Comments on: Be iPad Ready with Lulu http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/ Adventures in Self-Publishing Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:50:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: John http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3320 John Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:28:19 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3320 @Sam... I'm really curious how much it cost you to produce your iPhone app, and why are you offering it for free? Is the goal to get them into Book 1 and then sell them Book 2? @Sam… I’m really curious how much it cost you to produce your iPhone app, and why are you offering it for free? Is the goal to get them into Book 1 and then sell them Book 2?

]]> By: Anthony Coe http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3319 Anthony Coe Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:15:00 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3319 I'm guessing that the iPad will come with the Adobe Reader buitl into it. Like most, when I published the print editions of my titles I also made it available as a download in PDF format. I'm not impressed with the iPad. I know Aplle can do better than that. But I like that Lulu is offering the ePub format. It gives the reader a choice. It opens up sales for readers who use the Sony Reader, iPod, iPhone, and many other ebook reading devices. As Andrea Sfiligio pointed out not all publications will work in the ePub format, but it will work for most novels, which have little to no illustrations. I also like that Lulu links the ePub format to the printed edition of the title. I found that Calibre (a free program) works best for converting PDF files into ePub formats. I’m guessing that the iPad will come with the Adobe Reader buitl into it. Like most, when I published the print editions of my titles I also made it available as a download in PDF format.

I’m not impressed with the iPad. I know Aplle can do better than that. But I like that Lulu is offering the ePub format. It gives the reader a choice. It opens up sales for readers who use the Sony Reader, iPod, iPhone, and many other ebook reading devices.

As Andrea Sfiligio pointed out not all publications will work in the ePub format, but it will work for most novels, which have little to no illustrations.

I also like that Lulu links the ePub format to the printed edition of the title. I found that Calibre (a free program) works best for converting PDF files into ePub formats.

]]> By: Rick Cross http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3318 Rick Cross Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:57:27 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3318 BTW, I DO have an iPod Touch. And I'm glad to see that someone else here sees the iPad as being only an iPod with a bigger screen. It certainly isn't an earth shaking, new technology or new type of device. (For the record, I also own several Windows handhelds and smart phones as well as a few dedicated ebook readers. (REB 1100 and 1200s.) I don't see myself ever buying another dedicated ebook reader. Stanza and some others are very good ebook readers for this platform. PDFs are only really decent with a free program called GoodReader. Once your book is in epub format, it'll be trivial to submit it to the Apple bookstore. You could do the conversion yourself but it sounds like Lulu is making the conversion a lot easier. I'm certain that whatever hoops have to be jumped through to get a book in the Apple bookstore, Lulu is going to help us as much as possible. BTW, I DO have an iPod Touch. And I’m glad to see that someone else here sees the iPad as being only an iPod with a bigger screen. It certainly isn’t an earth shaking, new technology or new type of device. (For the record, I also own several Windows handhelds and smart phones as well as a few dedicated ebook readers. (REB 1100 and 1200s.) I don’t see myself ever buying another dedicated ebook reader.

Stanza and some others are very good ebook readers for this platform. PDFs are only really decent with a free program called GoodReader.

Once your book is in epub format, it’ll be trivial to submit it to the Apple bookstore. You could do the conversion yourself but it sounds like Lulu is making the conversion a lot easier. I’m certain that whatever hoops have to be jumped through to get a book in the Apple bookstore, Lulu is going to help us as much as possible.

