People have asked if Seeking North can be gotten onto a Kindle.
Just treat your Kindle or other device as a flash drive: first download a file (swipe it to your notepad), then convert it via your word processor to pdf, then use the USB cord to transfer the pdf, as I understand it, to your Kindle…but if you have any trouble, ask Jane: she does it routinely. Certain readers, like the Nook, have their own protocols for this, and anyone knowing the Nook routine, please comment.
Any HTML file can be converted to .prc, which Kindle also reads; (it’s the same as .mobi.) EPub is the format for the Nook and many European devices.
To do your own conversions, you need three programs resident on your computer: any wordprocessor; Calibre; and Mobipocket Creator: I have links to them in the left sidebar. The last two are shareware. They’d like a little donation, but don’t demand it.
With Mobipocket Creator, you can convert any html file to .prc.
With Calibre you can convert any .prc (or any of a dozen formats) to any OTHER of a dozen formats. The native and preferred format of Calibre is ePub, but its converter reads any format commonly used in the industry, and converts it to any other in the list. There’s a mild learning curve, but basically, if your conversion produces an artifact you don’t like, get into the ‘other’ screens of Calibre and set a few toggles to prevent those happening. Notorious is the appearance of a few odd symbols in some of the less common formats. Setting the ‘ascii’ toggle in the set-up for the conversion, as I dimly remember, takes care of that. Ask: somebody, including us, has probably run into the problem.
If you have a really stubborn file, using your word processor to take it into html can help clean it up.
Hi,
I own a Nook and confirm it works exactly the same way. (don’t remember if the ebook need to be put in a specific “target” folder though).
However, I use Calibre to manage my ebooks library and upload to the ereader directly.
To transform a web page to epub, I’ve found the following utility : http://dotepub.com/ which creates an epub from a web page. (doesn’t work with IE though/Kindle though)
In the Wikipedia description of Calibre they say it can provide mobi files as output. Could’nt this cut the Mobipocket Creator step for Kindle ?
If I were to create my own version of an epub, may I host it somewhere on the web for others to download ?
TheSFReader(Shadow007)
Please don’t echo it elsewhere. Pointing people TO the Seeking North is fine, but we really don’t want this spread all over the web: this is for our own members. If it gets out there in general download, we’ll have pirates all over it cutting us entirely out of the picture.
We’ve found that Mobipocket Creator creates a better mobi file, but only marginally. Each one has small advantages.
OK, Won’t do then… Will echo people …
Thank you so much, Shadow007.
CJ, what operating system? A lot of us don’t use Windows, and if we know your suggestions are for Windows, we’ll know they won’t work for us.
Wayne
As far as I know, Calibre works on Windows, Os X (mac) and Linux. You should be able to download it if you use anyu of these OSes
If you’ll look at the bottom of the left sidebar <------------------ you'll find a listing for Macs and other OSes.
Yes, Calibre works on all of them the same way. It also recognizes that you’ve connected a Kindle and lets you manage the (non Amazon purchased) books and documents on it, and it will auto-convert anything you’re trying to put on the device to its accepted format (mobi/prc in the case of the Kindle).
The success of the auto-conversion does depend on which conversion you’re trying to do; it works pretty well from epub to mobi, but conversions from pdf or html are trickier. You’ll generally be able to do it with patience in setting conversion options.
You don’t need to go to the conversion steps.
If you’ve swiped the webpage into a wordprocessor, the ereader can handle that directly. I can’t now remember if it takes the higher formatting options like .doc but .txt files certainly work on my Sony. I’ve used this before to create my own notes, and for other webpage stories. Saves quite a bit of hassle – maybe not as pretty, but definetly easy to do. I don’t know whether the Kindle will read txt, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t.
‘fox
Hi and many thanks. I will be experimenting too, especially when I can start playing with my new Kindle. I’m (painfully) familiar with stripping junk code from the conversion of Word and OpenOffice Writer files into HTML + CSS. I know .mobi and .epub are some sort of markup, probably .xml based. So we’ll see what I find out. — I may add an area to my own site and I’m looking into whether I want to add a forum or blog.
I think the best option regarding a Seeking-North ebook version would be directly throu Seeking-North and Closed-Circle, and might be either a clearly marked Draft (Date) with copyright notice and contact info, and bundle each installment as a separate file, with an index | table of contents | title and cover page which links to each chapter. That could avoid duplicating effort for each new chapter. This also gives Closed-Circle the control and distribution you need, and gives readers the one-stop access to the blog posts and ebook version, so everybody’s happy and there isn’t the chaos of several fans creating ebook drafts running around for personal use. (Those are fine, but an official version is better; although it means more prep work for the authors.)
Then when the drafts are done for the whole book, take them behind the curtain for revisions and editing, and create a single, unified ebook for the finished publication.
Someone on Shejidan (Busifer) suggested a subscription to the story, whereby subscribers could get automatic notice or the new files. Expanding on this: That way, readers can subscribe at their option, or read from the site, just like picking up a magazine with serialized stories. The subscription could be free or a small fee — or a donation at the subscriber’s option.
Would it be best for a copy of this thread to go onto Seeking-North, perhaps with a reader survey poll as well? Ultimately, it rests with what the Seeking-North authors decide suits their purposes best, and what doesn’t create too much overhead.
BlueCatShip, from what I understand (from a few email exchanges and posts here), the authors do not wish for an actively updated/published epub version of Seeking-North to be widely available yet, as while they want to have fun with it, they would like to keep the option of selling the ebook at a later time.
If we were to “maintain” and publish a up-to-date version, when it’s over, there may be no real point for customers to buy the finished “sanctionned” ebook instead. (please refere to CJ’s reply at my first “comment”.
At the same time, I think they would have no objection if we exchanged an “informal” epub version by mail, without giving potential “pirates” access to it. I could for example update my own version of the file and send it to a small number of friends who we know to be honest (You, Busifer, PurpleJulian …)
CJ, would that be allright with you ?
Yes.
Right. What I was proposing was an option they mighy consider doing themselves. I think there would still be interest in an ebook for purchase, which would be the finalized, published ebook.
But they prefer to handle it as they are now, and publish a full ebook later.
They specifically don’t want a situation where there could be various pirated drafts running around, widely distributed.
yes, well I would love to buy it as an ebook when it’s finished, so I think I won’t download it now, but dip in and out ….
finding it quite hard to buy the books I want for my kindle, actually, and I already have so many books … I feel buying the ones I have again for the Kindle is a bit of an extravagance! wish there could be some sort of discount by publishers if you already have a real book version! at least if you have bought them through amazon, so they can tell you really have.