How to import a ton of Kindle books?

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How to import a ton of Kindle books?

1Chellb
Editado: Mar 31, 2013, 5:28 pm

I've already spent untold hours trying to accomplish this, but perhaps there is an easier way. I have near 6000 kindle books I want to import.

I have tried importing by way of the .tsv file from Shelfari, but it cut off much of the author name once they were imported. Some had the first name, but I don't know if any of them had the last name.

I deleted all those and followed the step by step instructions on adding and importing books from Amazon -- http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Adding_and_importing_books. First I tried the order history option, but that only showed 15 items per page (6000 / 15 = 400) so I tried the Amazon media library option. Everything happened just as the directions said until I uploaded it, then it told me there were no books. I tried again and it only added the 30 paper books I have, not the kindle books.

So I deleted those and tried just making a .csv file (I don't know what I'm doing here, so I could have chosen a wrong option) I only tried to save a few things- title, author, tags, maybe a couple more, but that didn't work either. It acted like the books were there,(my number in Your Books changed) but there was no information-- title, author name, etc. were all blank for each line in my kindle collection.

I think the first way (Shelfari) is my best result so far, so maybe I will have to go back and do it that way and just add covers and last names for 6000 books one by one. But I would really rather not have to add all those names. Is there any easier way? Please, Please someone tell me there is an easier way. Please.

Edited to add: the words"from Amazon" to the third paragraph.

2rsterling
Mar 31, 2013, 8:56 pm

At that page you link, look carefully at the instructions for importing via CSV. You are likely going to have to change the headings for your columns and double-check the formatting of your data to make sure it's exactly right. For a quick overview, see what I wrote in this other thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/148423#3841581

Import from Amazon media library won't work because Amazon doesn't assign ISBNs to Kindle books, and ISBNs are what LT would use for importing from Amazon pages.

You can use "power edit" in your catalog to delete all the blank records.

3Chellb
Mar 31, 2013, 10:08 pm

Thank you so much for your reply. That thread looks like it will be really helpful. I have starred it for lengthy perusal some time when my brain is not already fried. The chances of me getting the formatting "exactly right" are slim to none. I actually just re-imported and am waiting for all the books to show up in my library. It kept telling me there were no books and other errors, so I tried several times with several different formats. I hope I didn't just import 5 copies of my kindle books. The numbers are still increasing, so only time will tell.

Is this a good place for a follow up question? I have started trying to edit my book info (correcting the author, adding the cover, etc) and it shows corrected until I move away from the page and come back. Then it is right back to the wrong info. Am I doing something wrong, or does it take time to update, or what? I've tried both double clicking on the author field and clicking on the pencil with the same result.

Thanks.

4rsterling
Mar 31, 2013, 10:27 pm

Where are you editing it? In the catalog? On the book page?

If you're in the catalog (with the columns, etc.) then you need to click on the "save" button. If you're on the book's page, then you need to click on "save" (green check next to it).

Can you give a little bit more detail about where you are and what you're doing when it's not working?

5Chellb
Mar 31, 2013, 10:41 pm

I've tried it two different ways, both on the your books page. First, I changed it by double clicking the incorrect author name (it only showed his first name). A box popped up, I corrected it (last, first) clicked save. It showed corrected in the author column on Your Books. I clicked to home, then back to Your Books but his last name was gone. The cover I saved earlier is there, though.

So, I tried to click the pencil and correct it, (it was correct on that page) then went to edit Your Book -- it was correct there too, but I clicked the green save just to be sure. When I went back to your books the last name was not there.

6Chellb
Mar 31, 2013, 10:47 pm

Ooooh! I think this one may be user error! I tried refreshing and one of them changed, so I tried another one again, then refreshed and it was corrected too.

7Chellb
Mar 31, 2013, 11:37 pm

I take it back. It seems to work intermittently. I saved an author name(one I had already corrected), watched while it said saving, the name was corrected. Hit refresh and it was gone. I don't know why.

8.Monkey.
Abr 1, 2013, 4:50 am

Can you give us examples of the books doing this?

9Chellb
Abr 1, 2013, 9:15 am

It's all of them. Or at least most of them. Even the ones that worked only worked after multiple tries. I'd started going through all of my Kindle books in alphabetical order, adding last names and choosing cover photos, often grabbing the photos from the web.

Even the covers I'd grabbed didn't stay associated with my copy of the book. They were still there to choose from but no longer showing in the list on Your books, but they do show in the upper left corner of the edit your book page. I had assumed that if it was showing, then it was the chosen cover, but apparently not.

In answer to your question, here is one of the books I've had problems with: 100 Web Sites for Fiction Writers by Ty Johnston. Do you want me to list all of them?

