How and Where to Find and Read Apple's iBooks

Even though I am using Mac computers for almost thirty years, I was struggling to find (my own) ebooks on the Apple website - because it's just not possible to browse them on the internet.  Only after I read a fantastic article by Piotr Kowalczyk on his website I discovered how Apple's iBook system works: 

"In recent years, many new users enter the Apple ecosystem not by buying a Mac computer, but a mobile device – iPad or iPhone.

If you decided iBooks would be your book-reading app, make sure that you will never want to get the books you bought in the iBooks Store to the computer. Because you won’t access them until you buy a Mac.

Apple’s proposal for book readers is similar to what Henry Ford coined: “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”  Any user can read ebooks on any device as long as it’s made by Apple:

• iPhone
• iPad
• iPod Touch
• Mac

The app is included by default (and not removable) on every device with iOS 8, and OS X Yosemite. The books can be synced via your iCloud account.

If you downloaded iTunes app to your Windows-powered computer in order to manage your music library, don’t try to find the book section. It’s not there.
.

You Can’t Read Books in the Browser
Amazon offers an access to Kindle books via the web browser. Maybe Apple does the same?

No. You can’t access, manage and read the books from your iBooks library using the web browser. This is not an option to PC users started to convert to Apple via iPhone or iPad.

Access via the web browser is very helpful if you seriously think about using digital textbooks to learn. Some things just have to be done on a bigger screen with a full-size keyboard.

Apple puts a lot of stress on the textbooks and using their devices in education, but only the richest students, the ones who can afford iPads and Macs, can study this way.

If you want to access your books and textbooks literally from any device (nowadays, any device has a browser), you should consider Amazon Kindle or Google Play Books.

iBooks Store Does NOT Have a Web Store
When you think of an online store, you are sure it can be found on Google and accessed from a web browser. Not the iBooks Store.  Apple hates browsers to the point, where you can’t access the iBooks Store this way. The only way is via iBooks app or iTunes."

Read the whole article what you need to know about the iBook store here:

https://ebookfriendly.com/things-to-know-about-ibooks-store/

.

<><><><><>

.

Is Apple Your Book's Best Selling Place?

.

.

Apple’s iBooks department launched a new free ebook that helps authors with an iBooks Author Starter Kit.  This free e-book shows authors how to use the program. The book is available in many languages and any author should be able to download and use it.
.
The iBooks Author Starter Kit is a beginners guide to creating Multi-Touch books for teaching and learning. It walks a user through a set of step-by-step activities, and provides all of the materials — an iBooks Author template, color palette, copy decks, images, videos, keynote presentation, and more — needed to create interactive books.
.

Increased Readership Through Updates and Changes. 
Until now iPhone users have been unable to view books made through iBooks Author. They could download and read basic epub books, but they have been unable to view the interactive and graphic-heavy books made through their main publishing app.  Readers will now be able to access all of the books via the iBooks storefront when using the new iOS 8.4. This way they can read the books from an iPhone, iPod or iPad.
Another change is that audio-books and e-books are merged into one storefront to make it much easier for users to find both, text and audio versions of books.
.

4 Million New iBook Readers per Month.
According to reports, Apple has stated that they are gaining about one million new iBooks customers every week since releasing the OS upgrade. This is largely from e-pub books, but many iBooks Authors titles are also gaining new attention and sales, even illustrated books.

Smartphone and mobile users - since releasing iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - are slowly becoming the main customers for this service. Larger screens make it easier to buy, read and use this content, and people also want to take their media with them.
.

No Pay for Placement.
Gigaon.com reported from the Digital Book World Conference about the speech of Keith Moerer, director of iBooks at Apple: “Another difference between the iBooks and Amazon is that Apple doesn’t charge publishers to promote their books on its site. “One hundred percent of our merchandising is editorially focused. We accept no co-op payments, no pay for placement.”

.
iBooks: Now a Real Competition for Amazon. 
Apple is giving new attention, upgrades and books to ensure that as many authors and readers use the platform.  Higher profits for existing authors on the Apple platform makes it a winning situation for those who stayed on board and continued publishing even though iBooks isn’t the biggest store out there - but maybe the more dedicated readers...

.

<><><><><>

.

Looking for a Worldwide Distributor for Your Books?

  

.

Your e-book(s) might be on Amazon.com for quite a while now, and it is convenient for you to have them on the worlds' largest e-book retailer.  But why would you miss out on sales from Apple's iBooks, on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, any UK bookshops, such as Gardners, Waterstones, the large Australian e-bookstore Angus & Robertson and maybe even sales to subscription services, such as Scribd and BookMate or to thousands of libraries through LibraryThing? 

.
Living Outside of the USA? If you are you living outside the USA, as an independent author and you don’t want to go through all the hassle with opening a US branch for your publishing business - and if you don’t want that aggregators (who call themselves often publishers) receive a fat commission every time your book is sold – for years - consider this option: eBookpartnership, a British company with an office in New York, and representation at the BEA in NYC.

 .
Want to Keep 100% Revenue? This British book aggregator, eBookpartnership, will upload your e-book to on- and off-line retailers, libraries and distributors and most important: does all the time-consuming “accounting" and "book-keeping” for you.

Authors describe this global ebook distribution network as a “fast, efficient and friendly service”.  Their website is very detailed and informative.  Authors are charged a standard low annual fee per title no matter of how may retailers you choose to distribute your books to. Per title and per year it will only cost you a flat fee between: £20 and £50, depending on how many titles you give them to distribute.
.

Not everyone has a Kindle, many folks are die-hard Apple iBook fans or using a Nook, or order from Kobo.  Why forego these sales?  Good to know:  there are alternatives to aggregators who don’t reduce your revenues - no matter how many books you sell.

.

<><><><><>

.