First, if you haven’t done so yet, go read thefourthvine’s [Rant]: Professional Writers vs. The People Who Love Their Work, Round Umpty-Snout, which is the most awesomest comeback I’ve read so far.
Second, OMG, I "finished" the first draft for the Anna AU monsterfic-from-Hell yesterday! 80,000 words in so far, and that’s before revisions. *gulps*
Third, I figured out the best way (for me) to format and download fic onto my eReader, which I want to share in case someone else might find it useful (note: so far, I’ve only downloaded from AO3, and still have to try out the method for other archives/formats*).
I’m using the PDF format, since that seems to work well enough with the reader, and I can handle it like any other file.
To create PDFs that fit well on the reader, I use Cute PDF Writer, but this should work with any Print-to-PDF software.
- Create a new, custom-sized form (Go to Control Panel** -> Printers and Faxes. Choose Server Properties from the File menu). In my case, 85×115 mm works perfectly; your screen may be different.
- Set the print form you created as the standard form for Cute PDF Writer: Go to Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes. Right-click on Cute PDF Writer -> Preferences for printing -> Advanced -> Paper size, and choose the one you created.
- Next, the fun part: find the story you want on AO3, and make sure you select View entire work.
- In your browser, go to Print preview, set all margins to 0, and zoom level to 80% (note: this gives me a pleasantly sized font format that works well without resizing — and thus reflowing the document on my reader. It’s eReader and user dependent what works best for you, so experiment a bit….)