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iBook Lessons: Childrens picture books
iBook Lessons is a continuing series about ebook writing and publishing. I recently had occasion to give advice regarding an author considering the move from traditional books to ebooks. Normally, in these cases, I recommend starting with Amazon. It offers the simplest tools for publishing manuscripts with a minimum of effort. In this case, the material was a children's picture book. And because of that, I suggested going with the iBookstore instead. The iBooks Author software, available freely from Apple, provides a much better match to picture book layout and interaction than standard document-to-EPUB conversion tools. For picture books, which typically run 32 pages in length, the layout is just as important as the content. iBooks Author offers fixed page layout, so you can be sure that the page you design and the page the reader sees are essentially the same. This makes it the best match for many cookbooks, textbooks, and of course, picture books. Best of all, it's pretty easy to pick up for anyone with some technological mastery. As an alternative, advanced design tools like Adobe InDesign enable you to create fixed layout using traditional EPUB 3, but the software is expensive and the technological demands are higher. (Link is to a PDF describing the process of converting childrens books to EPUB 3 using InDesign.) The advantage to EPUB is a potentially wider audience, but you do so subject to the whims of the rendering platform without the guarantees of page fidelity that Apple brings to the table with iBooks. There's no implied contract of performance. As Smashwords CEO Mark Coker points out, "Any time you add complexity to a book, you create opportunities for incompatibility or limit the number of supported platforms." One of the challenges of a fixed format book is that it limits the platform on which it can be read. With iBooks Author, you limit your audience to iPad owners. The expanded iBooks format is only available for tablet reading. The unfortunate side of choosing fixed layout is that you lose out on many services that exist to transform manuscripts to EPUB formats. Sites like Smashwords, Lulu, and FastPencil offer simple-to-use book conversion and publishing options. You upload a manuscript, choose a template, and publish. They are a perfect match for casual writers without a tech background. That kind of automated conversion just doesn't seem to exist for fixed layout projects. Coker explained that fixed layout isn't an easy path, even for a constantly evolving service. "We're looking to the future to see how we can add other formats," he said. Smashwords currently supports EPUB 2, but is exploring additional formats including EPUB 3 and other fixed layout solutions like iBooks. "Just within the last week, we introduced a new feature called Smashwords Direct," he said. "The service allows authors and publishers to upload their own professionally formatted EPUB files." Prior to the Direct service, Smashwords limited their uploads to Microsoft Word documents. "This is the first time we've allowed a format other than just Word docs. We see this as the first step, a foundational element for supporting other file formats." Coker expressed interest in distributing books in iBooks format to Apple as well. "We're taking it one step at a time. Our Direct service is in beta. We're going to work on working out the kinks for the first generation then look to the future to see how we can add the other formats." Coker could not offer a timeline due to the exploratory nature of the initiative. In the end, the best bet for the picture book situation is probably to give iBooks Author a try. There are many excellent books and websites that guide you through the process and teach you how to use the app. Have experience using conversion bureaus? Share your stories in the comments.
Daily Update for July 16, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Adobe issues fix for InDesign crashes under Lion 10.7.4
Adobe confirmed in a recent technical note that InDesign customers with OS X Lion 10.7.4 may experience problems with the app crashing "when performing certain functions." The technical note provides two solutions to the problem, one of which includes the warning not to install the OS X 10.7.4 update. The other solution requires InDesign owners to download and replace several files in the UI.InDesign.Plugin package. As ZDNet points out, it's an "ugly procedure" that could have been made easier had Adobe bundled the files with an AppleScript to automate the process. [Via ZDNet]
Blurb and CGX partner for print-on-demand workflow
Ebooks are the current darlings of the publishing world, but there is still a huge demand for printed materials. Blurb, an online platform for designing, publishing, marketing, and selling pro-quality books, has partnered with commercial printing firm Consolidated Graphics, Inc (CGX) to produce an Adobe InDesign plug-in that works with a new service called Publish to allow print-on-demand books in runs as small as one. Publish lets designers use their familiar friend Adobe InDesign to prepare their projects. The plug-in has templates for four cover formats, five paper types, and eight trim sizes. The plug-in then moves projects to Blurb, where they can be proofed, given automated pre-flight checks, and then ordered via credit card. Blurb notes that the workflow speeds project completion times by about 75 percent. The small run size provided by Publish makes it cost-effective for companies to create high-quality projects and receive completed print materials in about a week.
WoodWing gives sneak peek at tools for creating iPad-based magazines
There are many great graphic artists out there, as there are many great computer programmers. However, it's difficult to find a great graphic artist that also has great programming skills. For artists more interested in content creation than programming frustration, WoodWing Software's recently unveiled iPad-magazine tools may hit the spot. The tools, designed with an Adobe InDesign workflow in mind, aim to facilitate the publishing of iPad-based magazines. WoodWing's Content Station serves as the main facilitator between artist and publication. In Content Station, the user can access and arrange (via drag and drop) the dossiers for a particular magazine brand or issue. Double clicking on the dossier will show the assets (images, movies, and InDesign document) that make it up. There, double clicking on an InDesign document will open it up in InDesign, where you can make your edits. When you're done editing the InDesign document or any other related asset and are ready to publish, publishing is just a click away in Content Station. Part of the fervor behind the iPad is its media consumption potential, in particular with traditional print media. The digital revolution has given birth to web versions of newspapers and magazines that, while more timely and convenient for readers, has also presented revenue challenges for traditional print media in the name of ad and subscription revenues. If Content Station can reduce the effort involved in moving from print to digital delivery, that's bound to help publishers leap over the digital divide. Thanks to TUAW reader Frank for the tip!
