Kindle question

[emmagrant01]

For those of you who have a Kindle, how easy is it to put, say, fanfic on it? I am imagining that I could c&p fics into txt files or even download them as pdfs, and then put them on a Kindle to read wherever. That would be amazingly awesome. :-)

I'm having a little trouble finding an answer via google, oddly. Can anyone advise?

ETA: My flist knows all! ♥

Comments

[foi-nefaste.livejournal.com]

I just got a Kindle last week, so... experience is brief but so far positive.

I've just been saving fics as PDFs and then dumping them onto the Kindle, and that works just fine. The only thing I'd like to point out, specifically, is that you need to make the font size big enough that you read it easily on the smaller kindle screen - it takes a bit of getting used to! (Archive of our Own PDFs print too small to comfortably read on Kindle, for example)

That said: very handy way to read fic on the subway! :)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Good to know, thanks. I'm imagining reading fic at the gym, during lunch, on an airplane... :-)

[lalaith-niniel.livejournal.com]

I find it's really easy.

I c&p into Word, adjust the page size to 4x6, remove the margins and save as a pdf. If the Kindle is connected to your computer it's as easy as dragging and dropping onto the Kindle drive. The whole process takes me 5 minutes as long as I'm not worried about formatting.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thanks for the specific instructions!

[thalia]

You can do just what you've said. The thing is, though, PDF reading isn't that great on a Kindle; it works a lot better with e-book format. You can use Calibre (or probably other software) to make .mobi files, or you can download them directly from Archive of Our Own. (And how much do I love AO3 for that feature?)

Basically, it's one more step, but it's really easy, and it makes reading a lot more pleasant.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Is this the same e-book format that's been around for years? I used to convert directly from MS word to e-books, but that was years ago. I wonder if I could find another plug-in to do that, Hmmm...

Thanks!

[longtimegone]

I prefer to save as a txt file and drop in the "documents" folder on the Kindle. I've never been particularly impressed with the way the Kindle handles PDFs. It's not a nightmare, but the txt file is easier to read I've found.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oooh, good to know. Thanks!

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

Oh god. This is like, all I do with my kindle and the whole base of my Kindle love, so I'm going to write a comment here, and then I'll go make a post about this because there are good ways to do this (.mobi) and painful ways to do it (.txt and .pdf) and more people should know the good ones, because .mobi is far, far easier to read and deal with than trying to format text size and deal with line breaks in .pdf.

Okay, here goes:

1. Anything that is on A03 can (usually) be automatically downloaded in a Kindle (and a Nook!) friendly format. Go to the top of the page, click 'download', and select the .mobi format for Kindle and the .epub formal for any other ereader. Save, and then mail to yourself or upload via USB. Easypeasy.

2. This is an online text to .mobi converter. It' awesome... but the text of the site is in German. Paste your fic into the box, click the "mobipocket e-book" button at the bottom, and type the Title into the box that pops up. Save, send to Kindle. WAY easier than .pdfs and will handle even hugenormous chunks of text.

3. If you DO have a .pdf already made (or a full text file) here is an online converter to convert your file to a .mobi version. Click, save, send.

Bonus: If you read lots of short fic -- or fic on dreamwidth, where everything is on one page -- you can make very good use of Instapaper and their 'read later' feature, which will send everything that you bookmark to your kindle either once a day, or whenever you go to their website and tell them to. (I use this a lot when I'm really into something I'm reading and we have to go take the kids somewhere. Hit 'read later', go to instapaper, tell it to send to my kindle, and I can finish the porn in the car. Win!)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oooh! This is exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you!!!

Is it sad that I would pretty much ONLY be putting porn on my Kindle? LOL...

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have tons of fanfics on my Kindle! It's so easy! I think the new ones are even easier. Mine is the first generation. Here's what I do. I downloaded the Fanfiction Downloader and save quite a few fics that way. It puts them into a file in my documents folder. Then I downloaded a program called Calibre. It is a program that converts your fics into the proper format and uploads them to the Kindle. When you download Calibre, you should take the 10 minutes to watch the tutorial video of how to utilize it. I thought I'd be real smart and not need to watch the tutorial and I was so wrong. It's real short and easy to understand.

