Apple released a new piece of software called iBooks Author. It is for making digital, interactive books for the iPad and is available as a free download. I recently gave it a test run, and was pleased with the results. Here’s my overall impressions and thoughts, and a free download of my first ever iBooks book!
My Weekend Experiment
I made a "preview book" of my webcomic My Sister the Freak using the iBooks Author software over the weekend. I have it available as a free download. Let me know what you think!
Download the FREE My Sister the Freak iBooks Preview Book! (approx. 50 MB)
The ibook includes a couple issues of my comic plus bonus material, taking advantage of several of iBooks Author’s handy multimedia widgets. I hope it gives you a good idea of how these can be applied for comic making.
My next step will be to figure out how to get it up into the iBooks store. Overall, I'm excited, and I can see the potential for selling books in the future.
Why I'm Excited About iBooks Author
When the iPad was first released, it meant major change for the publishing industry, and it held loads of potential for independent creators. However, confusion and difficulty has kept this potential at bay. The format was difficult to make, and it wasn't ideal for visual books like comics and picture books. Plus, there wasn't a whole lot of options for interactivity unless you wanted to learn how to code and design a full app.
iBooks Author changes all that.
Making the Book
After spending a weekend getting to know iBooks Author, I have to say it was a little bit of a headache. The software itself is simple to use, but I had to get over some of my preconceptions and hopes. The software is definitely built with textbooks in mind, but not so much comickers and picture book makers.
What Worked
It is super easy to add multimedia and interactive elements to the book. This is the part of the software that I'm most excited about. iBooks Author is adding something to the ebook game. You are no longer limited to simple text and images.
What Didn't Work
When I was trying to move my comic into the iBooks format, my initial reaction was to try to place an image per page. I quickly realized that wasn't going to work. First, iBooks is still built mainly for text. I couldn't figure out how to format a page image so that it stretched full screen. Plus, the way iBooks Author works, the format changes depending on if you are in horizontal or vertical format. It is designed this way so that when the reader turns their iPad, they can read the text without a lot of visual distraction. That's not so great when you are trying to make a vertical page comic.
How I Got Around It
However, I found that the iBooks Photo Gallery widget works exactly the way I wanted for reading a comic. The pages stretch full screen and works for either orientation. So instead of the traditional one-image-per-page way of making a book, I placed a gallery widget that contains the full issue. The reader opens the book, then clicks on the gallery in order to read it.
After playing for a few hours, I realized that building a book in iBooks Author is more akin to making a website than an actual book. There’s so much difference in terms of structure and variety of media. But thankfully, my experiment didn’t involve one lick of code.
Legal Issues (and why they are not such a big deal)
I've seen a lot of hoopla about Apple's license agreement and terms. Mostly about this:
You cannot sell iBooks outside of the iBooks store.
BUT
They are not compatible outside of iBooks anyway.
iBooks Author is not only creating an ebook file, it is providing a way to add interaction, animation, video, and multimedia to your book. Even if you could take the file into another device, it probably wouldn't work quite right. You are going to be selling exclusively to iPad owners and the iBooks store is the best way to do that.
AND
Apple does not take copyright.
Apple isn't saying you can't sell your book anywhere else. It's just saying you can't sell the specific .ibooks file that you make with its software. You can still, say, sell a PDF made in InDesign or a Kindle version. Apple is taking no claims to the content itself.
This makes sense. Apple wants to be the exclusive provider of iBooks books, in the same way you can only buy Kindle books from Amazon. While I don't agree with it and find it a bit annoying to have to make separate formats for different stores, it's not unusual.
Amazon and Apple do this kind of thing to ensure they get their percentage of your sales. Yeah, that can be irksome. However, given that the software is free and the iBooks store is one of the biggest distributors of digital books on the market right now, I think that is a fair trade.
Considering that before iBooks Author I was avoiding selling in the iBooks store simply because it was too difficult to make and submit a file, I am considering iBooks Author a step UP, even with the annoying legal issues.
Your Turn
I'm excited to see what other artists do with this software and how other people solve comic-making problems. If you spend some time with iBooks Author, please share!
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Thank you so much for this info! Especially the photo gallery tip, as that is exactly what I need for my children’s picture book. :)
- Heidi
Thanks for clearing up the license agreement issue Dani. Even my daughter who is a Genius for Apple, understood it to say the you couldn’t sell it as an “ebook” anywhere else. That makes it a much better option. I haven’t had much time to play with it yet, but it appears to be pretty user friendly.
Thanks! The first thing that came to mind when I found out about iBooks Author was its usability for comics. I’m just wondering if ~$100 on an ISBN will be worth it if one can create an app without that cost. Of course, at this moment that would require more technical knowledge too.
