Doug’s Apple Scripts (http://dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php)

His site has hundreds of scripts that will do magic to iTunes tags.

The reason that downloadable books are in fewer files (often only one), is that
they are much easier to manage – users won’t get confused as they might if they
get a hundred files.

In general, Audible breaks files up every 8 hours or so. If a book is less than 8
hours, you’ll have a single file. The iTunes Store breaks them up every 3 hours
or so.

"As for non alpha-numeric characters, that’s no problem at all – does it
bother you that your computer replaces a : with a _? You see the names in
iTunes; why worry about what the file names are?"

Barbarossa:

I was experimenting with sorting out my Classical music files using slashes
and colons. Although these DO render properly in iTunes, the cannot be used
as such in Unix file names and get converted to underscores.

Learning this the hard way, I simply stopped using the period, colon and
slash in Titles, Albums and Artists to maintain a semblence of consistency.

BTW, have you ever seen what the CDDB does with info from Brazilian albums
that was entered from a Portuguese keyboard? There were some characters
there that I have NEVER seen before!

"Re the CDDB: Yes, it sucks. Well, sort of. It’s quite good for pop, jazz, rock,
etc, but terrible for classical music. As for audiobooks, most publishers don’t
bother to submit data, so you do have to tag by hand (which is why I mention
this in the article)."

Barbarossa:

I agree that the CDDB has gotten better, but tags for Books-on-CD ARE just
awful! If there is any info at all it is badly formatted or in the wrong column or
just wrong. When dealing with 10, or 15, or 22 CDs with hundreds and
hundreds of track fixing all this could be a daunting, if not mind numbing
exercise.

This is why I mentioned a "Clipboard Manager" such as ‘CopyPaste.’ I find this
app far more than useful – it is indispensible when fixing bad or missing data
on multiple tracks on multiple disks such as Audiobooks.

Further, once I completely correct a disk, I always submit the info to the
CDDB database – although where it goes after that, I dunno.

As for the redundant information, well that’s just me (after the original "CDDB
Info Disaster") but it means that Tracks CANNOT become disordered no
matter how they are listed.

I tried many times to fast forward or rewind on the first file just as I have
done with other files and it would only jump to the beginning or end of the
file. There looked to be a line or mark in the middle of the file. The other two
files did fast forward and rewind, but it was clumsy to control. This made me
feel that it is benificial to have shorter files. Also, to find your place when
going back. The book was an inspirational book, so I would naturally want to
play different passages over again. On the computer in iTunes, they were fine,
just a problem on my iPod.

Audiobooks I have gotten on CD are broken up into chapters, and so I was
shocked to see that this book was not. I wonder if it is an audible.com thing
since the file looked to be provided to iTunes from them. The download is
about $10 cheaper than buying the CD and I was happy to be able to
download and save the money. But the savings of $10 and convenience of
downloading are way negated by the lack of chapter breakdowns. I want to
purchase more audiobook downloads, but am too afraid to now – you don’t
get to see how the book will be broken up before purchasing.

Re the CDDB: Yes, it sucks. Well, sort of. It’s quite good for pop, jazz, rock,
etc, but terrible for classical music. As for audiobooks, most publishers don’t
bother to submit data, so you do have to tag by hand (which is why I mention
this in the article).

As for tag changing taking ten times as long after ripping, that’s an
exaggeration. It will take an extra couple of seconds, but no more. (Though if
you have a very slow computer, it could take a bit longer).

As for non alpha-numeric characters, that’s no problem at all – does it bother
you that your computer replaces a : with a _? You see the names in iTunes;
why worry about what the file names are?

As for "redundant information" so "nothing gets out of place", I don’t get it –
tags don’t just disappear; they are written in the files themselves. You may
want extra info, but I don’t see it as being necessary.

As for series, yes, if you want to keep track of them in order, using a date or
number is a good idea. Most people don’t do that, but I can see the point.

