As I was reading through my feeds today, a post about the iBooks app availability caught my eye. So, before even reading the post I downloaded the free iBooks app from the iTunes app store and almost went about my business. But I took a moment to read the post and this comment got me thinking. (scary)
“The app’s page also states that only the ePub format is supported and to add ePub books from outside of the iBookstore to the iBooks app, they must be DRM-free and synced to the iPad using iTunes 9.1 or later. The iBook app is free. I think I just heard Jeff Bezos shaking in his reading jacket.”
A Free App To Display Free Books That Anyone Can Create
The “shaking in his reading jacket” comment had me puzzled for a moment. Then it hit me. What the iBooks app is doing is proving anyone with a way to get their book onto the iPad. Of course, you need to know how to get your book into the ePub format, but that’s appears to be a fairly minor obstacle. There are lots of conversion tools.
If you can get your book into a PDF document you can use a site like ePub2Go to convert the pdf to the ePub format. It would be nice if the next release of Pages on the Mac added ePub to its list of export options, but I’m not going to wait for that. Instead, I’m going to do a little test for myself.
The fact that they are shipping a free children’s book with the app, Winnie The Pooh, is really what triggered my thinking. Ines Hegedus-Garcia worked with me on a kids book project a few months ago that will be perfect to test. The book, The Grand Itch, is really a poem I wrote over 25 years ago while working on my Masters Degree. I don’t remember what compelled me to write it, but I found it in a box in my garage and decided to do something to raise money for Mothers Fighting For Others. Ines provided the illustrations, and I did the layout and typography while driving her crazy with my art direction. It was fun (for me at least). And the idea was to give the book away and simply encourage a donation.
The Grand Itch As An iBook.
So, I’ve decided to make the ePub format of the The Grand Itch available over on the MFFO website as soon as I test it on the iPad that should be delivered to my house tomorrow. I’ve already converted the PDF into ePub using ePub2Go and will install it using iTunes on the iPad as one of my first tests. On the back page will be a link that should open to a donation page. Perfect.
I’ll document the process and let you know what technical issues I run into, if any. I know other devices have been able to read the ePub format. But this just feels different. Or maybe I’m just that much of an Apple fan boy. I don’t care. If it looks as good as the iBooks video demonstrations, and feels as good as I hope it will, Mr. Bezos may indeed have something to worry about. The potential applications are mind boggling.
What would you do with this capability?