I’ve been going back & forth on the EULA and I see the future of ebooks as having Apple and Amazon as the heavyweights and Barnes & Noble as a solid 3rd option. Getting an ebook quickly & easily into iBooks could be well worth it.
How is pdf export? Does it retain any of the interactivity?
No, if you export as a PDF, it is just a plain PDF. No interactivity.
Hi Dani,
I can’t seem to get the book to open in iBooks. When I tap the Open in iBooks button on the iPad, it opens iBooks but displays a message asking me if I want to quit iBooks to open the link…?
Could it be something to do with the file also having a .zip extension?
Nice work btw.
Thanks Dani, all fixed.
Looks brilliant in iBooks. I especially like the front cover video and the idea to use the gallery feature to view the comic works really well. Love it!
- Rich
The book is iPad only. It downloaded on my phone, but on attempting to open it, says its only compatible with an iPad.
Yes, iBooks Author books are only compatible with iPads.
Hi Dani,
Very interested in the new iBook and your comic. Tried to download your book, but all I seem to get are pages of code! Help. What am I doing wrong?
thanks
Liz
I don’t know why it’s doing that, but I would try right-clicking the link and “Save file as…” or “Download linked file…” or something like that.
Hi Dani,
That was a quick reply! Thanks. It worked with a right click – then imported to library in Itunes. Looking forward to testing it out.
Thanks again
Liz
thanks for this. i am working on publishing a digital art & design magazine and my first choice was a pdf file, created with indesign. then, textbooks came along and a lot of nice ideas came into my head. like adding videos and stuff. but as you mentioned, i was in doubt about the ability, to build a nearly textfree magazine, that is focusing on the images. i really liked the idea of putting the images into a gallery. the full screen is a nice way, to enjoy artwork. i am looking forward to read more about your experiences with textbooks.
Thanks for article, I’m interested in making picture books, so similar issues with the iBooks Author templates. I linked to this post on E is for Book here: http://www.eisforbook.com/2012/01/ibooks-author-links-to-resources-so-far.html
Thanks for the link.
Using the photo gallery widget was a brilliant solution! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Dani,
I just had a browse through your MSTF book/file/project? and it works really well although I can see headaches when it comes to how the page changes formats when you rotate the pad. Good idea for the actual issues, too.
I’ve just had a look at a comic from the ibookstore’s newly opened section (the free issue of The Avengers) and that does stretch to full screen (changing from a single page to a dps when you rotate) so maybe there are some different ePub specs now for iBook comics although I can’t find mention of any.
Good post, though. You’ve whetted my appetite for having a go with Author :)
Wil
Yes, I’m aware that comics and picture books sold in the iBooks store by some major publishers have the full-screen effect that I’m looking for. As far as I’m aware however, Apple hasn’t released that format or software to the public. I’m not sure how it’s done, and I don’t think iBooks Author can do it.
Hi Dani,
I’m creating a book for my company in iBooks Author. The idea is that our customers can download the book for FREE and know more about our company and its people.
But….I have a problem. I put the .ibooks file in the server and create a download link to it so visitors can click and download to their iPads and open in iBooks, but when I press the button on my ipad (using safari) it gives an error (something like cannot find the website blah blah…error 404)
If I send the ibooks file to my email, I got no problems to download it and open it but not in the “download link” in out website.
How did you managed to get it done?
Thanks a lot!!
vic
Hi Dani!
Thank you for your article, it’s very interesting… (and lovely cover for My sister, the Freak! I haven’t a ipad so I can’t see the full preview but the cover and the few pages I could see here are lovely!)
:)
I am self publishing a graphic novel and I would be interested in getting it on iTunes, but I have a few questions.
1- What dimensions must have the file for digital download? My comic book is portrait oriented A5 size… I haven’t an iphone nor a ipad for checking so I have no idea what dimensions should be the files…
2 -in the Apple website I can find all the requisite to publish a text book…not a comic book. Are they the same requisite?
This is the page I found:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-…/book-faq.html
3 -Comic books MUST be in epub format like text book? I read on wikipedia that ibook author saves files into pdf files… do Apple accept pdf too for comic books?
Thanks
Jenika
p.s. keep up the good work!!!
:)
You were the only one who provided any real help with this troublesome program. Thank you for help.
I pledged some money to your kickstarter as a token of my gratitude. good luck!
Hey Dani,
Nice article, I’m just about to get into iBooks Author to make my children’s book, (you can see my blog of the process here )
What I want to know is what are the image dimensions that work best for horizontal and vertical viewing at fullscreen mode?
and did you use JPEGs as picture files, and at 300 dpi ?
Thanks, and best of luck