Baen Books and Mobi/PRC formatting

JeremyR · 09-23-2010, 05:57 PM

Last night I was browsing Baen Books and noticed they sold the ebook version of their Lord Darcy for $4. So I snapped it up.

Anyway, I downloaded the version they labeled as Kindle (which turned out to be a PRC file). And while it's mostly okay, it doesn't have any chapters. Which is sort of annoying in a huge omnibus.

So I downloaded the epub version instead and saw that it was broken up in chapters. So I used calibre to convert it and that carried over to my Kindle.

Getting to my question, are all Baen books formatted like this? Should I simply not bother with downloading in Mobi? Or was this just somewhat poorly done because it's an older file? (Does PRC even support chapters? I have no idea)

While I'm not a real fan of their current authors (I swear, the same 3-4 write new books every month) I did used to be a big fan of theirs in the 80s so will probably buy some more books in their back catalog.

bwaldron · 09-23-2010, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeremyR

Or was this just somewhat poorly done because it's an older file?

Bingo. Newer Baen books, though, do a good job with Mobi files (formatting and metadata). For the older ones, I convert with Calibre rather than use the .prc directly. Epub works fine, but I've found the .lit versions to be the best for these older Baen conversions.

JeremyR · 09-25-2010, 02:52 AM

Thanks!

HarryT · 09-25-2010, 04:44 AM

If a Mobi book at Baen has a ".prc" extension, it's in a very old Mobipocket format. In this case, download the ePub version and convert it to Mobi with Calibre.

All their recent Mobi books have a ".mobi" extension. These are in the up-to-date Mobi format and should be absolutely fine.

Terisa de morgan · 09-25-2010, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

If a Mobi book at Baen has a ".prc" extension, it's in a very old Mobipocket format. In this case, download the ePub version and convert it to Mobi with Calibre.

All their recent Mobi books have a ".mobi" extension. These are in the up-to-date Mobi format and should be absolutely fine.

What's the difference between formats? I have prc files that I can read at my Gen3 and no problem with them (and they're not new).

HarryT · 09-25-2010, 05:01 AM

A PRC file can indeed be a modern Mobipocket format - eg all the ones that I've uploaded here at MR are. It just so happens that the ones used by Baen specifically are not; they are a very old version of Mobi that doesn't have any metadata other than the book title, doesn't have hard page breaks, and many other restrictions. It's a Baen-specific issue; most PRC files you download elsewhere will be just fine.

JeremyR · 09-26-2010, 06:57 AM

Hmmm. When I took their epub straight from their site and converted it with Calibre, I got chapter marks, but not a TOC.

And actually, the chapter marks turned out to be the section marks (it's a big book, broken up into sections and then stories and then chapters within the stories), so I apparently missed 1/3 of the book when I skipped "Too Many Magicians" (I have that in hardback and have read it dozens of times, while the other Darcy stories in it are new to me).

Only noticed when I decided to see if I could get a TOC. I loaded it up in Sigil first, then saved, then converted with Calibre and the TOC showed up properly (and I have chapter marks for each actual chapter, not just sections).

So I guess in the future, I will do that (load it in Sigil and save).

Terisa de morgan · 09-26-2010, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

A PRC file can indeed be a modern Mobipocket format - eg all the ones that I've uploaded here at MR are. It just so happens that the ones used by Baen specifically are not; they are a very old version of Mobi that doesn't have any metadata other than the book title, doesn't have hard page breaks, and many other restrictions. It's a Baen-specific issue; most PRC files you download elsewhere will be just fine.

Thank you for the explanation. In other forum another person talked too about .mobi and .prc different in terms f Mobipocket and I couldn't understand it. As a publisher issue, like you say, I can easily understand.

st_albert · 10-18-2010, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeremyR

Hmmm. When I took their epub straight from their site and converted it with Calibre, I got chapter marks, but not a TOC.

And actually, the chapter marks turned out to be the section marks (it's a big book, broken up into sections and then stories and then chapters within the stories), so I apparently missed 1/3 of the book when I skipped "Too Many Magicians" (I have that in hardback and have read it dozens of times, while the other Darcy stories in it are new to me).

Only noticed when I decided to see if I could get a TOC. I loaded it up in Sigil first, then saved, then converted with Calibre and the TOC showed up properly (and I have chapter marks for each actual chapter, not just sections).

So I guess in the future, I will do that (load it in Sigil and save).

You could probably also tweak the regex that calibre uses to detect chapters, so that calibre would do it directly.

09-23-2010, 05:57 PM	#1
JeremyR Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 2458402 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: St. Louis Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+	Baen Books and Mobi/PRC formatting Last night I was browsing Baen Books and noticed they sold the ebook version of their Lord Darcy for $4. So I snapped it up. Anyway, I downloaded the version they labeled as Kindle (which turned out to be a PRC file). And while it's mostly okay, it doesn't have any chapters. Which is sort of annoying in a huge omnibus. So I downloaded the epub version instead and saw that it was broken up in chapters. So I used calibre to convert it and that carried over to my Kindle. Getting to my question, are all Baen books formatted like this? Should I simply not bother with downloading in Mobi? Or was this just somewhat poorly done because it's an older file? (Does PRC even support chapters? I have no idea) While I'm not a real fan of their current authors (I swear, the same 3-4 write new books every month) I did used to be a big fan of theirs in the 80s so will probably buy some more books in their back catalog. Last edited by JeremyR; 09-23-2010 at 06:40 PM.

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09-25-2010, 02:52 AM	#3
JeremyR Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 2458402 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: St. Louis Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+	Thanks!

09-25-2010, 04:44 AM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	If a Mobi book at Baen has a ".prc" extension, it's in a very old Mobipocket format. In this case, download the ePub version and convert it to Mobi with Calibre. All their recent Mobi books have a ".mobi" extension. These are in the up-to-date Mobi format and should be absolutely fine.

09-25-2010, 05:01 AM	#6
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	A PRC file can indeed be a modern Mobipocket format - eg all the ones that I've uploaded here at MR are. It just so happens that the ones used by Baen specifically are not; they are a very old version of Mobi that doesn't have any metadata other than the book title, doesn't have hard page breaks, and many other restrictions. It's a Baen-specific issue; most PRC files you download elsewhere will be just fine.

09-26-2010, 06:57 AM	#7
JeremyR Guru Posts: 973 Karma: 2458402 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: St. Louis Device: Kindle Keyboard, Nook HD+	Hmmm. When I took their epub straight from their site and converted it with Calibre, I got chapter marks, but not a TOC. And actually, the chapter marks turned out to be the section marks (it's a big book, broken up into sections and then stories and then chapters within the stories), so I apparently missed 1/3 of the book when I skipped "Too Many Magicians" (I have that in hardback and have read it dozens of times, while the other Darcy stories in it are new to me). Only noticed when I decided to see if I could get a TOC. I loaded it up in Sigil first, then saved, then converted with Calibre and the TOC showed up properly (and I have chapter marks for each actual chapter, not just sections). So I guess in the future, I will do that (load it in Sigil and save).

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