Free and bargain romances in July 2013

[laurla]

Originally Posted by apesmom

As predicted, Amazon's solution to the Shalvis book with the missing Blue Flame freebie was for me to request a refund, which I promptly did, especially price has since dropped from $3.99 to $2.99. I would have prefered to get the version I purchased but oh well . . .

Yes, they gave me a credit for 3.99. Like you, I wish they would have given me the original, but I can't complain that at least I have the book and another 3.99 to spend...

[laurla]

Originally Posted by library addict

I think it all comes down to finding a system that works for you and that is easiest for you to maintain. Don't be afraid to experiment with it all. If adding & converting books as you buy doesn't work for you, maybe setting aside an hour or two on a regular basis once or twice a month would work.

Oh, I have a system I'm pretty happy with... I just have to do it. I've complained (mostly because I can ) but in truth, I've been really busy at work and with family activities, and I've neglected my calibre work, choosing instead to take that left over time in the evening to read... Since Mother's Day, I have been the convert as I buy type, but when things heated up at work and I went on like a 2/3 week buying spree, I suddenly realized I had about a hundred () books to convert!

It sort of surprised me and I started thinking about how long it would take me to do them all. One of my problems is that my slight OCD-ness makes me want to (HAVE to) have all of a series of a book (and I do love a series), so when I add a purchased book from a series, I also enter placeholders for the rest of the series - including all the metadata, etc, as if it were an actual book. Does make work on the front end, but the good part is when I finally do get the other books in the series, I just have to load the book file and convert... easy peasy! Now that I think about it, a good number of my backlog are series fillers, so maybe this go-round won't be so bad after all

I will say I'm intrigued about Dropbox. One of the things that frustrates me most is that I use my laptop from work for almost everything (internet browsing, etc). But I don't put my calibre library on it, for obvious reasons, but since I do a lot of my purchasing from that laptop, it's hard for me to check if I already own a book (have to check the various sites and/or goodreads). I use the catalog feature of calibre, but that has to be updated manually, so doesn't really work as well as I'd like. But Dropbox seems like it might allow me to see my files from anywhere as well as let me send books to my Kindle if I'm not at home. What is the cost? (I know, I can go look it up, but was wondering if it would be worth me looking into it...)

Also, thanks everyone for your thoughts! I was sorta complaining just to be complaining but I'm glad I did because I learned some things Karma to all!!

[laurla]

Originally Posted by danicca

I didn't realize it's possible to move books from one calibre library to other. I keep my wishlist as one and delete entries when I buy them. If I do the copy/move thing, can I just add the book file ?

Yep. In the Add Books menu, there is an option that says Add file to selected book record. When you click on it, it lets you browse to the file location of you file and when you click Open, it copies the book into the appropriate Calibre folder. Any metadata you already set up in the book record will be kept.

[NixLapi]

Originally Posted by library addict

So did they change the item description, too?

Sony had the book listed when it first released, but when I checked today to see if they'd lowered the price, too, I couldn't find it. I am so far behind in that series. I've only read book 1, though I own all the others from when B&N had their first 50% off sale earlier.

The free second book was only meant to be there until June 30th. Could have been part of the problem with so many people getting the version without close to the end of the month?

And gosh ladies, all this library talk makes me want to go play in Calibre! I just use tags right now to sort and stars if I've read a book. I definitely need to dig deeper into Calibre. And my wishlist is on Goodreads - I'd be sunk if Goodreads ever went away!

[NixLapi]

.99 sale on We are Made of Stardust by Mimi Strong
http://www.amazon.com/We-are-Made-St.../dp/B00DKCPR3K

I LOVED this book, but massive cliffhanger warning. Book #2 should be out within 2 months, no idea how many books will be in this series. I am not usually a fan of cliffhangers but I'm hooked on this one!


And another price-drop to .99:
Love Realized by Melanie Codina
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Realized-.../dp/B00CL52JJ2

[booklover6]

Sorry if this has already been posted

Edith Layton books at Amazon for .99. Historical romance.


To Tempt a Bride

The Conquest
Alas, My Love (Botany Bay)
The Choice (Cad)
The Challenge

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by library addict

Showing $3.99 for me.

A Moment by Marie Hall is now free at Amazon.

[Blue2u]

Originally Posted by NixLapi

.99 sale on We are Made of Stardust by Mimi Strong
http://www.amazon.com/We-are-Made-St.../dp/B00DKCPR3K

I LOVED this book, but massive cliffhanger warning. Book #2 should be out within 2 months, no idea how many books will be in this series. I am not usually a fan of cliffhangers but I'm hooked on this one!


And another price-drop to .99:
Love Realized by Melanie Codina
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Realized-.../dp/B00CL52JJ2

Grabbed 'Made of Stardust', *sighs* I'm already over budget this week!

