e-readers and e-fic

[court1429.livejournal.com]

Happened to go to the Twisting the Hellmouth archive (predominantly a Buffy archive, with some other fandoms represented) to get an author name so I could tag a fic, and noticed that this archive, like AO3, offers downloading options in mobi (for Kindle), epub (for Nook and Sony), and txt. I think it's pretty awesome that archives are doing this.

I'd love to see the same options for our QAF-specific archives. Does anyone know what adding that capability to the archives would entail? It would be up to the owners of the archives, of course, but I just got to wondering if it would be a huge, difficult thing to offer?

Now that I'm thinking about it, I wouldn't mind seeing epub and mobi links offered within our share sites, either.

We're also trying out a new tag: "e-readers: e-reader dl available". We hope this will become a much-used tag over time as more authors upload to some of these sites. I'd like to request that if you know there's an e-reader version available on an archive, even if you don't link to it, would you mention it in a comment, please?

Of course it's always possible to convert a fic to your reader format using calibre or other conversion software. These archive options just save a few steps in the process.

Any insight you guys have is appreciated!

Comments

[netlagd.livejournal.com]

I thought most could read PDF format

Lulu.com offers the ability to format for print on demand, CD/DVD, and e-pub. I know you upload a PDF, I don't know if you can export and try it.

[court1429.livejournal.com]

I think all e-readers *can* read pdfs, but often the formatting is really bad. Even converting to another format from a pdf can end up nearly unreadable.

So, these archives that have the "coding," whatever that means, already embedded as an e-reader file choice means you're going to get a clean, well-formatted file.

Here's an example of the download options on AO3 for a Rhi fic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/159623?view_adult=true). See at the top right corner there are download options? If you have a Nook or Kindle or Sony reader (and maybe others, too) and you DL the format that your reader reads, you'll have a perfect reading copy available on your reader.

I think it would be fantastic to see those options at the Tribe or MW or TQL or bjfic if it ever reappears. But I have no clue what adding that option to an archive entails or whether the site owners would want to.