Fan Fiction: Useful Resources & Organization

Useful Resources For:
...downloading, formatting, converting, and organizing your fan fiction...

Fan Fiction Downloaders: 

• Fan Fiction Downloader - (Windows) - One of the most widely used and popular fan fiction downloaders on the 'net. It works with several sites including fan fiction (dot) net, archive of our own, hpfandom, and many more.
• DownloadStory - (Mac) - Another popular program that works with Mac OS. It works with several sites including portkey (dot) org, the wonderful world of makebelieve, and many more.
• Graffer - (Windows) - A newer downloader that is gaining in popularity and usability. It works with several sites including all the silver snitch archives, fiction press (dot) com, twilighted (dot) net, and many more.
• Fan Fiction Downloader On Google - (Online) - not the same as FFD above - An online app that uses your google account to download fan fiction.
• Squee!Book - (Online) - An easy to use website that allows you to download stories from livejournal, dreamwidth, and more.
• Scrapbook Plus - (Add-On) - Firefox - an easy to use Firefox add-on that allows you to download, save, and sort you fan fiction into folders and sub-folders. Easy to back-up and restore.
• Read It Later - (App) - Multi-Use For iPod/iPhone/iPad/Firefox, etc. - an app. that is somewhat similar to the delicious bookmarking site with the exception that it archives a copy for later and allows you to read it off-line. Apparently has paid features that you can use as well.
• Instapaper - (Bookmarklet; App) - A useful bookmarklet/app that allows you to bookmark sites and read them later; you can add them to your iDevice, e-reader, or use the bookmarklet to read them in text format on your computer. The downside is that if the site requires you to log-in, this app won't work. Paid features are available.

Formatting:

• E-Book Formatting Tutorial - by amothea - This is one of the quickest and easiest tutorials I've found; it includes information about e-book formats, info about programs you might need, and links to other useful sites.
• sigil - (Program) - E-Book Editor - A multi-platform WYSIWYG ebook editor. It is designed to edit books in ePub format.
• Readability - (Script/Bookmarklet) - A simple tool that makes reading on the web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you're read. This is a great tool for those of you who want to clean up a web page before saving it in 'Read It Later', 'Scrapbook Plus', or on your computer to convert later. 
• Google Docs - (Online) - Though usually used for e-mail purposes, Google Docs is an excellent WYSIWYG document editor.

I haven't found many useful formatting tutorials that focus solely on formatting - many of them stray into areas that are either too advanced for the everyday user or concentrate more on the program that converts the file than the actual formatting of the file. I'll add more as I find them, however, and hopefully suss out which are useful and which are not.


Converting:

• Calibre - (Program) - Converts and Organizes - a popular e-book converter that allows you to format your e-book, choose the file format, add table of contents, book covers, and much more. Highly recommended.
• Squee!Book - (Online) - Converts - an easy to use online website that converts individual stories; allows you to add book covers and converts to limited formats.
• BookCreator Tool - (Program) - Converts - converts documents (Microsoft Word 2003-2007) to LRF/MOBI/EPUB. Works with Calibre, if you want.
• Convert Word Docs to HTML - (Online) - Converts - simple site that converts word docs to clean html.
• ePub Creation on Mac - (Program) - by kannnichtfranz  - Converts - a .pdf - .epub service for Mac.
• eBook Hood - (online) - a simple online website that allows you to convert your docs for your iPod, PDA, or Mobile Phone. Only .rtf and .txt documents accepted.
• 2EPUB - (Online) - Converts -  mostly powered by Calibre, you can upload one file type and download it in another format.  (input: doc, epub, fb2, html, lit, lrf, mobi, odt, pdb, pdf, prc, rtf, txt. -- output: epub, fb2, lit, lrf, mobi.)
• eReader Software - (Program) - Converts - usable for multiple devices including a variety of smartphones, this site has various program options that allow you to convert simple files into .pdb format.
• Zamzar - (Online) - Converts - an online converter that will convert to a variety of formats; works with your e-mail and the free version only allows you to convert files up to 100MBs.
• Google Docs - (Online) - Converts - able to export in .pdf or .rtf, this is a great basic converter that can double as a document editor or, if you want, additional storage for your fan fiction.

Please note that many fan fiction downloaders (including some of the ones listed in the FFD section above) can double as a very basic converter. There are also many sites available via google search that allow you to convert files to specific formats for free as well as several newer word processors that allow you to choose what type of file you'd like to save your document as (i.e. .rtf, .html, etc.).

Organization:

• Calibre - (Program) - E-Book Library Manager - a popular e-book library managers that allows you to edit meta information, use tags, and further organize your e-book library.
• Adobe: Digital Editions - (Program) - E-Book Library Reader - an e-book library manager that allows you to annotate pages and transfer e-books from one computer/device to another.
• Read It Later - (App) - Multi-Use For iPod/iPhone/iPad/Firefox, etc. - an app. that is somewhat similar to the delicious bookmarking site with the exception that it archives a copy for later and allows you to read it off-line. Apparently has paid features that you can use as well.
• Zotero - (App) - Plugin for Firefox - Helps you collect, manage, cite, and share your research sources. Designed for research, this plugin should work well for e-books as it allows you to group, add notes, sort by categories, and more.
• Scrapbook Plus - (Add-On) - Firefox - an easy to use Firefox add-on that allows you to download, save, and sort you fan fiction into folders and sub-folders. Easy to back-up and restore.

There is also the option to use your own file managing system or using the e-book library that comes with your e-reader (if you have one).


Other Useful Sites & Programs:

• Mobile Reads - an excellent site for information about pretty anything you could think of in terms of e-books, formatting, and more. 
• Delicious Bookmarking - a social bookmarking site that allows you to bookmark links for later, tag and organize links, and share links with others. Highly Recommended.
• Portable Apps - a fantastic website that has a variety of portable apps for use on any windows computer.
• WOWIO - great site for free e-books and comics that aren't necessarily mainstream.
• We Make Zines - an online community for zine makers and readers. This isn't necessarily fan fiction related, however, it does boast a large community with plenty of information for those of you who want to build your own zine.
• LJBook - an interesting site dedicated towards extracting all entries from your livejournal, deadjournal, or insanejournal and turning them into a ready-to-print PDF document that you can save or turn into an actual print-book.