Customizing Book Titles & Author Names

[Cat]

Hey fellow Kindle users,

Do any of you know how to customize the default book titles and author names displayed on the device? Some of my Kindle files come from sources other than the Amazon ebookstore - many of these, as a result, show up on my Kindle with titles and names that are misspelled, badly capitalized, or simply incorrect. It's not a huge deal, but my desire for organization compels me to seek a solution...any advice?

Thanks!

[Ashley]

I use Calibre. It's a free downloadable program. You have to edit the metadata yourself. It's time consuming if you have a large library but for someone like me, it's better in the long run. It is pretty easy to use. Let me know if you have any more questions about it.

[stormhawk]

I also use Calibre to tweak the names and titles. It's pretty straightforward once you learn your way around.

[Patricia]

I agree with everyone else, the only way to do this is in Calibre.

[Cat]

Thanks everyone! I actually downloaded Calibre a while ago, but couldn't figure out how to use it - do you guys know of any good tutorials online?

[Chrissie]

I keep seeing this thread and every time I wonder - why would one want to customize the author's name and the book's title?!

[Cat]

Chrissie wrote: "I keep seeing this thread and every time I wonder - why would one want to customize the author's name and the book's title?!"

Read the first post.

[Chrissie]

Cat, thanks. Heavens, That hasn't happened to me yet!

Sorry for my question when the answer is so obvious!

[stormhawk]

Cat wrote: "Thanks everyone! I actually downloaded Calibre a while ago, but couldn't figure out how to use it - do you guys know of any good tutorials online?"

when you first download calibre the user manual should be the only book in your library.

dare i say it? RTFM?

Actually, I'm more than happy to try to help with questions.

Start Calibre. Connect your Kindle. It and Calibre will do some handshaking. poke at the buttons on the top menu bar to see what they do.

Say you have a bunch of pdf files. click add to library, select those files one at a time or in a batch if they're all in the same directory.

Once they are added, then you have to convert them (okay, Kindles read PDF and if itty bitty type floats your boat you can install them directly as pdfs) to .mobi or .azw format (Calibre now supports both ... they're basically the same things). Once you've converted the files they you can click "send to device" while your kindle is connected to your computer via the USB cable.

Changing the details of a book is either done on the list or by clicking "edit metadata". You'll usually want to do that individually, unless you import a whole bunch of books by the same author and his name is screwed up on all of them.

PDFs often transfer with quirky renditions of the title and name information.