My book was published today on itunes!

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My book was published today on itunes!

On my book's page it says:

Requirements: This book can only be viewed using iBooks 2 on an iPad. iOS 5 is required.

I've noticed on other books it's possible to download and view it using Mac, iPhone, and even iPod touch. Why is mine not able to be downloaded on these platforms? I do not recall an area where I had to check what it could be viewed on, I certainly would not have restricted it to the iPad only, is it an inner iTunes restriction? And if so, how would I bypass so that it is viewable on all platforms? Thanks!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 31, 2012 4:01 PM

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Answer 1

K T

Level 7

23,877 points

Jan 31, 2012 4:08 PM in response to polarbaby57

Remember, iBooks Author targets a specific environment.

Prior to iBA, what did authors use to get books into the store? Example: Pages, calibre, etc. Those books are products of an earlier version of the e-pub specification. We're not sure what version of that spec is being targeted w/iBA (yet), but it seems to be a recent incarnation, perhaps defined by Apple to target a specific platform...

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Answer 2

polarbaby57 Author

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Jan 31, 2012 4:14 PM in response to polarbaby57

So, is what IBA exports a form of e-pub file? Would sending a .epub file instead of a .iba file result in my book being able to be downloaded by a wider variety of platforms? And what can I use to export my files as .epub?

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Answer 3

K T

Level 7

23,877 points

Jan 31, 2012 4:37 PM in response to polarbaby57

I don't know of a clean/simple way to export from iBA to e-pub, sorry.

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,894 points

Jan 31, 2012 5:06 PM in response to polarbaby57

To create an ePub version you would need to transfer your content to an app that exports to that format. The apple option is Pages.

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,894 points

Jan 31, 2012 5:10 PM in response to polarbaby57

Ps. What is the title of your book?

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Answer 6

K T

Level 7

23,877 points

Jan 31, 2012 5:21 PM in response to polarbaby57

The Mac version of the App Store lists the following apps that can output e-pub:

• e-Pub Packager; PDF-to-EPUB; HTML-to-EPUB and more...seems they would mention iWork/Pages, but they don't 🙂

You can also use calibre, but in all cases, the devil being in the details means moving your content to one of those apps, of course.

I use Pages, primarliy.

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Answer 7

polarbaby57 Author

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Jan 31, 2012 6:30 PM in response to polarbaby57

The title of my book that was published today is "God's Gift Has Autism" I was just trying to see if there's anyway I can get it corrected so it can be downloaded on other platforms. I'm working on a second book right now hopefully with the wisdom from you all i can save it in a file that will be able to download also on iphone/ipod and maybe mac. Not sure how to do that yet though.

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Answer 8

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,894 points

Feb 1, 2012 4:52 AM in response to polarbaby57

polarbaby57 wrote:

so it can be downloaded on other platforms.

If you use the iBookstore for a paid-for book, it will not be readable on anything other than an iOS device unless you make sure that it has no DRM protection.

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Answer 9

DTM82

Level 1

13 points

Feb 1, 2012 5:53 AM in response to polarbaby57

If you want your book to be available on other platforms (i.e. not just iPads running iBooks 2) I'm pretty sure you cannot do it in iBA. You need to work in something like Pages (as has been stated above). That will probably mean a lot of tedious work transferring it and if you have any funky media embedded you may end up losing that too.

Also if you write your book in Pages etc I'm not sure you can publish it to the iBookstore, at least, not as easily as through iBA. You might even need a proper publisher to handle that? You could always offer it as a paid for download on your own website. But then your website may not have the kind of traffic that the iBookstore has!

My advice for book 2: write it in Pages (or another - I use Pages a lot) and then you can import it into iBA (iBA has a menu option for a direct import) then publish to iBookstore. And if the iBookstore Ts&Cs allow*, offer the .epub as a download from your own website?

*I think the Terms and Conditions of the iBookstore probably only apply to a book published from iBA and not the .epub equivalent, but I haven't specifically checked that.

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Answer 10

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,894 points

Feb 1, 2012 6:18 AM in response to DTM82

DTM82 wrote:

Also if you write your book in Pages etc I'm not sure you can publish it to the iBookstore,

I don't think that is a problem -- countless people have used Pages to create epubs for the iBookstore since that feature was added to Pages in the summer of 2010.

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Answer 11

polarbaby57 Author

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Feb 1, 2012 7:47 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

If I move my book over to Pages and make it into an EPub File, is it possible for me to reupload the same book as epub, and have it replace the .ibook file that is currently available for purchase in the itunes store?

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Answer 12

K T

Level 7

23,877 points

Feb 1, 2012 7:51 AM in response to polarbaby57

You can't 'update' content, only publishing details via iTunes Producer. Another book requires another ISBN-13.

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Answer 13

DTM82

Level 1

13 points

Feb 3, 2012 1:36 PM in response to polarbaby57

The iBooks Author EULA has been updated. There is no certainly no problem with you republishing you book as another format (.epub etc).

http://t.co/4oTnpgrn

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Answer 14

kayes777

Level 1

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Feb 3, 2012 3:37 PM in response to polarbaby57

hello polarbaby57, I can't find your book in iTunes. Can you explain to me in detail how to find it? It must be something I am doing wrong.

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Answer 15

lezell

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Feb 3, 2012 4:55 PM in response to polarbaby57

Did you intend to publish it to iTunes or to iBooks and it ended up on iTunes in addition to being availbable on iBooks? Can readers download and buy your books either through iTunes and/or iBook?

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