How would you handle this issue?

[AnemicOak]

I've been using Calibre for conversion since back in the days of libprs500, but until fairly recently wasn't using it to manage my library. That's changed and I'm now using it for management and am slowly getting my library into shape. Two things in regards to series have come up and I'm not sure how to handle them so I thought I'd ask and see how more experienced users are dealing with them (specific examples below).


First I've got a few books that are part of more than one series...
Example 1 Fire and Ice by J.A. Jance is both JP Beaumont #19 and Joanna Brady #14.

Example 2 Harvest Moon an anthology with stories by three author has Cast in Moonlight by Michelle Sagara which is #0.5 in "The Chronicles of Elantra", A Tangled Web by Mercedes Lackey which is #5.5 in the "Five Hundred Kingdoms" and also Retribution by Cameron Haley which is #0.5 in the "Mob Rules" series.

The only solutions in can think of are blank books or in the case of example two split the book up and create separate ebooks. Neither solution is ideal as these issues (especially example 2) come up fairly often.


Second I've got Omnibus versions of parts of several series, but from what I can see there is no way to assign multiple series numbers to a book (like say 1-3).
Example Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold contains three stories in the authors Vorkosigan Saga.

Again I can only see two solutions. Blank books or split it up and create separate ebooks. I'm hoping for suggestions that will work better for me than that.


TIA

[Ripplinger]

What I do about the books being in multiple series is just ignore the 2nd series and leave them listed in the numerical order for the 1st series. If that bugs you, you could manually rename the title to include the 2nd series, such as "Fire and Ice (Joanna Brady 14)" or "Fire and Ice (JB14)", anyway you want to list it for yourself. Until Calibre ever adds a 2nd box for a 2nd series to be entered, I think these are the only options.

For the Omnibus, you could list the series number as 1.23 or 123. Or again manually change the title to add "Books 1-3" or just "1-3" however you want to keep track.

Edit: I should add that one other thing I do is list the extra information in the metadata comments field as the first line. Such as "Also Book 14 in the Joanna Brady series", or "Contains Books 1, 2 and 3 of the X series."

[theducks]

I do it the different.
I choose the (hiarchial) series by what is Primary to THIS title

Fire and Ice.Joanna Brady

Omnibus can be a pain if they have more than 2/or split-skip
first_position.next_positionLast_position
5.68
First position sorts into the series properly, the rest implies more

[itimpi]

Another commonly used technique is to create a custom column in Calibre of type 'series' and use this to track the second series when this is relevant.

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Another commonly used technique is to create a custom column in Calibre of type 'series' and use this to track the second series when this is relevant.

This is what I've done. Fortunately I haven't come across any compilation with more than two series so two custom columns suffices for me.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Another commonly used technique is to create a custom column in Calibre of type 'series' and use this to track the second series when this is relevant.

Interesting idea, but some books have short stories for many series so I think this might get unwieldy.



The 1.23 type numbering might work OK for omnibus editions although maybe not a perfect solution for me it seems like the only thing that might work besides splitting.


Thanks gang

[chaley]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Another commonly used technique is to create a custom column in Calibre of type 'series' and use this to track the second series when this is relevant.

And you can use "grouped search terms" (preferences -> searching) to create a "virtual column" (lookup name) that combines these custom columns together for searching. Using GST allows you to search a single name (e.g., #all_series) to search for a series in any one of multiple series columns.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by copyrite

This is what I've done. Fortunately I haven't come across any compilation with more than two series so two custom columns suffices for me.

Why two custom columns? A single one of type Series would allow you enter a new series name and number.

[copyrite]

Ack, my fingers typed faster than my brain was thinking. That should be a one.

[AnemicOak]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Looks like what I want to do really won't work well, especially for Anthologies that might have six or more stories that are all part of different series. Guess I'll have to give more thought to how I want to organize things.

[ParadiseLost]

One option you may consider is that you can add a table of contents inside the metadata Comments section. When you perform searches it does search through that for matches. So when you search you could search JP Beaumont and it would arrive in the results as well as those marked in your series column? Not the best solution but its what i finally decided to do to handle my anthologies. Hope this helps.

Contents:
JP Beaumont [19] "Fire and Ice" by J.A Jance
Next Story and so on.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Interesting idea, but some books have short stories for many series so I think this might get unwieldy.



The 1.23 type numbering might work OK for omnibus editions although maybe not a perfect solution for me it seems like the only thing that might work besides splitting.


Thanks gang

Well there is an epub split plugin I usually just split them to individual stories. So easier to put them in order in the series as well.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Well there is an epub split plugin I usually just split them to individual stories. So easier to put them in order in the series as well.

The 1.23 method falls short when there is:
1) A broken sequence (1. 3. 6.)
2) more than 3 (only 2 decimals) books
3) the series index is 2 (or more ) digits long 12. 13. 14