Writing and Book Business

Post #86 – Women’s Memoirs, Book Business – Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler

Book Publishing and Marketing May Be Influenced by Apple

Apple changed the music industry. Might it have its sights on the publishing industry? In what ways will Apple facilitate authors who want to get digital versions of their books into the hands (well, onto the tablets) of readers?

As I am writing this post, Apple is getting ready for a major announcement at its Apple Education Event in New York City. By the time you read this post, the event will have already taken place. Be sure to check for what actually took place.

However, I thought this article on Apple and publishing will give you some background that may help you look at the bigger picture.

We all know that publishers are struggling to find the right mix in their business. In a future blog, we’ll look more closely at the changes in the publishing industry. For today, we just want to alert you to pay attention to Apple’s moves. It is likely that at first, Apple with align itself with the textbook industry. Almost from the start, Apple saw the importance of the education market. It looks like that was a smart move and one that will enable it to become a major player in ebook (ibook) publishing.

In the not too distant future, we can expect more tools as well as services. Right now going from a print book, especially one with graphics, to an ebook (e.g. for the Kindle) is not a “press the button” task. If it were easier to have text, images, audios, and even videos all integrated, we would see some exciting books. Even something that ought to be simple — images with text that wraps around — is currently difficult to do. And how about linkable tables of content? All the things that we want are hard to accomplish. Let’s hope that Apple has some good solutions up their sleeves.

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