]]> By: Rick Cross http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3317 Rick Cross Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:47:25 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3317 @G Lynam: I hate to break the news to you but the pirated book sites are full of books that have never been released in ebook format. With today's computers and OCR programs it is almost trivial to scan a book and convert it to a text, Word, html, PDF, etc. document which may then be easily converted to any of the proprietary ebook formats. I do this myself with the few magazines I get. They take up less space on my computer and DVD discs than on my bookshelf. If i could get them in PDF format, I would. I also do this with almost all of my paper documents, mail, newsletters, receipts, etc. So offering your book only in printed format only slows down a would be pirate. Honestly though, most, and I mean the very vast majority of people would never steal a copy of an ebook, computer program, etc. If they really want it and it is priced right, they'll buy it. That's been proven over and over throughout the years. From what I've seen, the costs of DRM systems for an author tend to be higher than what may be lost due to piracy. But my experience with that is from a software point of view only. All DRM tends to do is hamper the honest person. There hasn't been a DRM system yet that wasn't quickly cracked. Yet it can stop the legal purchaser/license holder from using what they bought or licensed. (Much like gun laws which do little or nothing to slow down a law breaker but hinder only the law abiding person.) Honest people won't steal. Dishonest people are not stopped by DRM. @G Lynam: I hate to break the news to you but the pirated book sites are full of books that have never been released in ebook format. With today’s computers and OCR programs it is almost trivial to scan a book and convert it to a text, Word, html, PDF, etc. document which may then be easily converted to any of the proprietary ebook formats. I do this myself with the few magazines I get. They take up less space on my computer and DVD discs than on my bookshelf. If i could get them in PDF format, I would. I also do this with almost all of my paper documents, mail, newsletters, receipts, etc.

So offering your book only in printed format only slows down a would be pirate.

Honestly though, most, and I mean the very vast majority of people would never steal a copy of an ebook, computer program, etc. If they really want it and it is priced right, they’ll buy it. That’s been proven over and over throughout the years.

From what I’ve seen, the costs of DRM systems for an author tend to be higher than what may be lost due to piracy. But my experience with that is from a software point of view only.

All DRM tends to do is hamper the honest person. There hasn’t been a DRM system yet that wasn’t quickly cracked. Yet it can stop the legal purchaser/license holder from using what they bought or licensed. (Much like gun laws which do little or nothing to slow down a law breaker but hinder only the law abiding person.)

Honest people won’t steal. Dishonest people are not stopped by DRM.

]]> By: Peter Nordstrand http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3316 Peter Nordstrand Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:21:57 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3316 You have not replied properly to Paul & loki's questions. Does Lulu have a deal with Apple to put their books on the iBook store? Or do you have some other option in mind, such as a specific book selling app for the app store, by you or some other vendor? Or what are you saying? You have not replied properly to Paul & loki’s questions. Does Lulu have a deal with Apple to put their books on the iBook store? Or do you have some other option in mind, such as a specific book selling app for the app store, by you or some other vendor?

Or what are you saying?

]]> By: Harish Abbott http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3315 Harish Abbott Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:05:10 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3315 @G Lynam You can always protect your books from privacy using Digital Rights Management (DRM). Lulu offers this as a simple service that you can add to your documents as they are getting published. @G Lynam You can always protect your books from privacy using Digital Rights Management (DRM). Lulu offers this as a simple service that you can add to your documents as they are getting published.

]]> By: Sam http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3314 Sam Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:49:02 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3314 I'm not certain if this was suggested, but it would be great if Lulu had their own eBook reader app that allowed lulu customers to make a stand alone app of their book(s)for the iTunes store. In other words, not a reader app like Stanza, but the end result would be an app that lived on the iPhone with its own icon that looks just like your lulu book cover. That's what I have now, but it sure would have been great (and I'm certain cheaper) if I could have just done it here at Lulu at the same time I made the print versions. Sam I’m not certain if this was suggested, but it would be great if Lulu had their own eBook reader app that allowed lulu customers to make a stand alone app of their book(s)for the iTunes store. In other words, not a reader app like Stanza, but the end result would be an app that lived on the iPhone with its own icon that looks just like your lulu book cover. That’s what I have now, but it sure would have been great (and I’m certain cheaper) if I could have just done it here at Lulu at the same time I made the print versions.
Sam

