Resources
Here you will find my honour roll of sites and utilities I use, some on a daily basis, which you might find helpful or interesting.
Programs:
Not many people out there who are in the book blogger or general book/eBook community hasn’t heard of this wonderful free program created by Kovid Goyal. I first became aware – and downloaded – this program through the Mobile Read Forums which I found when researching getting my first dedicated reader in 2009.
This small program has a lot of features and functions, many of which I greatly under utilize currently but I am learning. I use this program on a daily basis, especially when organizing books prior to transferring to my reader, and find it very helpful in keeping track of connecting titles.
Features I use:
- Management – it does all the hard work when I add titles, organizing the books added automatically, and allowing me to keep track of my books in several categories. Author, Title, Series, Tags, even ratings.
- Converting – the original reason I downloaded this program. I had a lot of eBooks in various formats which I wanted to convert to a format suitable to reading on my first reading device when I bought it.
- Libraries – the ability to have multiple libraries in their own dedicated folders. This was incredible helpful once my Mother got her first reader, allowing me to create a library for her without mixing her books in with my own.
- Metadata – gives you full control over the details concerning your book. The program can use the information it gleans from the file when added to your library and search/download addition information.
- Cover Image – Inside the metadata now when you click ‘download cover’ instead of searching and then returning it’s result, should it find one, a small browser window launches and the program searches multiple sources and returns all results they give you for you to choose. Greatly improved and much used/appreciated.
One thing I do, is when I feel a library has gotten too large and bulky, is transfer it elsewhere, normally to an external disk/drive, and start again. With Calibre doing most of the hard work of organizing my books into folders for me any transferred books are easily found again whenever I wish to re-read them.
With MC you can import in four formats, all of which it converts wonderfully into a nice clean PRC file. Which you can add/convert into your preferred format in Calibre.
You can import four existing formats:
- HTML document
- MS Word document
- Text document
- PDF document
While Calibre can import/convert both HTML and PDF I find that often the conversion can be spotty especially in the case of PDF files.
I prefer to import/convert all PDF files I want with MC and once I have my new clean PRC file built I then add it to Calibre. MC removes those annoying author/title/numbers which often appear on each page of a PDF file. This happens automatically upon being imported. Regardless of my settings used in Calibre I couldn’t do this and even if I could often the resulting file was a formatting nightmare. I’ve found MC is my best chance of converting any PDF file to a readable format for my reader.
Also when I get a tricky HTML conversion in Calibre – the odd conversion will muck up my quotation marks by either removing them or replacing them with another symbol altogether – I find that MC can take these files and create a properly formatted PRC file which I can then add to Calibre and use as I want.
Windows Live Writer
I use this to work on posts/pages offline and when I don’t want to use the dashboard. I find that using the dashboard within my browser it I can become more easily distracted.
WLW allows me to concentrate on my posts completely, also it’s easier to preview and the text input isn’t a small box. I get the full size page to type on with easy access to all the buttons for inputting/editing that I need.
When I’ve read through and checked I then hit the publish button and that’s it. Check it in the browser itself and fix any mistakes.
Strangely enough I nearly missed adding this program to my resources page even though I was actually typing this page up within it!
Sites/Blogs:
A site I discovered not long after gaining access to the internet initially. I used the site then to help complete and organize my physical book collection. It also allowed me to more easily find the websites of authors I love to read and discover new authors/books.
Now it’s a great resource for using when compiling my reviews. It helps me find out any details I’m missing as well as give me a better chance to find correct information on a particular book, author or series.
When I first found, and became a ‘prime’ member, the site/database was split into different sections, Romance – Western – and a third I can’t remember to be honest. Now there aren’t any different sections anymore but it seems mainly to be romance readers that use the site if the books catalogued are anything to go by.
A social network for both readers and writers. You set up a free account and you can add books to your virtual bookshelves, join groups, review books and converse with other readers. Among many other things, there is also a lot of information on the books you are reading/reviewing available.
Another good resource just like the Fiction Database above, except you can interact with other readers and authors directly through Good Reads. Even booksellers like Books On Board have a group at Good Reads. So all facets of the book arena is there interacting on a daily basis.
This is a fabulous resource for newbie book bloggers, I often referred to this when setting up and starting my blog, I still visit several times a week and take part in the Friday Follow Feature which this blog hosts.
If you’re unsure of how to set up your blog or need some helpful hints it’s worth checking out. PJ still accepts and answers questions should you have any you want help with.
PJ states that this info is what she’s gleaned over her time book blogging and these posts helped her store and share this knowledge.
I’ve just began using this site more over the past month or so. While GoodReads is my favourite social networking venue with other readers, authors and bloggers I am enjoying taking part in the forums/blogs posted here.
There is a lot of different activities to take part if you are a blogger, you can post your latest review/blog post, converse with other bloggers, get help with your blog …
Another resource which is free to join and has some hidden gems which you can easily find when you look.
Also through this blog/site I found a second book blogger with great blogging hints/tips which is linked next ….
This is a new site/blog to me having only discovered it within the last month (May 2011) through a post for help on Ning Book Blogs from another book blogger wanting hints to get more followers and readers for her blog.
Several of us, including myself, mentioned PJV Book Blogging 101 and another mentioned this blog which has a lot of hints under the Blog Help button at the top of the page. She replies via a Question and Answer format, I haven’t read it all but it’s another good resource for getting some help/hints from as well.
I have found that fellow book bloggers tend to have the best tips out there, when searching for blogging tutorials and help I came across a lot of generic (and old) pages out there by large sites or places trying to sell some 100% fool proof eBook on creating the best most financially great blog. So not what I was looking for.
