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Ibooks 2

January 20, 2012 by · Comments Off on Ibooks 2 

Ibooks 2Ibooks 2, The technology giant Apple has announced a new app that allows anyone to create their own ebook. Speaking at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on Thursday morning, Apple executive Philip Schiller launched the iBooks Author app, a content creation platform for the iPad 2.

This free app allows users to simply drag and drop the contents of, for example, a Word file into an empty space. The app then automatically works out the best way to lay out the text and format chapter headings. Authors will also be able to add illustrations and video clips to enhance the reading experience in a way you cannot with, for example, Amazon’s Kindle.

Professional publishers are already taking advantage of the iPad, particularly in the area of children’s books, where cute designs and graphics seem most appropriate. Last year Faber made a leap forward with the creation of the The Waste Land interactive app, and there are rumours they are adapting another classic modernist text in a similar way this year.

Although the iBooks 2 app is mainly designed to create textbooks, there is no reason why an aspiring author cannot create their own beautiful ebook with this remarkable piece of technology.

However, Apple’s intentions are not quite as generous as they seem. Although you can easily keep your ebook and give it away for free, if you want to sell it then the contractual agreement compels you to do this through Apple’s iBookstore, and for this you need to enter a separate agreement with Apple. In other words, in exchange for getting a snazzy app to make your book look great, you have to give Apple a cut of any profit.

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