“Once we saw the possibilities in iBooks we immediately queried Apple for information on how an individual could participate and over a month ago they had no answer, but today they do,” Martin reports. “Apple sent us an e-mail today with details on how someone could sign up to sell their own books in the iBookstore. “
Martin reports, “Once you are established, Apple’s online agreement allows you to sell your book in the iBookstore in several countries. If you don’t feel like your selling your book in every country available, you can set which countries it’ll be available in and the price for each of the titles.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Publishing houses, please move along. There’s nothing to see here. Music cartels, please ignore, too – Hey, look, over there, money!
So, can budding musicians publish their songs on iTunes?
You know, this is the REAL Apple revolution. First, almost anyone can publish software (APPS) now books. With Garageband et al music would be a natural.
Just a thought.
While this is absolutely nothing less than a revolution in publishing, there is likely to be not thousands but millions of people who will want to self-publish, which brings up the question of: how will anyone find anything?
There is no question that there are a lot of very talented yet unknown authors out there who can’t get published because a VERY small group of idiots working in publishing houses don’t see the potential of their works. By allowing self-publishing, Apple may change everything so long as the good authors aren’t drowned out by the flood of mediocre ones…
indie Musicians have to go through an aggregator, such as TuneCore, but it’s pretty cheap and easy.
“So, can budding musicians publish their songs on iTunes?”
iTunes has supported this for years.
Interesting. I have been using Smashwords.
There are dozens of self-publishing venues already running. The main problem is in getting noticed. The same Problem that indie musicians have on iTunes. My album has been up ther since 2006 — anybody ever heard if it?
Indie music on iTunes: yes it can happen quite easily. I use CD Baby for my stuff and they publish quite readily to iTunes just like this: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sunrise-at-basin-harbor/id317658771
I too see the great potential in this development. But -sorry for being the devil’s advocate here- how will minimal quality standards be ensured? I know: eventual sales volume and ratings will guide future shoppers, but we’ve seen what total freedom of publishing on the web sometimes leads to…
And… how do you choose which books to read today? Probably based on reputation, I would imagine. Or based on accolades ( No.1 New York Times Best Seller ) What this will do is add a whole layer of discoverability to these authors.
Oops… I misread your comment. You will also find there are people who have followers but not published. J.C. Hutchins is one that I think did a podcast for a long time before getting published. Scott Sigler as well.
Motivation to finish and self-publish my masters thesis.
Lulu should jump right on this
This will be Big as so many individual stories will appear! Economic contribution to USA. Yes, there will a lot of bad taste and extreme also:-( but most of them are just that.
So, Apple you are doing it again and again!!
iFreedom!
Ballmers new novel: Developers, developers, developers. The end.
@ vanfruniken :
“how will minimal quality standards be ensured?”
For whose benefit do those so-called minimum standards need to be ensured? And do you mean literary standards, grammatical/language standards, or decency standards?
Sounds like just a justification for the existence of Big Publishing.