Anyway, when you are in Calibre you upload your fic and hit Convert. It puts the fic into the necessary format for Kindle. Upload fics in pdf, rtf or epub. The Calibre program converts them to Mobi and when you plug the Kindle into the USB port and hit transfer to Kindle, it automatically loads it. Then you unplug the Kindle turn it on and it's there! Love it! I think the new Kindles may be even easier. The only thing I've learned is not to upload in Mobi to Calibre because when it transfers to the Kindle it removes all of the spacing that is formatted into the fic and it's all run together. Upload in pdf or epub and it will convert to mobi and then it retains the formatting and proper spacing. Hopefully, this makes some sense to you. Just load up Calibre and watch the tutorial and you'll have no trouble.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Fanfiction Downloader? I haven't heard of that. Is it software?

[wivern.livejournal.com]

As others have said it's really easy, especially from AO3, just choose the 'mobi' option.

I actually bought my Kindle mainly to read fic and I'm very happy... more so than reading books on it oddly enough. *g*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I'm so relieved I'm not the only one who is wanting a Kindle for this purpose. ;-)

[essie007.livejournal.com]

I only really use my kindle for fanfic. Essentially in order to put anything on your kindle you email the document to your kindle. And the kindle downloads and converts it to kindle format when you connect it to the internet. What I usually do is c&p the fic into a word document. Save that, then email the doc in an attachment to my kindle. It works really well. It is however a lot of steps.

The one thing I will say is that if you send a pdf the proportions are not always automatically converted, so you may have to play the zoom in game to read it.

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

If you upload a fic through Calibre you would never have to worry about the font size. It handles pdfs fine and the formatting is great. The Kindle also has the option to increase font size. I'm farsighted, so I always have to increase font size. I just leave it big.

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

as others have said, you can do the work of making an ebook with stanza or calibre or you can mail yourself (amazons kindle help online tells all about it).

geoviki uses the mail-it option, i use the make-my-own option.

in either case i'd get calibre because it's an ace library program.

libby_drew had a link recently about using calibre that i can find for you if you want.

also, if you plan on reading porn on your kindle out there in the world, get quick with the keys, because strangers are still fascinated by them and want you to show them how it works.

er, sorry, got carried away. obviously am a big fan and have many, many fandom ebooks.

(oh, and the kindle reads .prcs too, so if you are buying from dreamspinner or loose id or rainbow ebooks just download the .prc, stick it in calibre and plug in your reader)

[thalia]

strangers are still fascinated by them and want you to show them how it works

Yeah, I had a bad moment over Thanksgiving when my Southern Baptist brother-in-law wanted a look at my Kindle while I was reading porn....

[sorion.livejournal.com]

That's why I love my Sony PRS 650... Reads pdf and word and can mark passages in both :3

It's so awesome for fanfics *_* Especially, since there aren't that many e-books, yet :/

[samena.livejournal.com]

I'm so jealous. I wanted to get a Sony PRS 650, because I'm about to go on a long trp, but they're sold out everywhere at the moment. Now I'm getting a PRS 350, and I'm hoping loading the fanfic I've saved in word won't be a problem.

[aliciajd]

I just attach the fanfic in the form of a word.doc to an email and mail it to the address Amazon gave me with my Kindle. It shows right up on my book list. Be sure to give the doc file the name you want to show up in your book list. Straight word.docs work perfectly.

A small charge will show up on your monthly credit card bill for each doc you send. I think the last ones I sent were $.11 each.

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

if you have wifi on your kindle and at home you can send it to your @free.kindle.com address and it won't cost. but yes, if you have an older generation without then there's a fee.

