Flist help again!

[amalthia]

This is another request for help to find a single file version of a fic.

To Dream, Perchance to Live It's 164k words, J2 story, and I haven't had the time to hunt down all the chapters/parts to download. But it does sound like an interesting story. I know it's posted a bit oddly but I'm hoping someone else is able to make better sense of it.

My email is amalthia at gmail.com

I'm also willing to share back other big bang fics I've merged for anyone that would like to collaborate to share single file versions of these stories.

Comments

[meri_oddities]

Did you notice there's a PDF available on the link w/ and w/o images? For me, I can use Mobi creator to create a prc file for my Kindle from that.

I've only read 2 stories so far, but no doubt, I'll be formatting some for myself. I'd be happy to send you those I format into a word file. I'm a bit picky about what I read.

[amalthia]

I've always had trouble getting good conversions from PDFs and I've spent a lot of time trying! Now I don't even bother. The problem is that I'm trying to convert to epub, however on Maya's long PDF I tried everything included the mobipocket creator but the story looked like ass no matter what I did. Like no paragraph breaks for large portions and then for some reason double paragraph breaks. It drove me nuts and it was too long to fix. I didn't want to go through another experience like that with another author because then I tend to resent the author and hate the story.

[meri_oddities]

Heh. I get you on that. I know there is software out there that will convert PDF to word, but the free stuff doesn't work very well. I've thought about downloading some trial software, but really, I'm not going to buy it.

Mobipocket creator does an...adequate job. Sometimes there aren't spaces between the paragraphs, but mostly, it's okay. I'd much rather have a word doc. But for something really long, with too many parts, I'd just convert it and see what it looks like on my Kindle. If it's worth reading, I'll coble it together or ask for a word file form the author.

[amalthia]

I normally ask the author for a Word copy but sadly some do not want to share. :( They think the PDF is adequate and don't want their story shared in any other format.

I can't stand weird formatting issues in stories. The funny thing is I can live with typos, semi-bad grammar, misplaced commas and etc...but merged paragraphs, too many of them, weird chapter header spacing and I start to say noooo!!! :)

[meri_oddities]

I never even think to ask. If it's less that 15-20 parts, I'll just put it together autoatmically. If it's more, I'll look for a file, but if I can't find one, I'll probably just skip the story.

I don't get that attitude from authors. I mean, it's not like we can't do exactly what we want with a publicly posted story anyway. It's just easier not having to put them together.

[amalthia]

I don't bother asking if the story is under 10 parts, but after that I send a note first. But again, I'm merging hundreds of stories here. Since I got my Sony PRS-500 I've probably merged about 1000 fics. I think at one point I got really stressed out about it because I had gone a bit overboard on it, and then I figured instead of stressing just ask the author or my flist for help. That's been a big help.

I've also not read stories that were just too long to merge and don't have a single file.

I think as more readers pick up ebook devices more people will become aware of the challenges of getting fan fiction on the devices. The good news is that I know a few authors have gotten themselves a ebook reader and I hope with time more authors will become aware that their readers aren't necessarily reading their fic on their posts anymore. I can't read fan fiction via LJ (at least not long stories) because my work place has blocked about every website online. I have this tiny window to download fics and that's it. So the easier the author makes their story to download the higher chance I have of reading it.

I know some authors who want so much control over their stories they flock them but if you friend them they ask you to defriend them unless they know you. (I've seen some weird shit)