just view the book in Calibre and look at the cover. But I've never had it not work with Mobi books. It's a lot more "hit and miss" with ePubs, where sometimes a cover will successfully attach and other times it won't.

[denmarks]

Let me back up a little. When I download a missing cover is it added to the metadata or is it just the "cover jpg" I see in the library? When Calibre displays the cover is it using the metadata or the jpg?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by denmarks

Let me back up a little. When I download a missing cover is it added to the metadata or is it just the "cover jpg" I see in the library? When Calibre displays the cover is it using the metadata or the jpg?

It's added to the metadata in Calibre's database; it's not attached to the book at that point. In order to attach the cover to the book, you need to reconvert it.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sure. Just view the book in Calibre and look at the cover. But I've never had it not work with Mobi books. It's a lot more "hit and miss" with ePubs, where sometimes a cover will successfully attach and other times it won't.

Hit and miss? I've converted 8600+ books to epub and I have never had a cover not be added to the epub during conversion.

[denmarks]

My addition to my last post did not show up.

Kindle for PC did cache the covers. I went to the cover file in appdata and removed them all. The program recreated them with the updated metadata.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Hit and miss? I've converted 8600+ books to epub and I have never had a cover not be added to the epub during conversion.

That's certainly not been my experience. Unlike Mobi, which has a clearly defined place for the cover, ePub books don't, and people who create ePub books implement the cover in all sorts of different ways, some of which Calibre recognised, and others of which it doesn't. Very often, when you try to replace the cover, either nothing at all happens, or the whole image in the book gets replaced by the new cover. It's very definitely hit and miss in my experience.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's certainly not been my experience. Unlike Mobi, which has a clearly defined place for the cover, ePub books don't, and people who create ePub books implement the cover in all sorts of different ways, some of which Calibre recognised, and others of which it doesn't. Very often, when you try to replace the cover, either nothing at all happens, or the whole image in the book gets replaced by the new cover. It's very definitely hit and miss in my experience.

I see our experiences differ.

I have ended up with the cover I intended and the original cover as a second cover like image. But in the two years I've been messing with these books the cover I had in calibre always ended up as the cover of the ePub book after conversion.

Another curious mystery.

[HarryT]

As you say, one of life's mysteries .

There was a typo in my previous post. I meant to say "either nothing happens, or else the WRONG image gets replaced by the new cover".

[kovidgoyal]

@HarryT: When converting epub to epub, if the epub has no clearly defined cover, no image is ever replaced. Instead a new cover is *inserted* at the start of the book. The only way an image could possibly be replaced is if it is identified as the cover in the epub.

If you have experienced behavior to the contrary, with a fairly recent version of calibre, I would be most interested in an example.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@HarryT: When converting epub to epub, if the epub has no clearly defined cover, no image is ever replaced. Instead a new cover is *inserted* at the start of the book. The only way an image could possibly be replaced is if it is identified as the cover in the epub.

Yes, that's my meaning. I've encountered several ePubs (commercial ones, I mean) which seem to have the wrong image marked as the cover. I wasn't suggesting that this was a bug in Calibre; the cause of the problem is that too many people just don't know how to create eBooks properly!

The book I encountered this with most recently was a David Eddings book called "Seeress of Kell", which I had to buy as ePub since, annoyingly, although the rest of the series was sold at Amazon, this particular book wasn't. Like many commercial ePubs it didn't have a cover, but there's a map in the front of the book which displayed as the cover, and this (naturally) got replaced when I added a cover with Calibre.

[kovidgoyal]

Ah, well yes, if the epub incorrectly identifies its cover, then bad things will happen.