# Help formatting book series in Calibre so they appear in order



## axman (Dec 16, 2010)

So I just got a brand new Kindle this past Saturday and I love it so far. I also am really enjoying the usefulness of Calibre in organizing my books. The only problem I am having is editing my series so that appear in order on my Kindle.

I know that Kindle has no built in functionality for series and that really the only way is to put the books series number in the title. I have no problem doing it this way, but I'm getting some wonky results.

Three or four series I have are ordered fine, but the majority are completely out of wack or have only a few in order.

Here are some of the examples so you can get an idea of what I'm looking at:
Xanth 33: Jumper Cable
Xanth 32: Two to the Fifth
Xanth 28: Currant Events
Xanth 29: Pet Peeve
Xanth 30: Stork Naked

The rest are numbered correctly in order.

I use the same format for every series. Series Number: Title

I've tried a bunch of different things including changing the preference for how Calibre sends my books to the Kindle.

I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas.


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## Whidbeyislandgirl (Apr 19, 2009)

Change the publication date on each book, backwards to what you think it should be. For example book 1 is dated December 2010, book 2 is dated November 2010, book 3 October 2010, etc. They won't show up in order in Calibre but they will on your Kindle. It seems to sort by publication date just fine.


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## Bonbonlover (Oct 17, 2010)

I do what Whidbeyisladgirl said... I change the publication date. The collections appear in order


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## RiddleMeThis (Sep 15, 2009)

Yep. I too change the publication date and they show in order. Assuming of course I don't mess them up!


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## chilady1 (Jun 9, 2009)

axman said:


> So I just got a brand new Kindle this past Saturday and I love it so far. I also am really enjoying the usefulness of Calibre in organizing my books. The only problem I am having is editing my series so that appear in order on my Kindle.
> 
> I know that Kindle has no built in functionality for series and that really the only way is to put the books series number in the title. I have no problem doing it this way, but I'm getting some wonky results.
> 
> ...


I use to use the method of changing the publication date, however, I did come across a receipe over at MobileRead that can be used in conjunction with Calibre. Once you add this receipe the books load onto your Kindle in series order. This has been a huge timesaver for me. I can post instructions and the receipe for you when I get home.


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## chilady1 (Jun 9, 2009)

Here's the thread that I stumbled across and was able to use for ordering books in series.

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106011&highlight=calibre+series+order

I specifically use the following tweak by Dopedangel's for sending books to device through Calibre. This is what I am using:

*{author[0]}/{authors}/{series}/{series_index:0>2s}. {title} *

By using this in Calibre, when I send books to my Kindle, my series now looks like this:

Casa Dracula (this is the current series I am reading)

Casa Dracula - 01 - Happy Hour at Casa Dracula
Casa Dracula - 02 - Midnight Brunch
Casa Dracula - 03 - The Bride of Casa Dracula
Casa Dracula - 04 - Haunted Honeymoon

This was all done via Calibre and the above tweak. I no longer have to change any metadata (i.e., publishing date) to make them appear in order. Once this tweak is added - that's it. You never have to change it unless you want to change the appearance of how the books are ordered or delete it altogether.

Once I added these 4 books to Calibre, I edited the metadata including giving the books the series name and their respective book number (1,2,3, etc - assuming you know how to do this in Calibre). Upon sending to Calibre, the above is how these books show up once I create a Collection on the Kindle (you still have to create the collection, although someone on Mobilereads did create a plugin to do Collections within Calibre, that's another post)

Good luck and hope this helps.


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