Post on 13-May-2015
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If you need any jus.fica.on, eBooks are exploding, and mobile readers/tablets are a big part of that explosion.
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1. Our good friend Nonzwakazi lives in Cape Town, South Africa. My wife, Teresa met her in 2000, and we’ve been very close with she and her family since, including suppor.ng the children through private high schools.
2. Ali Michael, an American “African Studies” student, lived with Nonzwakazi’s family for a while in 1998. While there, she wrote Nonzwakazi’s story as her thesis.
3. In 2000, Ali graduated, and her thesis was published and put on an academic shelf somewhere.
4. More than a decade passed. 5. We visited Cape Town for three weeks just aUer this past Christmas. 6. At the same .me, Apple released new publishing soUware, iBooks Author, and an
ePub extension for textbooks. 7. I had the bright idea… 8. Let’s publish Ali’s thesis as an iBook.
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When I started the project, it seemed pre[y simple: 1. Take the thesis contents… 2. and some pictures, 3. and import them to iBooks Author, cleaning up, edi.ng, and forma]ng a bit. 4. Then publish it to iTunes. 5. Wealth and fame – for Nonzwakazi, not me -‐ will follow.
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But it wasn’t nearly that simple. 1. Take the thesis contents… 2. and some pictures, 3. and import them to iBooks Author, cleaning up, edi.ng, and forma]ng a bit. 4. Go into Apple’s online iTunes Connect portal and sign up to be a publisher. 5. Sign the contracts. 6. Add your tax and banking informa.on. 7. Publish the book to a tool called iTunes Producer. 8. iBooks Author generates the cover art, but you also add screenshots… 9. and a whole bunch of meta-‐data… 10. and a whole separate book, excerpted from the main one, as a sample book… 11. all into iTunes Producer. 12. Then, use some money… 13. to buy a block of ISBN codes from Bowker Iden.fier Services. 14. Add the book, the cover page, and a bunch of metadata to Bowker. 15. Assign one of the ISBNs to your new book, adding it to iTunes Producer. 16. Upload it all to iTunes Connect, validated by iTunes Producer before the upload. (I
did this on Sunday, April 22.) 17. Apple then reviews it for content, style, and other aspects. 18. Wait for approval.. 19. Once approved, it goes to iTunes. (This happened on Wednesday, April 25. No
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I haven’t done it, but in looking at the instruc.on for Amazon, it is simpler, but with much poorer tool support: 1. Take the thesis contents… 2. and some pictures, 3. using Word or another publishing tool, clean up, edit, and format a bit, and
export it as HTML. 4. Review it in Amazon Kindle Previewer. 5. Upload it to Kindle Direct Publishing (aUer crea.ng a KDP account). 6. Add cover art and metadata. 7. AUer a few hours, it appears in the Amazon store. 8. Wealth and fame follow.
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My book. Only $.99 or .49 Euros.
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