Book Publishing on iPad

[Adey]

Hi Guys,

I have a friend who's written two novels which I think are excellent (yes, I may be wrong) and who has never managed to secure a publishing deal. The whole Kindle thing passed him by, though he's looking at it now, but he's got quite excited by the iPad.

Does anyone know, or have insider knowledge, if and how he might be able to self-publish on the iPad and make the novels available through iBooks. We're both aware that iBooks books are to be in the ePub format, and he has no problem with sorting that out, and he has no problem with developing the novels as an "App" if it came to that, but it's how to get the thing into Apple's iBooks Bookstore that we can't find info on. Will the Apple Bookstore be the sole reserve of the big publishers, or does anyone know if an "Independent" can get in there too and have their books available to buy.

Or, does he just upload a book "App" into the general App Store, filed under books, and does it then become available through iBooks automatically? We can't seem to find the answers.

Any advice anyone might have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Adey

 

[Vernexto]

I don't think the answer to this question is readily available (pretty much everything we know about the iPad is from the keynote and Apple.com, any other information I can think of is pure speculation).

My step-mom is in the same boat as your friend, and sees the iPad and Apple's iBook store as being a great gateway for up-and-coming authors to get their content out there without having a publishing deal. I tend to think it's going to be pretty restricted at first (like iTunes was), but I'm sure in due time, it will be possible to have your book submitted to the iBook store (it's not like it takes up much space for Apple, and is a pretty good money maker). I'd tell your friend to wait patiently and see what happens in the next month or two, but not to jump the gun on whatever you hear online, as it's likely unfounded information.

As a side-thought, I told my step-mom (she writes children's books) that if publishing a book isn't possible through the normal outlets or the iBook store, to have someone do some illustrations and have someone develop an app for the iPad (or iPhone, or both) that is basically just an animated version of the book, that way people can download it for $.99 and have a way to enjoy it in a non-book format.

 

[blackNBUK]

The situation with iTunes music appears to be that Apple doesn't deal directly with individual artists but they do deal with digital aggregators (like CD Baby). The digital aggregator handles getting the music onto iTunes (and other digital music stores) in exchange for a relatively small cut.

You can already self-publish on the Kindle through the Amazon Digital Text Platform. While looking around I found a couple of interesting blog posts here and here about how Kindle self-publishing is working out for a couple of authors.

Whether any of this will apply to iBooks is (obviously) an open question.

 

[yourradiofriend]

Anyone Can Put A Book On Ipad!!!!!!

Not even announced yet!!!!

www.books.cdbaby.com:):p

 

[buckjohnbuck@ya]

thanks for the link to cdbaby

the url link is appreciated - though i think there are a few errant characters in there ;-)

and there's also smashwords


but cdbaby is mighty fee free