Email: brqyvn@gmail.com
Hi Photographer friends,
I've been writing e-books for the Pentax Cameras and Equipment for five years and have develop a good reputation with the Pentax community. When the Pentax K-01 came out, I decided to publish an e-book (iBook in the Apple World) for it, and sell it on the Apple App and iTunes stores. I wrote the book using Apple's newest book publishing software. "iBooks Author" which allows the inclusion of video, slides show, sound, music, and all king of media interaction. I still believe that it is a wonderful form of electronic book publishing, but, few people are using it.
Few people are using this form of publication because it can only be read on an Apple iPad. Furthermore, once you sign as an Author with Apple for a particular book (ISBN number must be attained first $$$ and recorded in Apple's database) you cannot sell the e-book anywhere else than on the Apple App or iTunes outlets.
It took me more than four Months to write the e-book for the K-01, making the e-book as interactive as possible. I inserted videos, photo galleries, and all kind of media interactions. I had to submit and re-submit the e-book half a dozen times in order to meet all of the Apple nebulous requirements. Although I am publishing with iBooks, I could not label my book as an iBook!! I had to use e-book that are only readable on Apple iBooks.
After all of that effort, the e-book isn't selling much when compared to the e-books available on my herein simple website. The e-books on my website are published in the PDF format and although they cannot include media, (Video and interactive galleries), they can be read on all platforms, including Microsoft. Apple.
I guess the lesson learned, for me anyway, is that you can have the best gadget or software in the world, but if you limit it's distribution to only the equipment that you sell, opportunities are missed for both the authosr and the distributors.
I may have missed the boat for the Pentax K-01, although I will issue a similar e-book under another ISBN number, in PDF format, and available here.
Apple is currently the most successful computer manufacturer in the World, with the iMac, iPhone, iPad and Mac Book ands. I own one of each and my spouse has the iPhone and iPad. They are indeed very good and useful instruments...the best the world has ever known, but limiting the use of one's brand only to read electronic books or run software will eventually kill the benefit of owning an Apple.
Apple is currently the most successful computer manufacturer in the World, with the iMac, iPhone, iPad and Mac Book ands. I own one of each and my spouse has the iPhone and iPad. They are indeed very good and useful instruments...the best the world has ever known, but limiting the use of one's brand only to read electronic books or run software will eventually kill the benefit of owning an Apple.
Greed is not good!
Thanks for reading and my apologies to people that would have purchased the Pentax K-01 e-book if it would have run on other devices than the iPad.
6 comments:
They say you can't sell the book you created with their (free) software elsewhere, they don't stop you from creating a version of the book with different software and selling that elsewhere, however.
See : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9028628/iBooks-Author-Apple-doesnt-want-to-own-your-book.html
I am an author and have published ebooks in Kindle, Nook, Sony and other formats, but have stayed away from Apple's iBook format because of its ridiculous exclusivity requirements. Anyway, both Nook and Kindle have iPad apps, so one can read my books on iPads that way.
I'm living in Hong Kong. Maybe due to the license problem, your e-book cannot be found in my App Store...
As another commenter has noted, you are not restricted from selling your book elsewhere at all. You are restricted from selling the output of the iBooks Author software, which is not such a big deal because it only works on iPads anyway.
You need simply cut and paste the contents into another authoring system and publish from that.
What you might rightly complain about is the availability of iBooks around the world. I understand that major publishers need to have agreements but I do not understand why an independent publisher such as yourself cannot sell to me in New Zealand.
When the Black Friday price of the K-01 came down to $317, I had to get one. Didn't need it. But who could resist at that price?
I like the camera very much, ugly as it is. My wife wants to use it exclusively because she has trouble composing with an eyepiece but loves the K-01's video screen.
So much do we like the camera that I went to Apple iBooks and bought your manual for the K-01 to read on our iPad 2. Yvon, it is terrific. Not only is it informative and easy to read, but it is FUN to read. My congratulations.
I know all about the ridiculous Apple iBook restrictions and won't publish my own ebooks on it. All the same, the K-01 book is a lovely one and I thank you for having done it.
Henry
Henry,
Thank you for your encouraging comments. Apple has developed the application and it's too bad they have restricted it to iPad. In the end, because of their greed, they will pay the consequence of running a close architecture. I sold less than a dozen iBooks through Apple, while I sell more than that weekly on my own site with the PDF e-books. Too bad because I really liked the format.
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