Laurla, I have 3 libraries, 'Main' library which has all my books [purchases, freebies, everything!], 1 for my Mom's books which I manage for her, and then the last 1 which is what I sync my T1 and tablet to for 'current' TBR reading. I buy books and immediately put them into Calibre, convert, tag, metadata etc and backup purchases to USB almost daily, just to be sure. I would suggest since you're just starting your organization process is to start a bit at a time, maybe all authors under A, etc. and just keep track as you go. I know a few months ago when I re-organized my whole library [thanks to our girls here helping with all their tips], that it helped doing it in small chunks and that was the best way for me. As others have said, each person has their own way that works best for them. But good luck, it's a daunting task but once it's done you will have such a sense of accomplishment!

[Blue2u]

Originally Posted by koland

Obviously, she can't thpell!

That poor author can't catch a break!


$.99 deal that was on my wishlist. It didn't quite meet my criteria of 4 stars, but I sampled a very small bit and, well, I did it anyways!
Promise Me by Barbie Bohrman
blurb:Sabrina Chandler must go back home to face her past and confront her once best friend and ex-boyfriend who betrayed her in the worst way possible.

Returning to her past also means coming face to face with the boy who was standing in the shadows one fateful night. The same boy she made a promise to and who unknowingly walked away with her heart.

Can she move forward with her life when her heart is still 10 years in the past?

[Blossom]

Once again no slush pile just slush. Seriously authors must have taken a holiday! I've never seen this happen before.
There is like 10 free books in the last 24 hours none of them worth mentioning.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by NixLapi

And gosh ladies, all this library talk makes me want to go play in Calibre! I just use tags right now to sort and stars if I've read a book. I definitely need to dig deeper into Calibre. And my wishlist is on Goodreads - I'd be sunk if Goodreads ever went away!

I use Amazon as my wishlist source. I have multiple wishlists. Amazon usually has pretty much every book so it works for me. I love the price drop feature. Yesterday 3 of my books dropped to 99 cents.

[Blue2u]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I use Amazon as my wishlist source. I have multiple wishlists. Amazon usually has pretty much every book so it works for me. I love the price drop feature. Yesterday 3 of my books dropped to 99 cents.

Yes, I LOVE the wishlist feature at Amazon! I also sync that wishlist with ERIQ. Is it sad that I'm hovering around 100 on those lists?

[laurla]

Originally Posted by Blue2u

Laurla, I have 3 libraries, 'Main' library which has all my books [purchases, freebies, everything!], 1 for my Mom's books which I manage for her, and then the last 1 which is what I sync my T1 and tablet to for 'current' TBR reading. I buy books and immediately put them into Calibre, convert, tag, metadata etc and backup purchases to USB almost daily, just to be sure. I would suggest since you're just starting your organization process is to start a bit at a time, maybe all authors under A, etc. and just keep track as you go. I know a few months ago when I re-organized my whole library [thanks to our girls here helping with all their tips], that it helped doing it in small chunks and that was the best way for me. As others have said, each person has their own way that works best for them. But good luck, it's a daunting task but once it's done you will have such a sense of accomplishment!

Oh, I'm all organized... except for the hundred or so I need to load and convert because I got a little lazy But a second library for my mom's books is a good idea. Right now I have those marked in a custom column. I don't really manage them, they're just the books I feel comfortable sharing with her (er, uh, no erotic or even overly smexy). I loaded them all to my 2nd kindle and gave them to her for Mother's day. Moving them to a second library wouldn't really gain me anything, other than I wouldn't have to filter if I loaded more books for her. Hmmm.

Originally Posted by NixLapi

And my wishlist is on Goodreads - I'd be sunk if Goodreads ever went away!

The only wish list I have in calibre are the empty placeholder books I have for series. Most of mine is on Goodreads and Amazon. On goodreads I have a wishlist of single books I'd like and one for the series books I need. I'd kinda be in trouble too if Goodreads went away.

[laurla]

Originally Posted by Blue2u

Yes, I LOVE the wishlist feature at Amazon! I also sync that wishlist with ERIQ. Is it sad that I'm hovering around 100 on those lists?

Ha - you should see mine in Goodreads. And I sync to ERIQ too. I love that feature.

Originally Posted by Blue2u

Grabbed 'Made of Stardust', *sighs* I'm already over budget this week!

Me too - from Monday, using up the last of my kobo codes. But I haven't purchased a book in TWO days. ('course, today's not over and I'm getting a tone of ERIQ notifications!) I'm feeling good about myself... for the moment

[library addict]

Originally Posted by danicca

I didn't realize it's possible to move books from one calibre library to other. I keep my wishlist as one and delete entries when I buy them. If I do the copy/move thing, can I just add the book file ?

Yes.

You can also add the "Copy to Library" icon to the toolbar. With this icon you can choose to add book(s) to one of your other libraries and leave it (them) in the current library or add book(s) to one of your other libraries and delete it (them) from the current library. All of the metadata will be transferred.


One word of caution, although the metadata does transfer, if you have done a conversion and have replacement text in the Search & Replace page you will need to back up the entries as a CSR file and then reupload it in the new library if you plan to ever convert from the original again. Not sure if the data/changes on the Table of Contents page transfer or not.