diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader.py
index 7a3298122f..77ca8d6933 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader.py
@@ -15,13 +15,13 @@ from calibre.ebooks.pdb.ereader.reader202 import Reader202
 
 class Reader(FormatReader):
 
-    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, encoding=None):
+    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, options):
         record0_size = len(header.section_data(0))
 
         if record0_size == 132:
-            self.reader = Reader132(header, stream, log, encoding)
+            self.reader = Reader132(header, stream, log, options)
         elif record0_size == 202:
-            self.reader = Reader202(header, stream, log, encoding)
+            self.reader = Reader202(header, stream, log, options)
         else:
             raise EreaderError('Size mismatch. eReader header record size %s KB is not supported.' % record0_size)
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader132.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader132.py
index a1d1f4294d..d44eb2c561 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader132.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader132.py
@@ -47,9 +47,9 @@ class HeaderRecord(object):
 
 class Reader132(FormatReader):
 
-    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, encoding=None):
+    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, options):
         self.log = log
-        self.encoding = encoding
+        self.encoding = options.input_encoding
         
         self.log.debug('132 byte header version found.')
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader202.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader202.py
index 5057df363e..18281a208e 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader202.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ereader/reader202.py
@@ -33,9 +33,9 @@ class HeaderRecord(object):
 
 class Reader202(FormatReader):
 
-    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, encoding=None):
+    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, options):
         self.log = log
-        self.encoding = encoding
+        self.encoding = options.input_encoding
 
         self.log.debug('202 byte header version found.')
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/formatreader.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/formatreader.py
index bde6c9ae35..2251eaae04 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/formatreader.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/formatreader.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
 class FormatReader(object):
 
-    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, encoding=None):
+    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, options):
         raise NotImplementedError()
         
     def extract_content(self, output_dir):
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/input.py
index 62ae24c7f0..3ad1a6121c 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/input.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
 import os
 
-from calibre.customize.conversion import InputFormatPlugin
+from calibre.customize.conversion import InputFormatPlugin, OptionRecommendation
 from calibre.ebooks.pdb.header import PdbHeaderReader
 from calibre.ebooks.pdb import PDBError, IDENTITY_TO_NAME, get_reader
 
@@ -17,6 +17,13 @@ class PDBInput(InputFormatPlugin):
     description = 'Convert PDB to HTML'
     file_types  = set(['pdb'])
 
+    options = set([
+        OptionRecommendation(name='single_line_paras', recommended_value=False,
+            help=_('Normally calibre treats blank lines as paragraph markers. '
+                'With this option it will assume that every line represents '
+                'a paragraph instead.')),
+    ])
+
     def convert(self, stream, options, file_ext, log,
                 accelerators):
         header = PdbHeaderReader(stream)
@@ -27,7 +34,7 @@ class PDBInput(InputFormatPlugin):
 
         log.debug('Detected ebook format as: %s with identity: %s' % (IDENTITY_TO_NAME[header.ident], header.ident))
 
-        reader = Reader(header, stream, log, options.input_encoding)
+        reader = Reader(header, stream, log, options)
         opf = reader.extract_content(os.getcwd())
 
         return opf
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/palmdoc/reader.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/palmdoc/reader.py
index 7e8f3b241c..e1935db566 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/palmdoc/reader.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/palmdoc/reader.py
@@ -31,10 +31,11 @@ class HeaderRecord(object):
 
 class Reader(FormatReader):
 
-    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, encoding=None):
+    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, options):
         self.stream = stream
         self.log = log
-        self.encoding = encoding
+        self.encoding = options.input_encoding
+        self.single_line_paras = options.single_line_paras
 
         self.sections = []
         for i in range(header.num_sections):
@@ -61,7 +62,7 @@ class Reader(FormatReader):
             txt += self.decompress_text(i)
 
         self.log.info('Converting text to OEB...')
-        html = txt_to_markdown(txt)
+        html = txt_to_markdown(txt, single_line_paras=self.single_line_paras)
         with open(os.path.join(output_dir, 'index.html'), 'wb') as index:
             index.write(html.encode('utf-8'))
 
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ztxt/reader.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ztxt/reader.py
index 0c334556e8..86c5abfe82 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ztxt/reader.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/pdb/ztxt/reader.py
@@ -34,10 +34,11 @@ class HeaderRecord(object):
     
 class Reader(FormatReader):
     
-    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, encoding=None):
+    def __init__(self, header, stream, log, options):
         self.stream = stream
         self.log = log
-        self.encoding = encoding
+        self.encoding = options.input_encoding
+        self.single_line_paras = options.single_line_paras
     
         self.sections = []
         for i in range(header.num_sections):
@@ -76,7 +77,7 @@ class Reader(FormatReader):
             txt += self.decompress_text(i)
 
         self.log.info('Converting text to OEB...')
-        html = txt_to_markdown(txt)
+        html = txt_to_markdown(txt, single_line_paras=self.single_line_paras)
         with open(os.path.join(output_dir, 'index.html'), 'wb') as index:
             index.write(html.encode('utf-8'))
                         
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
index 493fdf3967..75dd516360 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
@@ -31,14 +31,9 @@ class TXTInput(InputFormatPlugin):
         log.debug('Reading text from file...')
         txt = stream.read().decode(ienc, 'replace')
 
-        if options.single_line_paras:
-            txt = txt.replace('\r\n', '\n')
-            txt = txt.replace('\r', '\n')
-            txt = txt.replace('\n', '\n\n')
-
         log.debug('Running text though markdown conversion...')
         try:
-            html = txt_to_markdown(txt)
+            html = txt_to_markdown(txt, single_line_paras=options.single_line_paras)
         except RuntimeError:
             raise ValueError('This txt file has malformed markup, it cannot be'
                 'converted by calibre. See http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax')
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/processor.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/processor.py
index ddb9b6a121..3005d633b8 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/processor.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/processor.py
@@ -13,7 +13,11 @@ __license__   = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2009, John Schember <john@nachtimwald.com>'
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
-def txt_to_markdown(txt, title=''):
+def txt_to_markdown(txt, title='', single_line_paras=False):
+    if single_line_paras:
+        txt = txt.replace('\r\n', '\n')
+        txt = txt.replace('\r', '\n')
+        txt = txt.replace('\n', '\n\n')
     md = markdown.Markdown(
         extensions=['footnotes', 'tables', 'toc'],
         safe_mode=False,)