Also, I don’t see why you wanted to break up the files – there should have been
chapter breaks within them. (Granted, older books have less consistent chapter
breaks, but new ones are generally done correctly.)

This was a BIG mistake.

I found that the CDDB was full of Mis-information,
Mal-information, and Non-information, and it was only after I had
ripped some 1,200 albums did I discover that the Artist, Album,
and Track info on the mp3 tags was all screwed up.

I took me four years, on and off, to get that all straightened
out so now when I insert a CD it gets the info from the CDDB and
just STOPS. I then carefully examine and correct all the info
including Spelling, Punctuation, Capitalization, Dates, Names,
&c., making sure that every thing is in the right column.

I have seen Books-on-CD of 6 disks that looked like the
information was entered by five different people. I have seen
SINGLE disks that look like the info was entered by THREE
different people! It’s a mess!

Believe me, if you have a comma or space out of place you may
never see that track again.

Further it is always best to correct all the info BEFORE you
rip, as you will be simply correcting words on the screen. If you
try to correct mp3 or m4a tag info AFTER you rip you will be
correcting 3 or more levels of metadata, not to mention moving
files and folders around – it literally takes ten times as long,
no kidding!

Also, try not to use a period, colon, or slash [ . : / ] in
any Track, Album, or Artist name if you can avoid it, even if
that’s how it’s written. Your computer’s filing system may not
handle it correctly and will probably replace the offending
character with an underscore.

Back to chapters, and misinformation. Most properly formatted
audiobooks on CD will have "inaudible" chapter markers every
three minutes (on average, of course) giving 23 to 25 tracks per
70 to 80 minute disk. I find this a little high myself, but I use
it.

Some books on CD have no chapter marks at all giving you a
default of 99 tracks. This is deplorable, but can be corrected by
using the "Combine Tracks" feature on iTunes BEFORE you rip. I
usually reduce the 99 to 10, but the tracks must be renamed AFTER
the rip which as I mentioned above is a pain in the butt.

Some books, especially books that come as Mp3-CDs (already
ripped,) are divided into actual chapters as the exist in the
hardcover and last on average about 25 to 30 minutes. This is
highly variable, of course. Mp3 disks are more quickly added to
your iTunes library, but the info must be added, unfortunately,
afterwards.

Overall, it is best to have redundant information in the tags
so that nothing gets out of place, nor CAN anything get out of place:

List all ARTISTS tags by Author, last name first (just like in the
Library) – Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, or Tolkien, JRR, or Francis, Dick

List ALBUMS in a series with a prefix that groups and
self-orders the books –

Francis (1962) – Dead Cert
Francis (1965) – Odds Against
Francis (1969) – Enquiry
Francis (1972) – Smokescreen
&c., or

Sharpe 01 – Sharpe’s Tiger
Sharpe 02 – Sharpe’s Triumph
Sharpe 03 – Sharpe’s Fortress
Sharpe 04 – Sharpe’s Trafalgar

List ALL the Disks in one Album with EXACTLY the same name,
but make sure that each Disk has the proper disk number BEFORE
ripping, i.e., ‘Disk 7 of 10.’ This way iTunes will have a single listing for the
book, but all that disks and tracks will be in order.

Include the Disk and Track numbers in the Track listings so that
you (and iTunes) can read them:

Heretic – Track 01-02
Heretic – Track 01-03
Heretic – Track 01-04 …

Heretic – Track 04-13
Heretic – Track 04-14
Heretic – Track 04-15
&c.

When ripped these track files will appear in the finder as:

1-02 Heretic – Track 01-02.m4a
1-03 Heretic – Track 01-03.m4a
1-04 Heretic – Track 01-04.m4a

but the prefix and file suffix will not be shown in iTunes.

All this may seem a lot of work, but after some 260 books
I strongly recommend the use of a clipboard manager such as
CopyPaste which makes the going very easy.