Apple waited until the publishers of the world were tied up with Book Expo America, May 24-26 in New York, to announce its new Sell Your Books initiative, which lets authors get their books into the new iBooks store without having to deal with publishers, reports PC World.
According to Mac Life, “Their books would have to adhere to these criteria: each one would need to have a 13-digit ISBN, be in ePub format, validate against epubcheck 1.0.5, and contain no unmanifested files.” Authors also need to have a Tax ID number, a credit card on file with Apple, and a Mac running OS X 10.5 or later.
Among the exhibitors at BookExpo were Sideways, which helps authors and publishers transform text into multimedia content, adding video, pictures and features such as Twitter feeds, Ripple, which allows adults to buy children’s e-books and record their voices reading them, and gadgets like the enTourage eDGe — a twin-screened device which opens like a book to reveal an eReader on one side and a NetBook on the other.
Adobe InDesign CS-5 is page layout software that can create eBooks in the EPUB format for the Apple iPad, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble nook, mobile phones, and other devices, as well as embed videos and animations using flash.
Adobe’s idea was to create a single version that would run on all platforms, but Apple’s anti-Flash stance has made that a no-go, says All Things D.
Condé, like other publishers, will build an iPad-specific app, and one that works everywhere else. Current industry practice charges for each edition on each device. The New Yorker, for example, sells new print subscriptions for $39.95 a year, sells a Kindle edition for $2.99 a month and may sell the iPad app for something close to the print cover price, at $5.99 a week.
Like the App Store, there does seem to be some vetting before ebooks are accepted. Says Apple: “Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may not be able to get back to you as quickly as we’d like. While we’re reviewing your application, it is not necessary to apply again.”
Apple’s iBookstore features an online agreement that allows you to sell your book in several countries — and you can set your own price. Additionally, once iPhone OS version 4.0 is released with an iBooks app, you’ll reach a larger customer base. iPhone OS 4 will ship this summer for iPhone and iPod touch, and for iPad in the fall.
Barnes & Noble has announced a self-publishing portal that will open this summer. The world’s largest bookseller says that their PubIt! service will give authors the ability to upload and sell content through B&N’s website and eBookstore.
Google last week said it plans to begin selling e-books by this summer. They can be read on any Internet-connected device including Apple’s iPad.
Chris Palma, Google’s manager for essential content development, disclosed the plan at a panel discussion in New York. The company is expected to open its previously disclosed service called Google Editions. Editions is independent from the contentious Google Book Search project to make all the world’s written works, including out-of-print titles, available online.
The Google Editions ebook store will enable users to buy e-books directly from the company, as well as through other retailers in June or July. Consumers would not have to worry about DRM issues – Google Editions will work with your iPad, your HTC Droid Incredible, or your laptop.
Google’s new e-book store will launch sometime during the first half of 2010, and will have about 500,000 titles at launch. Under Google’s payment scheme, publishers will receive about 63 percent of the gross sales, and Google will keep the remaining 37 percent.
Google also hopes to offer Editions titles through other online book retailers. In this scenario, online retailers would get 55 percent of revenues minus a small fee paid to Google, and publishers would get 45 percent, according to Read Write Web.
- Apple’s iPad is selling briskly, moving 2 million units in its first two months.
- Amazon launched its Kindle e-reader in late 2007. Although Amazon has never released sales data, some estimate 2-3 million units have been sold.
- The Barnes & Noble Nook was the first electronic book reader based on the Android platform, and features WiFi and AT&T 3G wireless connectivity with a MicroSD expansion slot for extra storage. Barnes & Noble Pubit gives authors the ability to upload and sell content through B&N’s website and eBookstore.
- Borders ebooks feature the Sony reader but their new 6-inch Kobo eReader, slated to ship on June 17th, will be $150 (but no WiFi).
Mark Coker, chief executive of self-publishing service Smashwords, a site where writers can publish their own e-books, said recently that it has signed a distribution deal with Apple to put its books into the iPad iBookstore.
The ePub format has become a defacto standard for ebooks — but different e-book stores use different DRM standards on top of it. To allow cross platform compatibility, Amazon sells Kindle readers on the iTunes store, enabling iPad and iPhone users to tap into Amazon’s ebooks on their iPad. You’d think publishers would get together and agree on ONE DRM standard. But noooo.
Wikipedia has a comparison of ebook readers and ebook formats.
If e-book readers can be ported over to non-smart phones, as Mobipocket is trying to do, it could connect to some 5 billion mobile suscribers, worldwide. Mobipocket.com was bought by Amazon.com in 2005.
Eileen Gittins of Blurb, which helps authors and companies self-publish, predicts e-books will make up half of all sales in five years. In 2009, the global publishing business, including print and digital, was worth $71 billion, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Amazon kept about 65% of the royalties. But Apple’s iBookstore and Google’s ebook store promise to turn that model upside down; authors get a 65% cut. That changes everything. With tens of millions of cheap tablets expected in the next few years, publishing is on the verge of spontaneous ignition.
Music, Publishing, Games and Movies are rushing into this singularity, with access to everything, everywhere. What will emerge on the other side is anyone’s guess.
Related e-book articles on Dailywireless include; Tablets, Tablets, Tablets, E-Magazines: Pay Once, Play Anywhere, The $99 Android Tablet, Barnes & Noble: Self Publishing this Summer, Apple Sells 1M iPads, Google Editions: World’s Largest Virtual Bookstore?, Google Tablet for Verizon?, Android Outsells Apple, Flash Support in Android 2.2, Battle of the eBooks, Dell Android Tablet for AT&T/T-Mobile?, Google Tablet: Android or What?, and Tablet Revolution!
