Apple Changes the World Again

Children's book author Susan Chodakiewitz got an email from the iTunes Store that announced in part:

The latest version of iBooks is now available. iBooks 2 has the following new features:

• Multi-Touch books and textbooks designed for iPad, with interactive features, diagrams, photos, and videos.

• Images with interactive captions, rotating 3D objects, swipe-through image galleries, full-screen videos, and more.

• Study Cards to help you memorize important highlights, notes, and glossary terms.

• Glossary terms to see definitions of key topics and concepts without leaving the page.

iBooks Author

Now anyone can create stunning textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books, and more for iPad. All you need is an idea and a Mac.

Start with one of the Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. Add your own text and images with drag-and-drop ease. Use Multi-Touch widgets to include interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote presentations, 3D objects, and more. Preview your book on your iPad at any time.

Then submit your finished work to the iBookstore with a few simple steps, and before you know it, you're a published author.

Wow! More opportunities as well as more confusion for book authors.

And whether you find this an opportunity or a headache, Apple's iBooks Author does change the world of book publishing once again.

Business owner's perspective on this new frontier



From a business owner's perspective, it is now even easier to produce an ebook if you have access to a Mac. But there is a downside to this ease of publishing.

How can you convince your prospective clients or customers that your self-published book about your expertise is valuable when anyone else could create a similar book?

One way to make your ebook stands out is to make sure that there are as few spelling errors and typos as possible. This means for most people hiring a professional editor to catch these problems.

Then you can demonstrate the value of your ebook by offering a free chapter (hopefully with no errors) that showcases your information and the accessibility of your writing style.

Keeping up with the changes in ebooks and publishing



The site ebookfriendly.com features a one-stop page to get news from leading ebook sites. Visit this page now if you want to read more about ebook news.

And then consider where you want to be in this new frontier of ebook publishing.

© 2012 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

Visit Phyllis' Google Plus profile.

Check out Phyllis' books and other projects at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com