Converting between E-reader Formats

[[deleted user]]

Hey everyone,

For anyone just getting into ebooks and epublishing, I thought I'd share a useful discovery: Calibre, which is a free download that converts ebooks between e-reader formats. So people with Nook e-readers can still read indie ebooks only available through Amazon, and so on.

I wrote a whole blog post about it at www.theunboundunderground.com and I thought it was worth sharing.

[[deleted user]]

Also for anyone interested, I also did some looking around and found information on how Calibre handles DRM protected ebooks. I talk about it also at www.theunboundunderground.com

[Alana ~ The Book Pimp]

I LOVE Calibre!

[Justin]

I have Calibre downloaded on my computer but not really sure of how to use it

[Matt]

Conversion would probably work well for all-text books, but e-books with custom formatting may run into problems. For example, an image that contains text could become illegible if re-sized to a smaller screen, or formatting options that are supported by one reader might be ignored by another causing a book to display incorrectly. The conversion would "void the warranty" so to speak.

[Alana ~ The Book Pimp]

Justin wrote: "I have Calibre downloaded on my computer but not really sure of how to use it"

when you have eBook files- usually if you drag and drop them into the open Calibre screen, it will add them to the Calibre 'library'

From there, you can highlight a book title, and up on the top menu it offers 'convert'

[Alana ~ The Book Pimp]

You can choose what format you want to convert it into (using the drop down box and choose mobi for Kindle, ePub for Nook, etc.)

You can usually change titles and such (sometimes a file isn't named something easily identifiable) should you need to.

Once you have the file converted, you will still have original format AND the new format in your library now. To add it to your device, choose 'send to' and either email it to your device, or hook your device up to your computer so you can just download it directly into it.

[Alana ~ The Book Pimp]

The Calibre library then also gives you an option to back up your library to disk (if you want to have a back-up of all your eBooks)

[Kayden]

Calibre is a great program. So easy to use, but I had never tried converting from Kindle to Nook, so excited to try it, thanks for the info.

[Justin]

So I converted my book to PDF using Calibre but it only converted half of it..anyone know how this is and how I can convert the entire book?

[J.C.]

so glad I found this! Thank you!

[Kimberly]

Authors should be aware, however, that Calibre can generate some yucky background HTML for an epub that makes it fail a strict checker program (such as the one linked to in B&N's Pubit FAQ). The epub can work fine and look great but Calibre can still put in nasty stuff like nested commands that don't allow nesting.

My epub still worked fine to upload to B&N, but Google Play's system rejected it. I've been talking with the Play staff and they are considering what to do about it, because they want to use the strict checker but now realize that the most popular conversion program out there is going to fairly consistently fail that test.

None of this matters on the reader end, of course, but authors should be aware.