Authors' sort in Kindle Paperwhite

[Mich06]

Hello there !
I'm using the last Kindle Paperwhite 32 GB and Calibre 3.48.
Everything runs fine when transferring azw3 ebooks from Calibre to Kindle, however when trying to sort books by authors in the Kindle, they appear sorted as:
First Name, Last Name (eg: Albert Camus, before Charles Andler)

I would have expected books sorted as:
Last Name, First Name (eg: Charles Andler, before Albert Camus)

The metadata in calibre are sorted correctly, and in the Device Window, when I click on the author column, they sort as Last Name, First Name...
In the Kindle 'document' directory, names appear correctly as 'Camus, Albert'.
(In calibre send to device options, the setting is {author_sort}/{title} - {authors}, as expected)

I suppose the problem lies in the way the Kindle reads the azw3 metadata calibre sends.

Is there a way to resolve this ?

Thanks.

[hobnail]

Not the answer you want but my solution was to buy a Kobo; see attached for how you can view books by author properly.

If I remember correctly there is a plugin for calibre that will redo all of the author names to be lastname, firstname. Which is what I'd done, and then I used it again to put them back to the correct format after I bought the Kobo.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Mich06

<snip>
Is there a way to resolve this ?

Don't know much about Kindles, but I think a plugboard might to the trick.

See Preferences->Plugboards and there's sticky at top of Library Management subforum with examples of usage.

BR

[jhowell]

Kindles expect the author name in the book's metadata to be stored in "last, first" format. This is normally the format used for the "author sort" field in calibre.

There is an option in the MOBI Output tab when converting books to "Use author sort for author" which should make this come out the way you want.

[Mich06]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Kindles expect the author name in the book's metadata to be stored in "last, first" format. This is normally the format used for the "author sort" field in calibre.

There is an option in the MOBI Output tab when converting books to "Use author sort for author" which should make this come out the way you want.

Oh yes, thanks, I just found out that option in the AZW3 Output ! I'll try that with some books to test, and I'll let you know if it works... it should...!

Thanks to all people that answered

[Mich06]

Well, it doesn't seem to work. I checked ON the "use author_sort as author" in the AZW3 Output, converted a book from EPUB to AZW3, with no effect.

I tried to look inside the AZW3 with the editor, and here's the header of the OPF file:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" unique-identifier="calibre_id" version="2.0">
<metadata xmlns:calibre="http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/2009/metadata" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlnspf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
<dc:title>Des milliers de places vides</dc:title>
<dc:creator opf:file-as="Inconnu(e)" opf:role="aut">Alain Wagneur</dc:creator>


It should be 'Wagneur, Alain' and not 'Alain Wagneur', right ? So that option in the AZW3 plugin doesn't seem to function.......

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Mich06

Well, it doesn't seem to work. I checked ON the "use author_sort as author" in the AZW3 Output, converted a book from EPUB to AZW3, with no effect.

I just tried the same thing and it worked for me, sorting properly on my Kindle. Note that on the Kindle the name will appear as “first last” but will sort as “last, first”.

The file-as data it showed for my book looked correct, “last, first”. Yours looks odd. Check the calibre entry for your book and see what author sort shows.

[Mich06]

Ok, I found out what happened : I didn't really re-convert the file, because I didn't uncheck "Keep stored conversion settings for selected books"... Now I did it and it seems to work !
Well, this Calibre setting is not very clear : the "Remove/Keep stored conversion settings" appear ONLY if you select more that one book. No way to re-convert a single book !

I checked the new OPF section in the AZW3 file, and now, it reads :
<dc:title>Des milliers de places vides</dc:title>
<dc:creator opf:file-as="Wagneur, Alain" opf:role="aut">Alain Wagneur</dc:creator>

So it seems that the opf:file-as="Last, First" is the key...

Thanks for your help !

[BetterRed]

FWIW: the single book convert dialogue has a Restore Defaults button in the bottom left corner.

BR

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by jhowell

There is an option in the MOBI Output tab when converting books to "Use author sort for author" which should make this come out the way you want.

What about bought books or ones from the library, project gutenberg, etc.? Do the kindle versions of those come with the author names in the format expected by the kindle?

[Bookstooge]

Originally Posted by hobnail

What about bought books or ones from the library, project gutenberg, etc.? Do the kindle versions of those come with the author names in the format expected by the kindle?

Your guess is as good as the Publisher's!

You'd have to check the metadata for those in Calibre before sending them to your kindle...

[Mich06]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

FWIW: the single book convert dialogue has a Restore Defaults button in the bottom left corner.

BR

Ah yes !

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Mich06

Ah yes !

Don't worry you're not the first to miss it.

In print media the bottom left corner is usually the cheapest place to place your ad.

BR

[sjohnson717]

Lots of misinformation in this thread. Yes, you can display lastname,first name on your Kindle Paperwhite (or any other ebook). Use Plugboards. They're a little confusing--seems almost like programming but get past the technical and do this:

Go to Preferences and find Plugboards. In the row for "Add new plugboard," choose Any under Format and Any under Device. In the "source template" column, type:

{author_sort}

And under the "Destination field," enter "authors."