How to add Kindle books

Can I add my KIndle books? And, if I can, how to “batch add” Kindle books?

Hi @rsandberg , thank you for your question! You have to first place the Kindle book files on your computer, in a folder. When done, scan that folder with the Book Collector software.
See: Add Book Files - Book Collector for Windows - V19

Important: Not all Kindle files are supported anymore. We’ve found the following after a couple of users sent us their AZW files (technical name for the Kindle files). AZW files are basically “MOBI” files that contain a header with the information (author/title etc.) which a program can read out. Some can still be read, others seem to be protected, meaning our software can’t read them anymore.

For books that are no longer automatically ‘found’ by the filescanner of Book Collector as mentioned in the manual page above, add them using an author-title search, then just change the format to kindle.

CLZ_AJ, thanks for your detailed answer to my question. I’ll keep trying.

Hello CLZ_AJ,

I have three Collectorz accounts - CLZ Books, Book Connect, and Book Collector for Windows - see attached screenshot.

It is confusing to know where to go for support.

Apparently from your response, Collectorz has not updated any of these 3 apps to be able to batch import all Kindle books - not just some Kindle versions. I’m surprised all the Collectorz apps have has not updated them to batch-import all Kindle books regardless of Kindle version. Do you know if there will be an update to the Collectorz apps that will allow this? Adding all 2,800 of my Kindle books one-by-one is an unpleasant task to contemplate doing and let alone do.

I appreciate the help/advice you can give.

Regards,
Robert

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Screenshot of my accounts.

I found a Chrome extension “Kindle Book List Exporter.” With this extension I can download all my Kindle books. Here is the description of the extension:

Export the list of books in your Kindle library as a spreadsheet with 1 click

You’ll get a spreadsheet with these info about all your books:

  • ASIN (Amazon ID)
  • Title
  • Author(s)

The file format is csv, which can be opened easily in Excel or Google Sheet.

Can any of my 3 Collectorz apps import from an Excel spreadsheet?

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Here is what my exported Kindle Book list looks like in Excel.

I’m not sure, but I don’t think it’s possible to import a list of your Kindle books. Also I’m not sure why you’re using 3 CLZ programs. I only use Book Connect, the online version. I can do anything I need to do with it. I can access it on any of my devices as long as I can connect to the Internet. The only other CLZ app I use is the barcode scanner. I have it on my iPhone and scan ISBN numbers that can be uploaded almost immediately into my Book Connect on my iPad or MacBook. I started out with desktop version and the CLZ app, but converted to Book Connect which basically replaces or combines the two.
Interesting parallels in our careers. I was a classroom teacher for a few years. The added a Masters in Media and was a Media Specialist 33 years. Retired and was immediately rehired 49% (thing we do in Georgia) and worked 3 more years in technology. Finally retired completely after 43 years. I also was an adjunct teacher at a tech school for 10. I taught computer classes at night after working all day. Been retired over 10 years and do volunteer work now.

Book Connect (the web-app) is the best way to go to import a CSV.

  1. Go to Online book database software » Book Connect and log in.
  2. Click the menu top left and select “Import Data”.
  3. Choose “CSV/TXT”
  4. Follow the instructions on screen to import your existing list of items.

I recommend to IGNORE the ASIN field, and make sure to MATCH your Title field and your Author field to our Title and Author fields so the data comes in the right place!

  1. After importing, you have to Link Books which can be done after importing - bit of work, but you will get there in the end.

Link Books can be done from the message you get after importing, or from the menu top left in Book Connect.

Once done, sync on your mobile app and your Windows version to get all books there.

We currently are not planning a Kindle batch import - but if it’s easier to do (looking at that extension) we might be able to put it on the planning to look into it once again. Thank you.

I happy to report thatI have have successfully imported all 1,282 of my KIndle books using Book Connect. I used the free Chrome extension, Kindle Book List Exporter to export to a CSV file, opened the exported file in Excel. Then I deleted the ASIN column, and saved the Excel file as a CSV file. I followed CLZ_AJ’s instructions (see above) for importing a CSV file in Book Connect. You will see in the attached screenshot (bottom left) of the imported Kindle books that that before importing I created a new Collection named Kindle-RAS. I created the new collection so that in case something went wrong with the import I could redo it. After linking in Book Connect, more than half the Kindle books got cover photos and ISBN numbers. It will be a fairly simple task to add covers and ISBNs to those Kindle books that did not get ISBNs and covers when linking. Many thanks to CLZ_AJ and the creator of the KIndle Book List Extension for making it possible to import of all my 1,282 Kindle books into my Book Connect account.

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Awesome! I’ll take note of the Chrome Extension “Kindle Book List Exporter” - that might come in handy for future support questions!

Or perhaps we can even look into our own Kindle importer… what do you think @CLZ_Stijn ?

Yes, CLZ_A glad you agree. Thanks again for your help; I could not have completed the import without your help. Best of luck creating your own Kindle importer!