How successful is your book?

The New & Noteworthy has no ranking - I am not sure whether it is selected or based on certain algorithm, but it is not a chart with ranking.

The position number should only be considered in Top 10 chart, typically on the bottom right hand side of iTunes. So if you said your app is #1 in Photography, then it should be #1 in Top 10 chart in Photography.

That's way more than my retro programming book for Apple IIGS. 🙂

My book's name is "Virtual GS", and it is still under What's Hot chart in Education.

Yup. 🙂

But my Nature book (paid) for kids with high resolution images of animals also do not sell well. 😟

A very general observation - I know many people who almost never look in Apple's store for any books. I know I don't. When Apple first launched book selling, it seemed neat, but the fact that iBookstore downloads are DRM tied to Apple's iBook reader (and ONLY iBook) and iBook is ONLY available for Apple mobile devices, made me stop even looking there for books.

I shop for books at B&N, Google, Kobo, even Amazon, but just never bother with Apple's store. I want books that I can read on other devices or using other apps. if Apple would simply work with Abobe to get their DRM working in Adobe Digital Editions so I could move Apple downloaded books around, I might come back to them, but otherwise, no, they are not even on my reading material shopping radar.

Seems to me if exposure is what you really want, then publishing books in Apple's store is inherently targeting a minority audience. The iBookstore is simply not something I see a lot of people showing any interest in (even amongst the most strident Apple fans I know).

(I have Nook ereaders in the house, plus my iPad&iPhone, but I since there are Nook, Kindle, Kobo and Google apps for iOS, OS X, and Windows, plus the use of ADE to share books amongst devices, I see no reason to even look to Apple for reading material and be stuck with iBookstore downloads that are only readable in iBooks on two of my mobile devices).

I guess you are right. It is just that we don't have other services you mentioned in Singapore. We are not even sure how to subscribe to those.

Your observation is probably right and I guess the iBookstore is really not popular.

I think iBooks is most popular among iPad users, or people who have an iOS device as their sole mobile device. However, I think that Apple could AT LEAST allow iBooks to be read on the Mac. That is a complaint I hear a lot. It doesn't bother me, if I want to read a book, I go to my iPad. But it would seem that it would be a big win for iBooks sellers if they were available on other platforms, even the Mac.

Their latest iBA format is not even iPhone compatible, let alone Mac. The iBA portrait mode should be suitable for reading on iPhone.

If Apple can support more of their devices, the chances of success will be higher. Right now, I am looking for any success stories on iBookstore, as so far I have seen none.

I'm not sure even how many iOS users actually frequent the iBook store. Most of the iPad owners I know all have at least a couple of other ereader apps on their iPads (as expected, I'd guess the Kindle reader app is the most used, but several actually use the Nook app a lot too). That means buying in a browser and then sycing their app's library with their purchases, but that does not seem to deter people from going with the "big name" ebook sellers.

An iBook app for OS X would help things a lot I agree - especially for books with high quality images or enhanced content. The thing is that the iBookstore never really gained widespread traction, and now Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Google dominant the ebook market, which makes it increasingly hard for anyone else, Apple included, to shove in for some major market share. There was a window of opportunity there for iBooks, but I think it may be pretty much closed now.

Not that I don't wish all of you iBookstore publishers well - I do, and I hope your books are successful. I just think the reality of the marketplace is that the iBookstore is not on most readers list of places to shop, even amongst those with iOS devices.

Buzzkill! No, actually, thank you for bringing this topic up as it is on everyone's mind at least in a small way (for those that are selling their books). My main reason for starting out on iPad/iBookstore is the ability to have video, stills, text, sounds, interactivity that I don't see on other platforms. I did start a Pages epub version and am working on that concurrently that I will use to sell millions of books on amazon, etc. So, maybe my iPad effort might be an interactive art piece for children.

I wonder if it is possible to convert an iBA file into an App.

Some of the other authors are making valid points, but it shouldn't discourage you IMO. It depends on what you're trying to do. What's true:

• iBooks Store is not going to be the first place people go look for books. Amazon is where people go and Amazon is not going to start offering iBook versions of author products. While the Kindle is not a direct competitor of the iPad, Kindle is most definitely a direct competitor with iBooks.

• The iPad is easily the most popular mobile computing device out there, HOWEVER... it's NOT the most popular eBook reader. Kindle is (by a huge margin). That's why the prior point is true. The ubiquity of the device for a particular task, defines where everyone goes to find their content.

So the question becomes how are you intending to sell your book? If you have this approach (which is traditional in the book writing business, but with a new twist):

1. Book idea

2. Write book (independently or under contract)

3. Put it in eBook format (used to be "have it printed")

4. Put eBook in a store, sit back and watch the sales while you do a few presentations/signings if you're lucky

...that process will get you nowhere fast if the iPad market is the only store you're using. There is not the volume of "search-driven-sales" on Apple's book ecosystem yet to make that work as a big revenue stream, unless you're a famous author and create a title which Apple helps you to advertise as "exclusively on iBooks". For the rest of us, Apple isn't going to spend a penny on promoting our works beyond the product pages.

If you have decided on iBooks as your primary sales mechanism, you can't rely on Apple to do the heavy lifting in terms of marketing. In this setup, the process should (ideally) look more like this:

1. Book idea

2. Build over many months a nice online presence, positioning yourself as expert

3. Write book

4. Put it in eBook format

5. Put it in iBooks store

6. Use your popular web site to promote the [heck] out of it.

The reality for many authors right now is, you have to distribute on multiple platforms and not rely on Apple. That ultimately means more grunt work preparing the same content in different ways. Hopefully in 4 or 5 years we won't have this problem in the sense that Apple's iBooks will have enough search volume that it's less of a big deal not to involve other retailers, etc.