iBooks Japan Store - Apple Community

May 9, 2012 6:51 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

But why bother? Chinese people are not able to buy them or even download them for free.

The best solution is either to go to other local ebook stores are supported in your countries, or simply do the books as apps (if your books are more multimedia or interactive focus, like children books).

For example, we have a book "Jungle Feathers" in iBookstore:

...but we are not able to publish the Chinese version, so we redo the Chinese version as apps and now in app store:

http://itunes.apple.com/app/id524314920

The UI and design might be different, but at least it can be done. And with the latest iOS 5 storyboard features, app development is no longer unapproachable by content creators.

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May 13, 2012 8:51 AM in response to thye chean

That's a beautiful book you've made!

And good thinking, publishing it as an app.

One thing I'm curious to ask is: Can the Chinese text in the app be selected / copied / pasted?

Because every app I've seen that is advertised as a book app has lacked this feature. And this makes it extremely frustrating when trying to look up a word in kanji that I can't read. The result is that the digital book offers little advantage over a traditional printed book.

Ideally the app should have built-in access to the Japanese dictionary, like iBooks has - that way the reader does not have to switch back and forth between the book and a separate dictionary app. I'm not sure if iBooks has a Chinese dictionary yet, but it definitely has a Japanese one. This feature is very helpful, especially for non native speakers.

Also what about the ability to add bookmarks, highlights, and notes?

While these features are not crucial to the user experience they are certainly very nice to have and as an iBooks user I am used to having them. If a publisher delivering their book as an app wants it to offer the same caliber of user experience as an iBook, these features should be included. Once coded the first time, that code can of course be used for each book app that publisher puts out.

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May 13, 2012 9:02 AM in response to (※＿※)

Hi,

Unfortunately the answers for most of your questions are no. iBooks still have its advantages - our goal is not to duplicate the books as apps, but to re-deliver the content as apps, and have to be done in the simplest way so that it can be done by a none-developers with minimum training.

I believe there are some apps that can allow you to wrap the eBook as app, and this might be the solution you are looking for.

For our case, our books have always been multimedia heavy - with video and audio - so it is easier for us to convert to apps. But apps do need to work differently - they need to be less static and more interactive (ie, less like a book but more like an app), less linear and more tree structure. And if these can be done on your books, App Store is really a better place for us right now, with no countries or language restrictions, and sales are much higher than in iBookstore.

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K T

Level 7

23,877 points

May 13, 2012 9:27 AM in response to (※＿※)

If a publisher delivering their book as an app wants it to offer the same caliber of user experience as an iBook, these features should be included. Once coded the first time, that code can of course be used for each book app that publisher puts out.

As always, feel free to use the 'Provide iBooks Author Feedback' menu item for features you'd like added in the future, etc.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ibooks-author.html

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Nov 7, 2012 4:49 PM in response to thye chean

i have the same problem with pubulish a chinese book? that's the message i am getting, but i did see one chinese book in ibooks library, i don't know who did he get it up to the ibook store. so let me get this right, if you have a chinese book to pubulish to ibooks store, that's not happening right?

here is the message i got when i delivery the book.