[damned-queen.livejournal.com]

I've had mine for about half a year now. I just copy paste fanfic in MS Word or Pages and export as a pdf (yes, pdf works much much much better than .doc). Then I load the pdf into Calibre, a program you can use to manage all your e-books, and I let it convert it to mobi. It works like a charm. It even detects chapters if you marked the headings in the original Word documents :-)

I never ever use the mail to option, 'cause I just don't see the point of it. So I put all the e-books I downloaded in my Calibre library and every now and then I connect my kindle to my computer via USB and just put all the books/fanfics I want up there.

I really think it's the greatest way ever to read fanfic. I appreciate it so much more now I can just lay in my bed and read it like a book <3

[ciel-vert.livejournal.com]

I got a kindle for christmas and thus far have only read fic on it. :)

I too found pdfs a pain, font too small. I use mobipocket creator (program you download) to make ebooks because it will also convert html pages (along with txt and pdf). Very handy for fics on lj, since it's much easier to save the whole thing as html rather than c/p everything into a txt doc.

[thalia]

Can I ask, using Mobipocket Creator, do you save books as .mobi? Or something else that works? When I use it I end up with .opf and .prc files--can Kindle read those? Is there something in settings that I'm missing?

Thanks! Sorry to dump on you, but I'm completely stumped. Of course, if you don't want to be my tech support, that's totally fine. I'm imposing.

[cephalopinguin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for asking this question. I made a similar post, and didn't get much of a response, but I did, in fact, download Calibre, and it is the best thing ever. Ever. So easy to organize things and convert them.

We should share .mobi files once we get them converted.

I'm glad I'm not the only oddball that wants to get HP porn on my Kindle... ♥

[helens78]

OMG icon! I have always loved that image, perhaps for obvious reasons. :)

[helens78]

In addition to what everyone else has mentioned, if you're using the browser on the latest generation Kindle, and the page you're on is mostly text but isn't rendering quite as well as you'd like, you can switch to "article mode", which will cut out everything but the text and make it easier to read and navigate. :D. (I haven't tried it on every site out there, but it works like a dream on LJ, DW, and almost any fic site I've tried!)

Also, you can probably get some awesome profic via the Kindle marketplace for a hell of a lot less than a paperback. I have been seriously digging Lorelei James, for one. (Would gladly take recs for others, too!)

[meri-oddities.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of different kinds of software that you can use to create mobi/prc files for your kindle. I use Mobipocket Creator. I also use Calibre to keep track of things, but I'm fussy about formatting, so I use Mobipocket to get my formatting the way I want it.

Here is a link for a pretty big list of information on where to find all kinds of things. I found it very useful.

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

wah! it only works on a pc and i have a mac [*pouts*]

thanks for the links!

[thalia]

Oh, and one other thing: You can't borrow books from the library and read them on the Kindle, but you can on the Nook. That's the one reason I'm regretting choosing the Kindle; otherwise I love it.

[smoonyc.livejournal.com]

It's easy - you just save them to Word docs or PDFs and move them to your Kindle. Easy peasy!

[sabrinagb.livejournal.com]

I've been using my Sony eReader for porn like this since I got my first one in 2006. *g* I just make pdfs or word docs of the fics out there and then save them to my reader and voila. Easy as that. I like the ease of loading the removable media with the fic I want and then popping it in the reader when I head off. I almost never read fic on the actual computer ever.

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you asked this question for the answers provided alone. I've been debating getting an e-reader when I can afford one and going back and forth on Kindle vs. Nook. This post ( and comments) provided something I've been wondering about! So thanks. :)

[briel-morrigan.livejournal.com]

It is heaven. I got a kindle last week, and have barely moved. You know all the details from a myriad of comments. But. Squee.

[tildathebuilder.livejournal.com]

Oh my word, thank you so much for this post and everyone who posted ideas!

I have just converted and loaded two fics onto the Kindle on my android phone. I usually read fic via my phone's internet browser and I'm forever losing my place in the middle of a great fic, or losing the tab the fic was on and trying to remember how I got there in the first place!

It's debatable how much proper work I am going to achieve today ;)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Icon love! :-D