Getting edc to show up on Kindle device?

[elysdir]

Hi, all! I have an ePub that I'm helping someone with, and I'm running into a bit of trouble with it.

The ePub (which is in EPUB 3 format) is an issue of a magazine, and so we’re specifying the name of the editor like this (in the content.opf file):

    <dc:creator id="epub-creator-1">Editor Name</dc:creator>
    <meta refines="#epub-creator-1" property="role" scheme="marc:relators" id="role">edc</meta>

(They originally used `edt` instead of `edc`, but my impression from the MARC list of relators is that `edc` is better for a magazine or anthology editor.)

But the creator of the ePub also wants to specify the names of all of the authors who have work in the magazine. They did that like this:

    <dc:creator id="epub-creator-2">First Author Name</dc:creator>
    <meta refines="#epub-creator-2" property="role" scheme="marc:relators">aut</meta>
    <dc:creator id="epub-creator-3">Second Author Name</dc:creator>
    <meta refines="#epub-creator-3" property="role" scheme="marc:relators">aut</meta>

I used the Send to Kindle app to send the ePub to my Kindle Paperwhite. Then I looked at it in the Library view (listing the ebooks on the device), where each book’s author’s name appears right under the book’s title. But it showed only “First Author Name” as the author of the magazine issue.

I wanted it to instead show “Editor Name”. So I tried changing all instances of `aut` to `ctb` (for Contributor), hoping that would convince the Kindle to show the editor’s name. But instead, the Kindle just stopped showing an author on the author-name line at all.

So I guess I have two questions—one ePub question and one that might really be a Kindle question:

1. What’s the best practice for how to semantically mark up an editor and authors for a magazine issue or anthology (using MARC relators), where the authors wrote individual stories and the editor bought them (and possibly edited them) and put them together in one volume? In particular, should the editor be marked as `edc` and the authors as `ctb`?

2. Is there a way to get the Kindle device to show the editor’s name on the author line, other than just (semantically incorrectly) marking the editor as `aut`? (Let me know if I should go post this elsewhere instead of here.)

thanks,

—Jed

[elysdir]

Followup: I’ve also seen `file-as` used to provide an editor name, like this:

    <dc:creator id="creator">Edited by Editor Name</dc:creator>
    <meta refines="#creator" property="file-as">Edited by Editor Name</meta>

Is that a better option?

I feel like I’ve seen some problems come up when I’ve tried to use `file-as` (but I’m not remembering what they were). But if this is the preferred approach, I can go with it.

[elysdir]

One more thought:

I just learned about `dc:contributor`. Should I be using that for the authors in the magazine, instead of `dc:creator`?

(The spec says `dc:contributor` “is used to represent the name of a person, organization, etc. that played a secondary role in the creation of the content.”)

[Jellby]

Actually, I would put the authors as dc:creator and the editor either as dc:creator or dc:contributor. Do not put the "Edited by" in the entry in any way, that should be implied by the role=edt, and "file-as" is intended for a standardized form of the name to use in sorting, etc.

About what Kindle would do with these, I have no idea. Kindles do not read epub, as far as I know, so you'd need to consider the effect of the conversion pipeline.

[DNSB]

While Amazon does list the subsets of attributes and tags supported by KF8/azw3 and KFX, they supply little information on what is supported in their equivalent of an OPF file. The attributes and tags can be found at: Attributes and Tags Supported by Enhanced Typesetting (KFX) and HTML and CSS Tags Supported in Kindle Format 8. Do not assume that because something is part of the ePub2 or ePub3 specifications, that it is also supported by Amazon Kindle format ebooks.

[DiapDealer]

Is there even any guarantee that all epub devices and apps will expose all of the spec compliant metadata that gets provided?