I've made my e-Books and it's time to name
them.
How should I do it?
Is there a naming standard?
What information should I include in the name?
Even though some people would like there to be a
naming convention, there are far too many different ideas of what
would be "best". The general consensus is that the full title
of the book and the name of the author at least should be
included.
There are others would like all of the above, AND the original
publishing date to be included inside of the file as
well.
That way, if there are different published/amended published
versions (like with technical manuals) the potential downloader
would know whether or not they were interested in downloading the
file or not. Please keep in mind that there are *many* users that
still pay for their access *by the minute* in some
countries, and would be sorely disappointed if they blew their
hard-earned money on something that they might have already
had.
Including all of these key words in the subject
line will help people decide whether or not they want your
post.
One possible format would be something like:
ie: [$$$]Author_-_title(ver.formats).$$$
eg: [NEW]_Orwell_George_-_Animal_Farm(v1.0(htm).zip
(underscores, spaces, or no spaces are at your discretion. There
have been various opinions on the subject depending on platform and
software being used but nothing definitive yet).
Additional things to consider
There are certain "flags" that are strongly
suggested that you use to label your books. These flags would
ensure that those parties who are not interested in your post would
be able to set their Kill-filters to ignore them.
[New] - This would be used to indicate that your post is a
[New] one, i.e. to your knowledge it has not been
scanned/posted before.
[Repost] - This would be used to indicate
that you are [Repost]ing something that has been posted to
the group previously, but you are replying to a REQ, or simply
think that there might be some level of interest in it. (i.e. a
"high demand" book)
If the version number is being
incremented by 0.1 due to proofing/corrections, you would again use
the [New] indicator.
[Technical] - This would indicate that your post is [Technical] in nature (like computer manuals, user guides, etc.) and is not to be considered a [Fiction] or [Non-Fiction] novel/book.
[Script] - Though technically not a book, there may be some interest in these, and thus this would and *should* be used to indicate that your post is a film or stageplay [Script] and is not a [Fiction] or [Non-Fiction] book that may have the same name.
[Fiction] - Self explanatory
[Non-Fiction] - Self explanatory
Including a version number, will help in comparing this post with previous copy downloaded. This will also hopefully remind others that proofreading and reposting is always appreciated.
If you are posting a multi-book set it can be nice
to prefix the title with 01, 02, 03, etc so that readers know the
order of the series. eg:
Orson Scott Card - Tales of Alvin Maker 01 - Seventh Son.zip
Orson Scott Card - Tales of Alvin Maker 02 - Red Prophet.zip
Note that everything prior to the numbering is identical so that
an alphabetical sort correctly orders the books.
Also keep in mind that non-MS-Windows platforms, especially the Mac, do not have the same long filename features that MS-Windows and other OS users have become accustomed to. There's been some discussion that it would be best to put the same information used in naming the file, *INSIDE* of the file itself. This is a very good idea actually, and it is fully recommended. You may find sorting the newsgroup by Author a good way to keep files posted by Mac users in more organized fashion.
There is no single answer, but at least put the author name and the title of the book in the name of the file. That way everybody has all of the information necessary to rename their e-Books as they wish.