I've gotten the covers to stick. Grabbing the image and seeing it change in the upper left of edit book is not enough. If I click save this cover, it seems to stay. At least so far.

The authors just won't stick. Out of the first 10 books I've done, maybe three of them worked without having to do multiple times, two worked after several tries, and the others still won't take the correct info.

When I click on edit this book (pencil), it already shows the correct name, when I click on edit your book, it already shows the correct name. When I double click the author column and change then save the name it corrects and shows the corrected name. But if I refresh, the wrong info comes back. I'm hoping this is just something I'm doing wrong, so you all can educate me and I can go happily editing books.

Correcting authors and changing and grabbing covers for several thousand books was already going to be daunting enough, having to do it over and over is more than a little annoying. I appreciate the help.

While I was writing this, I got to thinking about the three in a row that had worked. I think I entered all of those on the edit your book page, not the your books page. I tried another one and it worked. I don't know if it will stick. But, shouldn't it work on either page?

10Scorbet
Abr 1, 2013, 9:38 am

>9 Chellb:

To be honest it's a bit hard for us to help as your library is private - we have no way of seeing what you're seeing.

Where exactly on the page are you talking about when you say the name is correct/incorrect - the author name is shown in a few different places - at the top, in the box? If it's at the top of the work page, try clicking on "recalculate title/author". This forces a refresh of the work name/author as opposed to your book's name/author.

11Chellb
Abr 1, 2013, 10:42 am

The place where it is wrong is on what I consider to be the main Your Books page -- where I see a list of my books. The author column does not update, even though the info shows correctly when I click the pencil and also when I click edit your book(on the left above change cover). Since my last post, I have tried going to the edit your book page and deleting the author and saving it, then re-adding the author and saving it. This has sometimes been successful, sometimes not.

12Scorbet
Abr 1, 2013, 10:49 am

>11 Chellb:

As far as I know, the database is "slightly out of whack" at the moment, to quote one of the staff, and this might be your problem too - the changes are being registered, just not showing immediately. Maybe try leaving them for a bit, and seeing whether they come right on their own.

13Chellb
Abr 1, 2013, 11:04 am

Works for me. I'd rather read a book than edit my book list any day. I'll try a few more then give it a rest and see if time really does heal all.

14Chellb
Abr 1, 2013, 4:00 pm

Well, it is working. I have tested it out every which way (making the changes in different orders, using the pencil, double clicking the author box, hitting enter instead of save-- basically anything that I could think of to make it act like it was before. It all works! Must have been that "slightly out of whack" thing that Scorbet mentioned. Thank you all for your help. I feel like I might one day even finish organizing all these books!

15Martin.Stewart-Smith
Jul 7, 2019, 8:41 pm

Hello
I am a total newbie to LT but have a ton of Amazon Kindle books that I want to upload into my catalogue of books in LT. Is there an easy way to do this? As one bulk import?

thanks

Martin

164given2serve
Editado: mayo 11, 2020, 2:47 pm

I always wanted to import my kindle book list from Amazon as a bulk, but there wasn't any way to do it. Lately I found away of adding individual books to Goodreads with the help of a bookmarklet that I found here: (https://gist.github.com/lightningdb/cfee260c3b7af7e65fce).
With a little bit of modification I managed adding my list from my Amazon's Digital Orders. Open your purchased books in a new tab (right click on the title and open in a new tab) and click on the bookmarklet and you've added your book. The process is really quick.

To add the bookmarklet to your browser:

- copy the text (java-script code) in my next comment
- add a bookmark to your browser, and for the location, paste the text that you copied in the previous step (or just simply copy the text, grab it, and past it to your bookmarks bar)
- name the bookmark (edit and change the name)

Now the bookmarklet is installed. Anytime you want to add a book to your LibraryThing just open your book in Amazon then click on the bookmark and your book will be added to your library.

(See next comment for the text to be copied!)

174given2serve
mayo 10, 2020, 3:11 pm

javascript: var asin_elements, asin;
asin_elements = document.getElementsByName('ASIN');
if (asin_elements.length == 0) {
asin_elements = document.getElementsByName('ASIN.0');
};
if (asin_elements.length == 0) {
alert('Sorry, this doesn\'t appear to be an Amazon book page.');
} else {
asin = asin_elements0.value;
if (asin.match(/\D/) === null) {
var x = window.open('https://www.librarything.com/addbooks' + asin, 'add_review');
} else {
var x = window.open('https://www.librarything.com/addbooks?search=' + asin);
}
x.focus();
}

18BertsBooks
Mar 7, 2022, 9:42 pm

>17 4given2serve: Does this work for any Amazon site, or just amazon.com? And if the latter, is there a patch that'll make it work for others?