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iBookstore - How do WE publish there?

H

hualon

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 5, 2008
252
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The iPhone/iPod Touch App Store and the iTunes Music Store did wonders for enabling individuals and small companies/bands to self-publish their content. Has anyone seen or heard anything along those lines but pertaining to the iBookstore?

I'm imagining artist portfolios, so-called Coffee Table books, and the like. The iPad seems like a perfect vehicle for those kinds of eye candy. I know it's possible to do it by hacking your content into an application but you would lose the cool book-like feel of the iBooks app on the iPad.
 
Have you had any luck finding out more?

I have several children's books in ePub and ready to go. There is a log-on page on the iTunes Connect page (you chose books from the drop-down). However, it says that you have to have an "Invitation code" from your "Apple iBookstore Representative>" If you find out anything more, let me know & i'll do the same.
 
^^^
-for personal use, I think you would just need to transfer your ePub file into iTunes, then transfer it over to your iPad. Apple said they will allow Non DRM ePub files to be view on the iPad. (current version of iTunes doesn't allow this, I'm sure an update is coming soon)

-if you want to to sell your ePub file in the iBook Store, I have no idea.
 
Unlike the App store, I think Apple is looking at established publishers for the iBookstore. Not individuals. So unless you have a bookseller behind you, I wouldn't hold my breath.
 
I think we're looking for the kind of visibility one gets with Apple's marketplace.

But as has been said there's nothing stopping you from setting up your own little web store that can send out DRM free epub books if a user were to purchase a book directly from your web store.
 
iVoid said:
Unlike the App store, I think Apple is looking at established publishers for the iBookstore. Not individuals. So unless you have a bookseller behind you, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Click to expand...

Bingo. Deal with a handful of publishers and get thousands of books.

No interest in going author to author to author.
 
This is something I hope they seriously consider. The app store and the itunes store have been a great way for otherwise unknowns to share their talents to the benefit of everyone. While I'm sure there would be some crap to wade through, I think one good find would outweigh all of that.
 
No real need. If you got a book and want to sell it, put it out as ePub and sell it on your Website. If you want Apple to sell your book for you, then that's a different matter and I think it's reasonable Apple can pick and choose who to sell.
 
Michael CM1 said:
Amazon has a process for letting people self-publish. I don't know what Apple's approach is, so here's the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.ht..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1NX4BXRY2SDPVNJ7VRK7
Click to expand...

That's a point I wanted to make, too. Self-publishing on the Kindle platform seems like an easy and straightforward process.

As abijnk points out, Apple has created a precedent for this kind of think with the App store and, to some extent, with iIMS.

From Apple's point of view it would seem to be easy enough. All they would have to do is verify that the .epub document was properly formatted for the iBookstore -- it's not like they'd have to devote actual shelf space to it, at the expense of other titles, like a brick-and-mortar establishment. If it sells then Apple makes a little money; if it doesn't, they don't lose anything but a modest amount of staff time spent clearing the product. Meanwhile they've got another author out there energetically trying to direct potential buyers to the iBookstore.

From a self-publishing standpoint, there's an immeasurable difference between having a title available on either Amazon or iBookstore versus merely flogging it yourself on a website that few people, probably, will ever stumble upon. Being able to cite an Amazon link is an instant way of establishing your seriousness and professional bona fides (even if it's a very low-selling title.)

Here, look: this is me! Suddenly I'm real, right? It would work the same with the iBookstore. Only of course it would be cooler.
 
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It certainly is reasonable for "Indie" authors to have a place on the iBooks store. Apple did it with apps, so is very familiar with dealing with individual app developers. The iTunes music section has indie songs, there are all sorts of podcasts done by individuals... .

Hopefully Apple will do this with the book store. Perhaps a separate section: just click on the link to "Indie Authors." There may be a fee, just like it costs $99 annually to be an app developer. As an author, I hope so. Most of my new book ideas will have a lot of photos, will be in color, and none of my publishers are going to invest in the publishing costs for these (comparatively) small sales volume niche market books.
 
"Will authors be able to self-publish through the iBooks Store?
Probably not at first. Apple book deals with five major book publishers looks very similar to the first iTunes Music Store, where Apple first cut a deal with the big music publishers and later opened the store to independent artists and labels. Based on this experience, we expect some sort of "indie" author publishing in the future.

Meanwhile, indie authors can distribute unprotected ePub books through other channels, and readers can load them using iTunes (much as musicians were free to distribute unprotected MP3s prior to the iTunes Store doing business with them directly)."

Quoted from FAQ's on http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/ipad/faq.html

All the best!
 
You can always create the ebook as an application, make it more interactive and sell it through the App Store.
 
You can put your own epub formatted file onto your own iPad. Knowing that, it's easy to assume selling the book from your own site would let other ipad owners download and install your book, simply by pointing iTunes to where downloaded books are kept on their PC.
 
hualon said:
The iPhone/iPod Touch App Store and the iTunes Music Store did wonders for enabling individuals and small companies/bands to self-publish their content. Has anyone seen or heard anything along those lines but pertaining to the iBookstore?
Click to expand...
Apple Retail Stores were given contact information to pass on to customers interested in this. Give them a call.
 
I really hope Apple allows authors to publish themselves for a nominal fee.

The publishing industry really does a dis-service to authors and there are a lot of great works out there that will never see the public eye due to publishers.

Short stories for example, there are tons of great short stories out there that never see the light of day. The internet has leveled the field a bit, but books have still dominated. Even the major magazines routinely overlook great short stories.
 
iVoid said:
Unlike the App store, I think Apple is looking at established publishers for the iBookstore. Not individuals. So unless you have a bookseller behind you, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Click to expand...

