BookDrop lets you copy ebooks from your Dropbox cloud to your Kindle gadget or app via email.
That includes even ePub books and those in other formats that normally won’t fly.
How-tos and more details are here.
No magic, just a Web-browser tweak and a related service. BookDrop adds a browser bookmark and creates its own subdirectory within Dropbox. Into it you can import ebooks from other regions of your drive. Or you can do the reverse and use Dropbox commands to export to the book-drop subdirectory within /Apps.
BookDrop works with “any .epub, .mobi, .pdf, .azw, .cbr, .cbz, .txt, .rif, .doc, .docx, .htm, .html, .gif, .png, .bmp, .jpg” or .jpeg file.
The quality, once non-Bezos-blessed formats are Kindle-ized, will not be top-notch in all cases.
And you’ll won’t enjoy the typographical control that you do with the Calibre ebook manager so dear to us at TeleRead.
But then again you could always feed BookDrop some files already-tweaked in ePub, with features such as all-text bolding. As an aside, all-text bolding is a handier capability than ever for Calibre. Even Amazon’s top-of-the-line Voyage and the new third-generation Kindle Paperwhite need more contrast between text and background, at least in my opinion, based on screenshots I’ve seen online.
Supported formats for BookDrop include “.epub, .mobi, .pdf, .azw, .cbr, .cbz, .txt, .rtf, .doc, .docx, .htm, .html, .gif, .png, .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg.” As expected, BookDrop can’t convert DRM-tainted files.
Please remember that since the files are emailed, they won’t show up on your Kindle immediately. Also, you’ll need to make sure your WiFi or other connection is on. It’ll might also help to use the “Sync and check for new items” command or the equivalent.
Needless to say, you’ll be the mercy of your Internet connection. I have a 100-Mbps connection, so this wasn’t as much of a factor as it might be for others.
Speaking of speed, I don’t know if there are any limits on the rate at which you can transfer books from Dropbox to your Kindle. But if not, or if the limits aren’t so bad, this might be one way around the annoying restrictions that you may be up against at some major e-mail services, due to their anti-spam precautions.
What’s more, BookDrop could be a useful stopgap while you’re working out the complexities of other transfer methods.
Plus, you can use BookDrop to share files with friends within the limits of copyright laws.
BookDrop is supported via voluntary donations.
So what do you think, gang? Give BookDrop a try and let me know if you see possibilities here. I do.
The Dream Team: What if Calibre and BookDrop teamed up to make BookDrop an integral part of the former? Perhaps Calibre would focus on the conversion and BookDrop on the transfer. If nothing else, it would be wonderful if BookDrop worked with an existing Dropbox folder that Calibre used. Book by book, you could specify which ones were destined for your Kindle—or select them all.
Detail: No, BookDrop won’t work with the Kindle’s own browser. You need to use your desktop, tablet or other device.
Regarding the idea of Calibre and BookDrop teaming up, I think that would be splendid.
Calibre has a built in server that will dynamically build and serve OPDS and HTML catalogs usable by many eReaders directly or indirectly. The catch is that you’ll need a static IP address and, to help with discovery, ease of use etc., a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). For example, my demo Calibre book server may be reached with the following addresses:
HTTP (desktop): http://grumpy.gcsu.edu:8080
HTTP (mobile): http://grumpy.gcsu.edu:8080/mobile
OPDS: http://grumpy.gcsu.edu:8080/opds/
NOTE that Calibre now supports the *.ibooks format – a little known feature added recently.
This is my desktop computer at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia (Flannery O’Connor’s alma mater).
Most home computers get their IP addresses assigned randomly and are behind NAT barriers so don’t make good servers. This fact of life has driven the search for ways to use services such as DropBox as personal servers. For example, there is the app called “calibre2opds” which generates OPDS and HTML catalogs from your Calibre database for DropBox dissemination. This works well but isn’t dynamic. You have to re-create those catalogs every time you want to update what your audience will have available to them.
So, yes, the time is ripe for extending the Calibre library via DropBox and other cloud services.
One caveat, though. DropBox has been deleting the accounts of persons accused of disseminating copyrighted works using calibre2opds. I have no idea as to whether DropBox has and follows any due process procedures or whether they assume guilt upon receipt of a claim. That’s an important factor to consider.
@Frank: So happy to see someone else rooting for the Calibre-BookDrop collaboration! You know what really drove me to BookDrop? The recent hassles of using Google and other major email services to send to Calibre. I suppose there are workarounds. But BookDrop is a nice fix. Additional thoughts welcome from you and others on the email issue! Meanwhile congrats on the good work you’re doing with your demo Calibre book server! Worked fine when I downloaded your brief history of computers.
David
Worked for me for a PDF but I’ve tried several EPUBs unsuccessfully.
Thanks for the info, Gary. I used ePub from Calibre. Here’s something to try. Even though your test files are already in ePub, run ePub conversions on them. Do not feed “original ePub” into BookDrop. Please tell us if the reprocessed ePub will work. If that doesn’t do the trick for you, perhaps someone else will have ideas. So might BookDrop’s developer. Let’s see if this problem is solvable for you.