. . . . straight to the Ipad.

[B.R.Stateham]

Ryu Murakami has decided to skip traditional publishing and is going another route.  An interesting route.  His newest novel is going straight to the Ipad.  Hmmmm. . . if a writer can make some bucks on the Ipad (more so than the traditional route) why publish the traditional way?

 

What do you think?

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/07/15/ryu-murakami-skirts-p...

[John A. Karr]

I'm in the process of final editing a novel to go Amazon e-book. Hadn't heard about direct to iPad but assume it's similar. Amazon may have a real competitor there in Apple, if iTunes is any indication. I don't think anyone else comes close musically.

[Camille LaGuire]

If you want to go direct to the Apple iBookstore, you have to become a "developer" (which is way easier than it is for the App Store), and you'll need an up-to-date Mac computer to upload from. (I go through Smashwords at the moment, so I don't know why - I think it's a software thing. The app you have to use to convert and upload is Snow Leopard only or something.)

One thing, the Apple store (unlike Barnes and Noble) really has its act together. Even going through Smashwords, they get updates in fast and accurately. (BN takes forever and always gets something wrong.)

[John A. Karr]

Cool info, Camille. I had no idea. I don't have a Mac, so that'll be a back burner part of this project. You'd think Smashwords might have a way to use a PC to get to iBookstore ...
Or an App from Apple that runs on the PC. I use iTunes off my PC.

Also, I don't have a Kindle but have downloaded and used PC Kindle.

[Camille LaGuire]

If you go through Smashwords, you don't need a Mac. They'll publish into the iBookstore for you.

You just have to produce a good clean doc file for them to process into something Apple will accept (read the instructions carefully) and you will need an ISBN number, but Smashwords will give you a free one if you list them as "publisher" and they'll sell you one for cheap if you want to be your own publisher. (Note: you don't need an ISBN to publish at Amazon or in Smashwords' own catalog - just for some of Smashwords' partners like Apple.)