FanFicFare

FanFicFare is a tool for downloading fanfiction and original stories from various sites into ebook form.

FanFicFare is the rename and move of the FanFictionDownLoader (AKA FFDL, AKA fanficdownloader) project.

Main Features of FanFicFare

Download fanfiction stories from various sites into ebooks.

See SupportedSites for the list of supported sites.

Create various ebook formats.

Currently supported formats are:

• epub (the preferred open standard used by most readers)
• mobi (older Kindles--mobi output is not recommended, download epub and convert to AWZ3 for modern Kindles)
• html
• txt

calibre plugin version

The calibre plugin version is the most featured version. It can be obtained from within calibre itself, or in the Mobile Read FanFicFare plugin forum.

Additional features of the calibre plugin

• Runs within calibre on Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Download in the background for user convenience.
• Update/Overwrite existing fanfiction stories from story URL in calibre identity field or epub.
• Update calibre metadata from website.
• Option to delete other formats on book update. Handy if you have both a Nook(epub) and Kindle(mobi), for example.
• Get original URLs from fanfiction stories in your library.
• Update Reading List plugin lists as an aid to device sync and keeping a list of new books to read. Requires Reading List plugin 1.4.1 or newer to use. See PluginWithReadingList.
• Update calibre custom columns with story metadata.

Web service version

Important Notice about Web Service Version

Starting Nov 30 2019, Google would only allow me to update the web service if I give them a way to bill me for 'building' the app.

And once they have a way to bill me, they will charge when the service goes past the free limit unless manually turned off each time or more draconian scaling settings are used:

If you are currently relying on the free tier as a cost control mechanism, you will need to make a configuration change to maintain the current behavior. You must set a Cloud Budget Alert and manually shut off your app, or set the max_instances setting to 1 in app.yaml to never go above the free tier.

On Friday Nov 15, 2019, I uploaded the new version with the max_instances:1 setting recommended. The service has been 'Over Quota' every time I've looked since then.

I maintain FanFicFare as a hobby and for my own use. When I inherited the project from the original developer (Roman Kirillov), it already had the web service running on Google App Engine associated with it.

I continued to support the web service in recent years as a legacy for the users who can't run the CLI or Calibre versions. But I'm not interested in spending my money on it, or dealing with the accounting and possible tax implications of collecting donations to run it.

I plan to continue maintaining the Calibre Plugin and Python CLI versions of FanFicFare. But at this point, I'm shutting down the web service.

If you are interested in possibly taking over or creating your own web service, please join the conversation at the FanFicFare Google Group.

Command Line Interface (CLI) version

Rather being delivered as a zip file with dependencies included, FanFicFare is now delivered as a proper pip Python package. It's been tested on Python 2.7 and 3.6 and higher.

pip install FanFicFare

or

pip install --upgrade FanFicFare

...to update.

(pip will automatically install dependencies beautifulsoup4, html5lib, chardet and six.)

Run fanficfare -h from command-line.

Additional features of the CLI

• -u or --update-epub option will add new chapters to existing epubs.
• Config changes can be saved in ./personal.ini or ~/.fanficfare/personal.ini.
• Can be configured to not overwrite files newer than the last story update.
• Update existing epub format ebooks, downloading only new chapters.

AutomatedFanfic for FanFicFare CLI

MrTyton has created a program called AutomatedFanfic to integrate FanFicFare CLI with Calibre's CLI to perform automated fanfiction updates.