Support for viewing on a Mac - useful?

Apple have no intention of making iBooks available on the Mac or elsewhere (even though doing so would certainly be possible) because they see the book store as a major driver for sales of iPads. Remember, every school child is supposed to have one of those iPads in their bag, not a laptop or notebook computer.

Michi.

soulhill wrote:

I'm curious if other people think this could be useful and expand the market a bit.

Countless people have asked for an OS X version for iBooks for over 2 years now and Apple has never indicated any intention to create one. On the other hand, there are free ereaders for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Googlebooks available for the Mac, so you could distribute your book via one of those sources if you want.

Use iBA's Share/Export (or print as) PDF option and send that out if it has to be available on a computer. It won't have any interaction, but it will be a basic way to review, read, etc.

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

Tom Gewecke wrote:

On the other hand, there are free ereaders for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Googlebooks available for the Mac, so you could distribute your book via one of those sources if you want.

Yes, with the caveat that, as best as I've been able to find out, none of those can handle video. But, for simple ePub books with just text and images, there are viable alternatives, such as the ones you mentioned.

Michi.

soulhill wrote:

I believe this is expressly forbidden by the terms of service, is it not?

No. The restrictions apply to the .ibooks output,but not to text or PDF generated from an IBA book.

Michi.

soulhill wrote:

K T wrote:

Use iBA's Share/Export (or print as) PDF option and send that out if it has to be available on a computer. It won't have any interaction, but it will be a basic way to review, read, etc.

I believe this is expressly forbidden by the terms of service, is it not?

On the contrary, your contract says that you are free to deliver your content in other means.

ℹ if the work is provided for free (at no charge), you may distribute it by any means;

Moreover, if the book is not in .iBooks format, you can distribute it by any means and charge money for it. From the FAQ:

If a fee is charged for the work and it is in the .ibooks format, the work may only be sold through the iBookstore. If the work is in a different format, such as PDF or ePub, this restriction does not apply.

When the work is provided for free, it can be distributed through the iBookstore or by other means, including when the work is in the .ibooks format

Michi.

🙂

I thought this was all old news by now, but I guess not...

I was referring to the original outcry of who owned what when iBA first arrived on the scene earlier in the year. It was soon made clear over that worked - your content is under your control.

I don't think that topic is central to your issue, however.

If the question is portability, the answer is... don't master in iBA.

PDF export is limited to what essentially amounts to screen shots. Anything in interactive elements, such as galleries, HTML5 widgets, video, sound, and so on, isn't exported with the PDF.

If you want to use IBA to publish PDF, you will have to limit yourself to just text and images, or accept that some parts of the book are inaccessible in the PDF version.

Michi.

soulhill wrote:

The PDF exports with the layout in tact, which is nice, but I'm not really sure what to do with it from there...

It's useful for distribution as a platform-agnostic preview, content proof-reading, conceptual draft, idea bartering, brainstorming, translation reference, proof-of-concept, layout review, marketing material reference, and last, but not least, a desperation backup in case you need to mail a quick save to yourself just before the plane goes down.

soulhill wrote:

If the question is portability, the answer is... don't master in iBA.

But, alas, I have. The PDF exports with the layout in tact, which is nice, but I'm not really sure what to do with it from there...

Depending on how much layout and fancy features you have used, another viable option might be to remaster in Pages and export as ePub. You won't get any interactive features that way. (You can embed video, but the video will currently be viewable only on an iPad or iPhone.)

The advantage of doing this is that it opens up other publishing platforms, such Google Books.

Michi.