Since the advent of electronic publishing (and the .epub) format, traditional authors have searched for a way to enter the eBook market. While devices like the Kindle, Nook, and even the iPhone and iPad have made it easy for primarily text-based books to have a presence, authors of more graphics-heavy titles have been left in the cold.
Apple is ready to change all that with their new version of iBooks. While the initial launch of iBooks is aimed at the textbook market, the potential for graphics-heavy traditional books is very high. Using the free iBooks Author software, it’s now possible to create fully interactive, graphics-rich content that can be sold through the iBooks store.
While the new iBooks system doesn’t fit very well into current workflows (it can only import Word and Pages files), I fully expect it to become compatible with InDesign on some level, at some point. Still, the additional workload to convert your traditional publications to iBooks format may well be worth your time. A recent survey (link) found that over the 2011 Christmas holiday, tablet and e-book users doubled. With Apple reporting record sales and with the new iPad expected any time now, 2012 may well be the year of the ‘real’ ebook.
Zaxyn Media is currently working with several partners on iBooks2 initiatives. We’re hoping to have several titles in the iBooks store by the middle of 2012.