One of the benefits of owning a Kindle, is the deep and vast ecosystem that Amazon provides. They have one of the largest digital bookstores in the world, thanks to their agreements with almost every publisher, in addition to their self-publishing system, Kindle Direct Publishing. Sometimes, users will want to sideload in their own books via a PC or MAC. The vast majority of people simply use Windows Explorer or File Manager, but there is also some better options out there.
Calibre is a free ebook management program that is available for PC, MAC, LINUX and Android. You can easily use this program to import books into your library and send them to your Kindle. There is also advanced tools that will fetch cover art and also get metadata from Amazon, Google and other providers. This tool is really useful because it will preserve ebook cover art, so when it is loaded on your Kindle, you will also see the cover art, using other methods, cover art will not normally show up. To get started with Calibre, simply download it HERE. Plugin your Kindle to your computer or laptop with the USB cable. Select the DRM-Free book that is on your computer and you will then see the cover art, a description of the book and what format it is in.
Most of the time, when you download books from the internet, they are seldom available in a Kindle friendly format. The most popular one out there is EPUB, which you can’t sideload on your Kindle, since it cannot read the file. So you will have to convert it from one format to another, I would recommend AZW, since it can take advantage of most of Amazons new typography. You can simply right click on the book and select convert, and from the dropdown select the outgoing format. Once this is done you can click on the Send to Kindle button on the top navigation bar and it will automatically send to the e-reader.
Another tool is metadata. This is useful if a book cover art is not attached to the book you downloaded or if it has bad metadata. An example of bad metadata is when the authors name and title of the book is in the same field. This can create problems when you want to search for the author name or the book name, using the search function on the Kindle. To fix that, just import the book into Calibre and right click and select change metadata. You can then manually write in the authors name in the author filed and the book name in the book field and then fetch new metadata and it will give you a few difference source options. Once this is done you can send to to your Kindle directly.
Send to Kindle for PC and MAC are too popular tools to send over documents to books to your Kindle. Starting in August, Amazon will let you send EPUB files using this program and convert them on the fly to a Kindle friendly format. This all happens automatically during the conversion process. In the meantime, you can use this program to send over books to your Kindle. Once you download the app you will have to login using your Amazon login and password. If you have multiple Kindles, apps and other things in your account, just select the one you are using. Import the book and then just click send, and it will use Amazons servers to send the book over. This will only work with books in an Amazon friendly DRM-Free format, such as MOBI, AZW etc.
Send to Kindle for email is also a very useful tool. When you are at school or work and want to email a book to Kindle, this is possible. You can use dedicated clients such as Outlook or even your work email, GMAIL, YAHOO! or whatever you want. All Kindles have a dedicated email address associated on your Amazon account. You can then use this address and attach books to your email client and they will get automatically send to your Kindle. How do you find your Kindle email address? Login to your Amazon account and click on My Account. You will see a header called “Digital content and devices” and select Content and Devices. Click on Devices and it will list all of the Kindle devices associated with your account. I have one Kindle, so I select that and a dropdown appears and says Michaels Kindle. If you click on the blue hyperlinked text on your name it will bring you to another page. The first one is your email and it will have a random alphanumeric user name and @kindle.com. Simply copy and paste that email to your client and attach a book, and it will automatically get sent over. This will only work if the book you are sending is in a Kindle friendly format, such as MOBI, AZW etc.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
