Q: Educator

PDF

I can tell you that creating a book in iBooks and making it available in that format with all the interactive features for iOS users, and then saving the same book as PDF to provide a non-interactive version for other users works fine, that is what I have done with my summer review book for my AP students - no real additional work.

I can't answer your question about selling it since I was making a book for my students to use, not concerned with making money. I provide access via iTunes U and Schoology.

brenda is correct in that there are other things in life more important than making money, life love.  and i love money.

i pondered this question several years ago when i set out to do my first eBook.  there was a restriction and i think it it still a restriction that ebooks created with ibook author can only be used in the ibook store.  i think that is still apple's policy and i have to wonder if i will need a team of lawyers if i exported to pdf format and tried to sell the book on amazon or any of the other ebook outlets.

so i took the approach that i would make the book so good that people would be willing to buy an iPad in order to have access to the book.  i would think that if you only were going to put it on one type of device that you would choose an iPad.

on the other hand, i wonder if this approach is the correct one.  i am about to publish my second ebook despite some serious challenges with the new ibook auth and keynote.  i hope apple fixes the problem quickly, or else i will have to make some adjustments that will make the book not as good as it might be.

after i finish publishing the second book, i am going to take a serious look at an alternative approach that i have to think is better than pdf.  it just makes sense for me to look at adobe's indesign, dare i say.  it has a lot of interactive features, so i understand and can be used to make an ePub book that i have to think would be able to be used on lots of platforms.  i am a big apple fan so i would think that i would still use ibook author even if i could get away with a develop once use it wherever alternative.  i am sure that apple does not begrudge authors selling a book on different platforms because last i looked iTunes was available on a windows machine.  i would point you in that direction.

still, it would be nice if (1) apple enhanced ibook author to be able to publish on other platforms and (2) quickly fix the problems with ibook author 2.3 or have better regretting testing.  i understand that they are in the business of selling iPads though.

as an aside, my grandparents and many relatives on my mother's side are from michigan.  mom was one of five sisters born in the farming community of oakley which is close to chesaning.

Mike from Michigan wrote:

 

Is there a way to also sell such a resource in a format that would be suitable for Amazon? 

You will have to check the Amazon site regarding the formats they accept (which certainly does not include .ibooks).  Perhaps PDF generated by IBA can be sold there, or converted to some format by a conversion service.  The FAQ has links for such things

http://www.apple.com/itunes/working-itunes/sell-content/books/book-faq.html

Apple doesn't care about how you sell your content, except that if it is in .ibooks format it can only be sold in the iBookstore.

thanks much for the reply.  i actually saw this reply made by you to another post by someone else after i wrote my post and it clarified the confusion i had,  it makes more sense now, although the lawyers will be unhappy that i am not keeping them busy.

i've noticed how much help you provide on this forum.  i usually speak only for myself, but in this case, on behalf of everyone i thank you.

Three cheers for Tom.

Cheer, Cheer, Cheer.