Ebook Library User Poll

[amalthia]

This is a poll for anyone that's used or has an interest in using the Ebook Library Archive. I'm trying to get an idea of what I can do to improve the site and know which formats to focus on more.

Poll #2703 Ebook Library User Poll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 68

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What type of device do you read fan fiction on?

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Cybook
0 (0.0%)

Nook
1 (1.5%)

Amazon Kindle
14 (20.9%)

Ipad
3 (4.5%)

Sony PRS
18 (26.9%)

Ipod/touch
18 (26.9%)

Other will explain in comments
23 (34.3%)

What is your preferred reading format?

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RTF
21 (32.3%)

PDF
15 (23.1%)

LRF
4 (6.2%)

Mobi/PRC
14 (21.5%)

Epub
34 (52.3%)

Other I'll explain in the comments
11 (16.9%)

What fandoms do you read in the most?

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Comments

[marashapeshifter]

I used to read on a Palm and for the longest time I saved fics as html then copy pasted them to doc files which was very time consuming. Recently I was given an iPod Touch so now I use that with Stanza and I'm having a much easier time of it now.

I usually read fics from livejournal so for saving fics I have a greasemonkey script that automatically sets format=light and mode=reply and the firefox addon Nuke Anything that removes everything except the fic text and headers. Archives that use eFiction have a printer friendly version while with FFnet I use the Fanfiction Downloader to do the same thing. From the 'clean' text I print to pdf with the author and title as the file name and the pdf is set to save to a specific folder. A bit of imperfect hacking has it imported to Calibre and converted to epub.

Format wise I prefer epub for reading and pdf for converting. Txt doesn't keep the formatting, html sometimes has hidden stuff saved like javascript, doc and rtf play funny with paragraph breaks and encoding depending on the source. Printing to pdf has been the workaround for me since it preserves paragraph breaks and encoding without the funny business of html. I dislike reading pdf though because it doesn't reflow the text. I'm pretty picky and I like to set the foreground/background color, margins, paragraph/line spacing, font size/family/color so epub on stanza has been perfect for me.

Regarding fandoms I don't really follow most of the fandoms in the archive aside from SGA and SG1. Not that I'm criticizing the archive, absolutely not! I think what you're doing is awesomesauce! Most of them aren't my cuppa tea is all. :) I started out with mostly anime fandoms, then a few book fandoms, and only in the last couple of years got interested in western fandoms.

I think supporting rtf and maybe epub or mobi works fine. Frankly I'd think that with programs to manage ebooks such as calibre around it's easy enough for people to convert to their preferred format so consistently offering one or two formats is enough.

(Err, this turned out a lot longer than I meant it to, sorry...)

[amalthia]

What fandoms do you follow? I'm trying to figure out what fandoms people would like to read but are under represented in the archive. So far I've been archiving what I read because I'm pretty much the only one adding stories to the archive. (though I'm always open to more help) :)

Yeah RTF I think is the MUST keep format. :) I agree from there people can do a lot to create their own ebooks with Calibre. :)

[marashapeshifter]

I'm heaviest on Gundam Wing, Harry Potter, and Queer as Folk but I'll read anything that I have even a passing knowledge of. I'm willing to help if you don't mind. It's summer where I live so I'll have a few weeks of spare time and I was planning on organizing my saved fics anyway. I'm just a bit iffy about contacting the authors because I totally don't know what to say and some of the authors from older fandoms can't be contacted anymore.

Just throwing an idea out there, how about allowing people to submit requests for specific fanfic they'd like to see archived? That way it will be more obvious what fandoms are in demand and it can be up to the requester to ask the author for permission. Maybe authors can give blanket permission or refusal for their fics. Then volunteers can compile the ebook and submit to the archive. I'm not very clear how the whole thing would work but it could make it easier I guess.

[amalthia]

I have asked for specific requests from time to time but never got any nibbles. The hard part beyond merging the fics is contacting authors and then sending follow up emails. (okay truly the hard part is finding a way to contact some authors, I swear emails are being hidden better than state secrets nowadays)

With older fandoms this is especially problematic. But it would help if requesters had the author's email as well as location of fic if they had a request. :) When I request permission I request for all the author's stories not specific stories so it gives some flexibility but practically speaking I'm only really archiving fics over 10k words and mostly those over 20k.

[marashapeshifter]

I see how that would be difficult, running after people is hard. I guess I'll have to give it a shot anyway. Now I'm really impressed with what you've done with the archive so far. :D

[amalthia]

I'm thinking it may not be a bad idea to maybe post some guidelines in case anyone does have a specific request they'll know what information I need to easily find and contact the author. With some fandoms it's not as much of an issue but there are many fandoms out there where I don't have a clue.