managing Series with eBook bundles

[delta888]

Apologies if this is answered elsewhere; I tried a search and didn't find a thread.

How do people deal with those "bundled" eBooks that have more than one complete book in a single volume when the individual books contained in them are separate items in the Series field (either different volume numbers or, for anthologies, different series)?

Using "&" in the Author field covers different authors, but because of the two field types for Series and Number, there's no way of handling more than one entry in those fields.

Currently I add notes in the Comments field, but that's not very satisfactory when I'm trying to check a reading order quickly. Has anyone devised anything clever with custom fields/plug ins?

[kiwidude]

@delta888 - welcome to MobileRead.

Sounds like you are talking about "Omnibus" editions, a search for that should reveal some posts to you. To answer your question people do it in different ways. Personally I often end up splitting the omnibus into the individual ebooks using Tweak ePub/Sigil so it isn't an issue .

However other approaches I have seen mentioned/used is to add information to the book title in brackets like "Foo (Omnibus 1-2)". or add a tag to say "Omnibus". Or give it a series number like "99" or "0".

[delta888]

Aha! I didn't try "omnibus" in any searches. Thanks!

I think I'll end up going the Sigil route long-term, but meanwhile I have a lot (a lot!) of books backlogged, so I may try the bracket thing in the meantime. It's a hassle, though, because it means I can't just use the Shift+Ctrl+S key command to check which series books I have, and it really doesn't address the anthology problem where there are books in different series in the same volume.

Thanks!

[dwig]

I have very few omnibus editions. I generally detest them as there is little point when they are ebooks with the possible exception of complete sets of a single series.

When they are a complete collection of books in one series I just set the series index to 0. Its also possible to use decimal numbers (e.g. 0.1, 1.5). When they span multiple series there is no good way other than to dissect them.

[kiwidude]

Yeah dwig I'm with you on that though sometimes it is the most budget way to get the books. I have other reasons for splitting them (besides ease of calibre metadata!) - it makes it an awful lot easier to keep track of books read (via Goodreads & my plugin for it), since it is frequently the case that I don't want to read all the books contained consecutively.

I agree with you delta888 that it isn't a trivial exercise though if you have a lot of them, so since you have a plan to split them eventually I would suggest just picking a temporary workaround that takes your fancy and run with it. They do create all sorts of thorny problems - some like dwig mentions, or others like the complications of where the omnibus contains "random" books from the series rather than sequential ones in reading order, or where it contains the whole series (so then do you bother showing it as a "series" at all)... ugh.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by dwig

I have very few omnibus editions. I generally detest them as there is little point when they are ebooks with the possible exception of complete sets of a single series.

When they are a complete collection of books in one series I just set the series index to 0. Its also possible to use decimal numbers (e.g. 0.1, 1.5). When they span multiple series there is no good way other than to dissect them.

I try and avoid them as well. 3 books in an omnibus aren't too bad, I use [1.23] and [4.56]. If there are 6 books, then I end up using decimals like [1.60] and [7.12]. I do have a custom column for details where I make a note that the entry is multiple books, which helps me decipher the weird series data.

[tilia]

Sometimes I split omnibuses, but if I don't, I make an empty book for each title in the omnibus. That way I can have blurbs, series-info, and also link to Goodreads for each book.

[delta888]

The 1.23 and blank book ideas are good. Tilia--do you have any way of linking the blank book to the omnibus book ('omnibook'? )?

And yes--the only reason I have them is when they save me money. (Especially for replacing physical copies of genre fiction--which frequently have series!)

[kiwidude]

There is no way of "linking" between book entries. You can give them metadata attribution so that searches will being them back together in the same group (like the same author, same series name etc) but you can't actually do any kind of show me the "linked" book.

The 1.23 idea Synamon mentioned is one I forgot about. Personally I would find it confusing since I tend to use the .xx for short stories but if you can live with that then go for it...

[FizzyWater]

This is how I handle them - say I have an eBook that has books 6-10 in it. In the Calibre series number, I enter 6. I, however, prefer my books to sort in series order, so I also put the series name before the book title (like Eve Dallas 33 - New York to Dallas). For my combined 6-10 volume, I'd enter Series 06-10 Title (like Eve Dallas 06-10 - In Death Volume 2).

[Perkin]

I'd create several books entries, each containing the omnibus book, but changing the series/# for each of the individual stories, then each entry can have all it's correct metadata, then when you get the time, you can use the tweak-epub function to edit the epub to make it just that one book. (then proceed to next when you have time)

Having the whole omniubus in each entry then won't require you to search out the actual entry you have it in each time.
Have a tag of 'Omnibus-To-Edit' to quickly search out which ones need separating, then clear that tag when edited.

[Pinecone]

I do as mentioned by one person. I put the series number of the first book.

So if I have Book A (Books 1-3), Book B (books 4-6), Book C (Books 7-9), Book D (Book 10, Book E (Book 11).

Book A is Series 1, Book B is Series 4, Book C is Series 7, Bookd D is Series 10, Book E is series 11.

But I have a Sony, so no matter, they sort in series order. Whether I number 1.23, 4.56, 7.89, 10, 11 or 1, 4, 7, 10, 11.