Tools for Podcasts, Audiobooks, and EPubs

[volkameria]

This is a tutorial and recommended tool list for managing podcasts, audiobooks, and Ebooks. I hope you all get some use out of these! If you have any additional questions, comments, or recommendations, please let me know.

EBooks
EBooks are best stored as an .epub; it's the smallest type of file and is native to all e-readers. You may see filetypes like .kepub (Kobo Epub) or .azw/azw3 (Amazon... something or other), but these are proprietary and not guaranteed to work on all devices. .epubs is one of the options for downloading fics on AO3 as well; bedes has a great mass AO3 downloaded linked on their resource post! .epubs do require applications designed to open them, though, so they're not as plug and play as a .pdf is.

I highly recommend Calibre for organizing all of those .epubs. There are several plugins available for Calibre that will also strip DRM from books purchased from Amazon or Kobo; while I won't provide any links here, DuckDuckGo/Reddit can point you in the right direction if you're so inclined.

Podcasts
My ride or die tool here is podcast-dl. It works with any RSS feed for a podcast, so if you have access to one from Patreon or a free feed, you can paste it in. Pretty much any podcast on an app or Spotify will have an RSS feed *somewhere*, so hunt around for one. This is a command line tool, but it has great documentation. It even has options for autofilling with the correct metadata, so you don't have to do anything after the fact!

The instructions provided on the github are for people who have cloned the branch locally and have already set up npm/node. If you go to the Releases tab, there's also an option for running this via a Windows executable (.exe) file; instructions for doing this are below.

Windows Instructions:

1. Open your command prompt and navigate to the folder you have the tool stored in. In my case, it's in /Users/<logged_in_user>/Downloads/Tools. So, type in "cd C:\path\to\folder", where path to folder is wherever the executable file is.
2. Write out the full .exe name, and any additional flags you want to include. This would look like "podcast-dl-9.3.4-win-x64.exe --after 12/01/2024 --url https://pinecast.com/feed/pretending-to-be-people". The only things you really need are the --url flag, a valid .rss file or link, and the executable, but you can specify any sort of date range, metadata download, etc. from the documentation on the github!

Audiobooks
Amazon will pull audiobooks from your library even if you've purchased them; this has happened with multiple books I've bought on Audible. To strip DRM from Audible books and have a local copy, I recommend Libation - this is also a management tool for updating tags and sorting everything on your machine. It has a UI and extensive documentation, so no command line knowledge or code knowledge is required for this!

Comments

[toothpastepancake]

Thanks so much for this!

[biteshelter]

Downloading podcasts by RSS feed is a great idea! I usually use yt-dlp, but I never thought of checking for RSS feed support. I found this example for archiving a podcast with it, so maybe that's a good alternative for people familiar with yt-dlp options.

I love Calibre for fic organizing. I use the plugin FanFicFare to download fics, plus Reading List to track them. I don't think it's as good for bulk downloading as AO3 Downloader, but it's really nice for downloading new chapters into fics you already have.

[volkameria]

Oh dang, I'd never thought of using yt-dlp for podcasts - that's a great callout! Pretty much everything I listen to is RSS only/doesn't have a visual component. But that looks like it could come in handy, especially for song remixes on Youtube that aren't uploaded elsewhere. Thanks for sharing!

And thank you for the plugin recs! Reading List is lovely, and being able to easily update in progress fics sounds wonderful.
(Also, shameless plug for mobileread.com/forums - their site is one of the best for managing the technical side of ebooks and ereaders of all types. I used them to set up my Kobo with additional developer options - 10/10 would recommend.)

[volkameria]

Of course, and thank you for creating this community in the first place!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm wondering if anyone else watches for link clouds or archives of ebooks:

Free Survival Books

Free Self-Help Workbooks

I love things like this because some have dozens or hundreds of titles -- basically a library section on their chosen topic. <3

Re: Thoughts

[volkameria]

I am so sorry, this reply is woefully late!

This is definitely a blind spot on my datahoarding strategy. Thank you for posting those links, both of those are subjects I'm hoarding lots of material on! If this is something you pay attention to, I would for sure encourage a post on how to find these/any particular archives you like.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I am so sorry, this reply is woefully late! <<

That's okay.

>> This is definitely a blind spot on my datahoarding strategy. Thank you for posting those links, both of those are subjects I'm hoarding lots of material on! <<

Yay! I hope by mentioning it, I can encourage more people to share websites that have large archives of material, from books like these to independent fanwork sites or authors like me who post a lot of their original work online.

>>If this is something you pay attention to, I would for sure encourage a post on how to find these/any particular archives you like.<<

I would if I could. Sadly, my account is jammed so I can't subscribe to anything new at present, and the community seems to allow posts from members only. But if someone else posts, I can reply. I keep hoping that someone will start regular posts where people can comment with resources they have found.

Re: Thoughts

[volkameria]

Oh that stinks! I'm a member so I'll get something started. I've been meaning to make a post about manga archival tools, or how to utilize Google dorking/github search to find things, but have not prioritized doing so.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I'm a member so I'll get something started.<<

Yay!

>> I've been meaning to make a post about manga archival tools,<<

That would be a great post. You could crosspost it on the manga communities, like anime_manga, which might attract more people back here if you cite this as the origin.

>> or how to utilize Google dorking/github search to find things, but have not prioritized doing so.<<

Also good.

Worth noting, Git and GitHub appear in the FujoGuide. That's a great resource for folks who want to make a website to enable their own or other people's datahoarding.