As everyone predicted, Apple released an ez-iBook maker and there's controversy over it's features and possible lock-in since you can only publish to the iBookstore. Admittedly that's not surprising as it's a specialized ePub format so you can only read it as an iBook (that and I'm not seeing a lot of anger over Kindle . . .).
So what do I think?
- This was inevitable. Apple had a platform and a book system and of course an authoring system was coming.
- Content is king, but delivery pays the bills. This is also an inevitable financial model. Right now being a gatekeeper pays.
- Amazon is going to follow suit so fast it'll make your head spin.
- I'm not sure what, if anything, Microsoft will do.
- This might mean more effective freelance writers – and more jobs.
- This also means that rating systems are going to be even more important, as is good relations. So build that author platform.
- Have I noted we REALLY NEED a universal book format everyone uses? We do.