While I can appreciate what iTunes did for indie artists, the App store tells me people will upload just about anything. I personally don't want the equilvalent of iFart in book format. However, if Apple does go this route I'd make use of it.
 
shakenmartini said:
IThe publishing industry really does a dis-service to authors and there are a lot of great works out there that will never see the public eye due to publishers.

Short stories for example, there are tons of great short stories out there that never see the light of day. The internet has leveled the field a bit, but books have still dominated. Even the major magazines routinely overlook great short stories.
Click to expand...

Spoken (or written, actually, I suppose) like a true writer!

Besides The New Yorker, who pays money for short fiction anymore? (A few genre magazines and anthologies, but that's about it.) It's not so much that magazines "overlook" great fiction as that they've simply stopped printing it, because, one presumes, their readers don't care anymore.

Likewise with book publishers. The audience for novels has become shrunken and fragmented into innumerable niches that are, individually, too small to earn back the cost of publishing a printed book. We could go round and round about why and how this has happened -- a certain amount of blame, I think, can be placed outside the publishing industry, for example on university creative-writing programs that essentially train writers to write for other writers and for award and grant-giving committees.

The bottom line is that reading habits have changed and the publishing industry has not yet figured out a good way to respond. The iPad and other digital venues might offer a good and fun and effective way forward. Opening up the iBookstore to energized independent writers would be a really good thing for literature. Not many writers would succeed in breaking through this way, I suspect, but readers and writers alike could only gain from it.

Personally, I'd like to see more talented writers try their hands at hypertext fiction, which was kind of a big thing for a couple of years in the 90s, but seems to have gone roughly nowhere since. Eastgate Software, which created the first serious hypertext writing tool, Storyspace, does not seem to have even bothered with keeping the software up to date.

There's a potentially big opening here that somebody really ought to jump through -- and Apple really ought to make it possible.
 
To the original point, I suspect Apple will be glad to take 30% from anyone who wants to sell through them. The bookstore is new, though, and they need to focus on lots of quality, recognizable content first. Give it six months, maybe a year, and there will be an indie/self-published submission system.

wyneken said:
Spoken (or written, actually, I suppose) like a true writer!

Besides The New Yorker, who pays money for short fiction anymore? (A few genre magazines and anthologies, but that's about it.) It's not so much that magazines "overlook" great fiction as that they've simply stopped printing it, because, one presumes, their readers don't care anymore.

Likewise with book publishers. The audience for novels has become shrunken and fragmented into innumerable niches that are, individually, too small to earn back the cost of publishing a printed book. We could go round and round about why and how this has happened -- a certain amount of blame, I think, can be placed outside the publishing industry, for example on university creative-writing programs that essentially train writers to write for other writers and for award and grant-giving committees.

The bottom line is that reading habits have changed and the publishing industry has not yet figured out a good way to respond. The iPad and other digital venues might offer a good and fun and effective way forward. Opening up the iBookstore to energized independent writers would be a really good thing for literature. Not many writers would succeed in breaking through this way, I suspect, but readers and writers alike could only gain from it.

Personally, I'd like to see more talented writers try their hands at hypertext fiction, which was kind of a big thing for a couple of years in the 90s, but seems to have gone roughly nowhere since. Eastgate Software, which created the first serious hypertext writing tool, Storyspace, does not seem to have even bothered with keeping the software up to date.

There's a potentially big opening here that somebody really ought to jump through -- and Apple really ought to make it possible.
Click to expand...

And it's a shame, too, imo. I'm hoping widespread ereader use (the Kindle/nook/Sony got in the hands of people who are already serious readers, the iPad will be out there for everyone else) and a good ebookstore (both from the authors viewpoint and the readers) will help a resurgence in both short and serialized fiction. Some of the greatest works of fiction were originally serialized content. I'd love it if this came back, and the iBookstore/iPad offers a compelling way to sell, market, buy, and consume that sort of of content.
 
Maybe ebookcast would be the next evolution of short stories or serialized books. Authors would create the ebookcast, post it through the iTunes store and iBook can subscribe to it to download new eps/chapter automatically.

I admit, I would pay 4.99-9.99$ a month for Asimov's magazine type of ebookcasts.
 
I think it would be a very smart move of Apple if they add a subcategory for normal individuals to add their books. Who knows what talent will be found (just like with the App Store).
 
How would approval work though, you can't expect apple to read your book to make sure there isn't offensive content.

Imagine someone uploads a childrens book that advocates drugs, murder, genocide or worse. Deleting it after complaints is not the way to go. Not worth the risk IMO.
 
aerospace said:
How would approval work though, you can't expect apple to read your book to make sure there isn't offensive content.

Imagine someone uploads a childrens book that advocates drugs, murder, genocide or worse. Deleting it after complaints is not the way to go. Not worth the risk IMO.
Click to expand...
They can just check what words are in the book with some tools.
 
aerospace said:
How would approval work though, you can't expect apple to read your book to make sure there isn't offensive content.

Imagine someone uploads a childrens book that advocates drugs, murder, genocide or worse. Deleting it after complaints is not the way to go. Not worth the risk IMO.
Click to expand...

ThatsMeRight said:
They can just check what words are in the book with some tools.
Click to expand...
Scary idea. Good thing Apple is a publicly held company and not a public library. Such censorship is okay in the iBookStore, but it would be bad in a library.

And as a later poster notes, lots of explicit content exists in the iTunes Music Store already.
 
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