]]> By: Sam http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3313 Sam Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:42:13 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3313 CC, An individual can have access to the Apple app store with their books for sale there. You just need to find an app developer you like. I did, and have my book avalable here on Lulu and, the content was coverted easily into a proprietary eBook reader application. If you have an iPhone or ipod touch you can download my book (for free) here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-war-anonymous/id340659655?mt=8 I purchased an individual developer account at Apple - this was $99 and I hired developer to make the app. I like this better as people do not have to search "through" Stanza or some other reader to find my book. They can search for book apps right in the iPhone app store. Plus, you can charge for the app/eBook if you want to via the itunes store - just like anyone else with an app offered there. As I mentioned, my book in hardcover and paperback is also here on Lulu. Btw, Thanks Lulu for such high quality book production. I am still blown away. Sam CC,
An individual can have access to the Apple app store with their books for sale there. You just need to find an app developer you like. I did, and have my book avalable here on Lulu and, the content was coverted easily into a proprietary eBook reader application. If you have an iPhone or ipod touch you can download my book (for free) here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-war-anonymous/id340659655?mt=8
I purchased an individual developer account at Apple – this was $99 and I hired developer to make the app. I like this better as people do not have to search “through” Stanza or some other reader to find my book. They can search for book apps right in the iPhone app store. Plus, you can charge for the app/eBook if you want to via the itunes store – just like anyone else with an app offered there.
As I mentioned, my book in hardcover and paperback is also here on Lulu.
Btw, Thanks Lulu for such high quality book production. I am still blown away.
Sam

]]> By: Harish Abbott http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3312 Harish Abbott Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:01:40 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3312 Thanks for your comments. @andrea - I do not know for sure but I do believe iPad will come with a reader supporting PDF's among other documents. ePub format have some advantages, however - the text in ePub format will reflow to the screen size. In PDF the text is fixed page view. For ePub files, readers can take a book from wide screen at home to a small screen on their mobile device and the text will look good. And since ePub is an open standard it can be read on any hardware and software platform that implements those standards - thus extending the reach to many more readers. @Ryan @others - we are working to launch a service to help you convert your PDF to ePub and other formats. There are lot of questions still to be answered and we will keep you updated on how this goes. @andrea - Good point. I think your specific case has to be address by advanced linking in the documents. So the rules can be links and then people just click on the rule to get the details but I am may be missing something here. @Bryan - The short answer is Yes. There are some tools out there - http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/05/epub-creation-just-got-a-lot-s.html but the challenge is formatting such the intent of documents is not lost. As I said we are working on services to help our authors convert their documents to ePub while maintaining the professional look. We will keep you updated. And with our initiative on DRM and device independence we are also working to get our authors eBooks out to as many platforms as possible. Thanks for your comments.

@andrea – I do not know for sure but I do believe iPad will come with a reader supporting PDF’s among other documents. ePub format have some advantages, however – the text in ePub format will reflow to the screen size. In PDF the text is fixed page view. For ePub files, readers can take a book from wide screen at home to a small screen on their mobile device and the text will look good. And since ePub is an open standard it can be read on any hardware and software platform that implements those standards – thus extending the reach to many more readers.

@Ryan @others – we are working to launch a service to help you convert your PDF to ePub and other formats. There are lot of questions still to be answered and we will keep you updated on how this goes.

@andrea – Good point. I think your specific case has to be address by advanced linking in the documents. So the rules can be links and then people just click on the rule to get the details but I am may be missing something here.

@Bryan – The short answer is Yes. There are some tools out there – http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/05/epub-creation-just-got-a-lot-s.html but the challenge is formatting such the intent of documents is not lost. As I said we are working on services to help our authors convert their documents to ePub while maintaining the professional look. We will keep you updated. And with our initiative on DRM and device independence we are also working to get our authors eBooks out to as many platforms as possible.

]]> By: loki http://www.lulu.com/blog/2010/01/27/be-ipad-ready-with-lulu/#comment-3311 loki Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:10:20 +0000 http://lulublog.com/?p=2243#comment-3311 How will out Lulu published ePub books be used on the iPad? will Lulu content be available on the iBook store? How will out Lulu published ePub books be used on the iPad? will Lulu content be available on the iBook store?

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