It could have been beyond amazing!
Apple’s iBooks Author app, announced today and available for free in the Mac AppStore, could have severely disrupted the ebook publishing space. I mean… watch the video… it’s got all the ease-of-use, the simplicity, the drag-and-drop goodness… everything we’ve come to know and love from Apple apps.
It could have been beyond simply “amazing”.
As an author and online writer who is employed full-time to create new online content, and who has several ebook ideas in the queue, both professionally and personally, I know first-hand the challenges of ebook creation. While the tools have gotten better over the years, the market could still use the disruption of an app that truly makes it drop-dead simple to create ebooks.
You know, the kind of app that Apple is so good at creating.
However, Apple’s iBooks Author app, as amazing as it may be… is a great big FAIL in my book.
It could have been beyond amazing.
Now, I probably won’t ever use it.
Why?
Simple…
LOOK AT THE LICENSE TERMS!
Go ahead… download the app. It’s free, after all. (Assuming, of course, you have a Mac.)
Then go up to the “iBooks Author” menu and choose “About iBooks Author”. You’ll get the screen below:
Click on the “License Agreement” button… and prepare to cringe.
Right at the very top in bold print is this message to you:
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a “Work”), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple.
And if you aren’t disgusted enough, keep reading down to section B, clause (ii):
B. Distribution of your Work. As a condition of this License and provided you are in compliance with its terms, your Work may be distributed as follows:
(i) if your Work is provided for free (at no charge), you may distribute the Work by any available means;
(ii) if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple and such distribution is subject to the following limitations and conditions: (a) you will be required to enter into a separate written agreement with Apple (or an Apple affiliate or subsidiary) before any commercial distribution of your Work may take place; and (b) Apple may determine for any reason and in its sole discretion not to select your Work for distribution.
Soooo…. you can use it to write documents that you will give away… but if you want to sell them you can do so only through Apple???
And Apple “may determine for any reason and in its sole discretion NOT to distribute your work? So you go through the whole process of creating an ebook only to find out Apple will not carry your ebook in their iBookstore???
HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU SPELL “LOCK-IN”?
And of course, you see this message again when you go to actually export a document you create:
Again…
HOW MANY WAYS CAN YOU SPELL “FAIL”?
It could have been more than just amazing.
It could have severely shook up the ebook authoring environment.
It could have been yet-another-reason why people would choose to use a Mac.
Instead, Apple decides that they will use it as a way to lock people in to their specific platform.
Sad.
Sorry, Apple. You’ve lost a potential user.
Instead you’ll find me at the Tools of Change Conference (TOCCON) next month in New York, where the real revolution in publishing will be unfolding as we look at new apps and technologies that can truly feed an open ecosystem of authors and publishers.
Too bad.
It could have been beyond amazing!
UPDATE: – I wrote a follow-up post: Yes, Apple’s iBooks Author Strategy Is Absolutely Brilliant… Just Short-Sighted
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Ron, I hear you! The fact that we need multiple tools right now is quite annoying. By the way, have you looked at Jutoh at all? http://www.jutoh.com/ It’s not free but it looks like it has some interesting abilities to publish out to multiple formats.
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TITLE: Yes, Apple’s iBooks Author Strategy Is Absolutely Brilliant… Just Short-Sighted
BLOG NAME: Disruptive Conversations
After my rant yesterday about Apple’s über-restrictive license terms for the new iBooks Author app, I had several comments to the effect of “DUH!” and “Well, doesn’t it make sense for Apple?” Yes, it absolutely makes sense for Apple. It’s…
PING:
TITLE: My View of Apple’s Education Initiatives
BLOG NAME: Inside View from Ireland
I USE APPLE products to learn. Apple and learning have been part of my life since 1984. But I’m not convinced the interactive Apple way is best in all cases.
They said this about the iPad as well…
No dummy. You completely misunderstood the License Agreement.
Apple does not own your book. Apple only says: if you use iBooks Author to format your book then you have to sell it through the iBookstore.
You are totally free to grab any other tool and convert that same book to PDF or EPUB or whatever format and sell it at as many different online bookstores as you wish.
Their store, their rules. Also, any publisher or store will look at your book and decide if they actually want to publish and/or sell it. This is nothing new or special.
My issue is … I write and publish weekly an enewsletter that I also make available as an ePub (for the iPad & iPhone folks) and as KF8 (for those new Kindle Fire folks). I just wish I only had to use 1 tool. Sigil makes it easy to make the ePub, but thus far, all I have is the new Amazon command-line tool to make the KF8 format. “Hopefully,” Sigil will be upgraded to support production of the new format.
[By the way, thank you for starting out your comment in such a civil tone. I wonder if you would refer to me as a “dummy” if we were sitting across the table from each other.]
I actually completely understand the License Agreement and, in fact, you and I are in complete agreement. 🙂
My point was that there was a missed opportunity here for Apple. You are totally free to take your content and put it in any other tool and format it any other way you want. But that’s the issue… why work with multiple tools? That’s often the current state we are in. I want better tools. Apple’s iBook Author could be that great tool we are all looking for… except that they restricted it to their store instead of making it a general tool.
As I wrote in my follow-up post, it’s a brilliant strategy on Apple’s part… I just feel it’s short-sighted: /2012/01/20/yes-apples-ibooks-author-strategy-is-absolutely-brilliant-just-short-sighted/