Syncing Calibre from Baen

[KariK]

Hi,
I am a long-time user of Calibre, but have not ever tried to change/extend it.

I keep buying Baen monthly packages and then reading them using my iPad. I used to download the new packages to my PC and then adding the books in them to Calibre, but then I got lazy and just started directly downloading from the Baen to my iPad. Now my Calibre library is badly out of sync with my Baen library. What I would like is to have a button that I could click to have Calibre find all of my eBooks in Baen, compare them to what I currently have in Calibre, and then download the books Calibre is missing into Calibre.

Does such a function exist? Is there any interest for such functionality? I also have books in Kindle and Nook with the same problem, so I would also like the same functionality for those.

[Adoby]

Yes, that function exists. It is called staff. You hire someone to do the job for you, at the press of a button. ;D

Otherwise you could try to consolidate all your Baen books to one calibre library. I believe Baen has a function to download ALL your bought books, possibly in batches. And download all the free books from Baen Free Library separately and add them as well.

The Baen books are relatively compact and come zipped. So the downloads should be manageable.

[theducks]

What Adoby sid.

Baen is still the best as it keeps your purchase history and allows you to download ANY FORMAT at a later date. Just log into your account: select your books: select the book:download.

When I first started. EPUB was my format, Now AZW3/Mobi is my format.

All I have to do, is grab another copy of that book in the new format.

Note: You should really keep your own archives even if Baen currently does it for you. 2 cases comes to mind (IIRC). 1)there was a bit of a hissey and a book was pulled. 2)The free Library was pruned when Baen started using Amazon (and others) for e-distribution

[KariK]

Originally Posted by Adoby

Yes, that function exists. It is called staff. You hire someone to do the job for you, at the press of a button. ;D

Ah, and by commenting you just volunteered for the work, right neighbor? (Born a Finn)

Originally Posted by Adoby

Otherwise you could try to consolidate all your Baen books to one calibre library. I believe Baen has a function to download ALL your bought books, possibly in batches. And download all the free books from Baen Free Library separately and add them as well.

Yes they do, but only a hundred book batches, and keeping track of where you are is a pain. If I only had to do it once I'd consider it, but being lazy I know I will need to do it every now and then, hence the need for automation.

Originally Posted by theducks

Note: You should really keep your own archives even if Baen currently does it for you. 2 cases comes to mind (IIRC). 1)there was a bit of a hissey and a book was pulled. 2)The free Library was pruned when Baen started using Amazon (and others) for e-distribution.

That is exactly what I am trying to do. And yes, I already have all of the Free Library and the originals of the books that were pulled as well as the second editions.

[Adoby]

Originally Posted by KariK

Ah, and by commenting you just volunteered for the work, right neighbor? (Born a Finn)

As your helpful neighbor Swede I certainly volunteer. Just send me your credentials on Baen.

We can discuss the salary later.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by KariK

Yes they do, but only a hundred book batches, and keeping track of where you are is a pain. If I only had to do it once I'd consider it, but being lazy I know I will need to do it every now and then, hence the need for automation.

When you download the books that you first selected will be put at the end of the list.

Once you get all the books downloaded then you go to:

Add Books


If you have books that are already in you library you can then deselect--remove the check mark--them so as not to load duplicates.


Should not take very long to do.

bernie

[KariK]

So I spent most of last Sunday following gbm's process. After several mistakes I got the process right and then everything seemed to go fine. However, the download steps seemed rather slow, not sure why. The ten downloads probably only took an hour and a half, except I just started each and then went to do something else and came back way later. So the whole process took most of the day, definitely not what I want to do every couple of months.

Sorry Adoby, I actually meant my comment as a joke. I am a retired coder so I have more time than money, and some coding skills. So I will try to at least do some design first and try also to determine the scope of the project. But if I get stuck, I will certainly keep you in mind, thanks.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by KariK

So I spent most of last Sunday following gbm's process. After several mistakes I got the process right and then everything seemed to go fine. However, the download steps seemed rather slow, not sure why. The ten downloads probably only took an hour and a half, except I just started each and then went to do something else and came back way later. So the whole process took most of the day, definitely not what I want to do every couple of months.

Sorry Adoby, I actually meant my comment as a joke. I am a retired coder so I have more time than money, and some coding skills. So I will try to at least do some design first and try also to determine the scope of the project. But if I get stuck, I will certainly keep you in mind, thanks.

The secret to the Baen mass download is to choose the first hundred, start the download process, then choose the second hundred and so forth, you do not have to wait for the download to finish before starting another. I will normally have three or four downloads running at a time.

bernie