Mashable
Hands On: Apple’s iBooks Author App

Engadget
Apple launches iBooks 2 e-Textbook platform (video)

PC Magazine
iBooks Author: You Work For Apple Now

The Telegraph
iBooks Author:  Apple doesn’t want to own your book

The Verge
iBooks Author restricts all sales to iBookstore, wraps for-pay books in DRM

Techcrunch
Apple Announces iBooks 2, A New Textbook Experience for the iPad

LA Times
Apple’s iBooks 2, iBooks Author:  Bids to own publishing’s future

TechRadar
Hands on:  iBooks Author review

So what do you guys think about Apple’s new initiative?  Sound off in the comments below.

In a recent post I talked about how all of you would-be eBook authors should know your file formats, or at least be somewhat familiar with the most commonly used ones.  As an author, you want to make your work as accessible as possible, which means making your content able to be read on as many devices as you can.  Since it is Read an eBook Week, and Lulu is giving away three Apple iPads, I thought it might be useful to provide a how-to tutorial for the most universal eBook format: ePub.

Many new authors might make the mistake of thinking that if they have a portable document format (PDF) of their book it means that it can be read on an e-reader or other mobile device.  While in many cases the PDF can be opened, the text is far too small because it is a static or unchangeable image.  ePub makes it so your text is resized to fit the screen of any given device.  Since the text in ePub format can be changed in terms of size, font and color, reading an ePub book becomes a much more personal experience for the reader.  Sounds great right?  But how do you make an ePub book?

You really have three options:  let Lulu do the work for you with our conversion services, use a conversion program like (Adobe InDesign, eCub, Calibre, Google ePub Toolkit, etc.), or you can do-it-yourself.  If you decide to do-it-yourself, I’ve added some great directions I found over at jedisaber.com.

What You’ll Need:

* A text editor (like Text Edit or Notepad) that can edit text files, HTML, and XML.
* A program that can create .zip files (which should be built into OS X or Windows).

Alright, first you’ll need to get all of the files together that you will later put into your master .zip file (called a container).

A Closer look at ePub files (*Be aware that file names are case sensitive*):

A .epub file has at least the following files/folders in it to function:

* mimetype – Typically a plain ASCII text file that has the line “application/epub+zip” in it.  This file tells a reader/operating system what’s in the .ePub file. This file must be the first line in the zip file, and cannot be compressed.
* META-INF folder – Contains at least the container.xml file, which tells the reader software where to find the book in the container (typically in the content.opf file detailed below).
* OEBPS folder – Recommended location for the book’s actual content

* toc.ncx  file – Table of contents arranged with navpoint tags.  Make sure the UID matches whatever is in your content.opf file because some readers won’t display your book properly if it doesn’t.  The play order values found in this file must also be in order and will return an error if the order skips over a number.
* XHTML files – The book’s literal contents are listed in these files which are like HTML files with closing tags associated with each element.  It is up to you how you arrange your content but having a separate .xhtml file for each chapter tends to look better on e-readers.

Now that you have all your files in order, you can make the .epub container that houses all of them.

How to Make the Container File

* First create a new .zip file
* Copy the uncompressed mimetype file into the .zip file.
* Copy all of your other files (which should all be located in an OEBPS file) into the .zip file.

* Change the .zip file extension to .epub.

Once you are done with these steps, you should have a readable eBook in a format that works on most readers.  Now, all you should have to do is upload your work to Lulu.

Making Your eBook Available for Download

• In the Publish section, click the ‘eBooks’ button.
• Click the ‘Start your eBook‘ button.
• Enter a title and author name. Select your project’s availability.  Click the ‘Save &
• Continue’ button (any of these options can be changed at anytime).
• Upload the file you want to use by clicking the ‘browse’ button, searching your computer for the file you want to use and then clicking the ‘Upload’ button.
• If you upload multiple files to create an eBook, you will have to select a size for Lulu to create your eBook.
• Click the ‘Make Download-Ready File’ button to convert your file into an eBook.
• Download and preview your file and then click the ‘Save & Continue’ button.
• Create your cover and click the ‘Make Cover’ button. Then click the ‘Save & Continue’ button after the page reloads. Learn how to create a cover here and see What the eBook cover for.
• Fill in the Description fields and click the ‘Save & Continue’ button
• Set the price for your eBook and click the ‘Review Project’ button (eBooks with DRM cannot be offered for free).
• Review your project. Click the ‘Change’ button for any section that needs adjustment. If everything is to your liking click the ‘Save & Finish’ button.

Once you click the ‘Save & Finish’ button you should have a book that is ready to share with the world in cutting-edge fashion – something any reader on the go will appreciate.

Today, Lulu officially launched the Lulu EPUB Converter and eBook Creator Guide – thus helping to simplify the complex process of turning your brilliant work from popular word processing formats, such as a Word document, into sellable EPUBs, the most widely adopted format used by eReaders – absolutely free.

So how is it different?

The Lulu EPUB Converter is unique in that it not only converts but also automatically fixes many pesky errors including accepted fonts and extra spacing. This is the highest level of automation available anywhere.

What does this mean for you?

For you, oh faithful Lulu creator, this means getting your work into popular eBook retail channels is easier and just in time to give you an edge this holiday season and sell your remarkable works electronically while earning more on eBooks than anywhere else with our new industry-best 90/10 revenue split (limited time offer through January 31, 2012).

As part of this initiative, Lulu has secured partnerships with Apple and Barnes and Noble so you can sell your works to millions of readers on devices like the iPad® and NOOK™, not to mention in print on Amazon.com and the Lulu Marketplace.  We’ve even added a new Manage Distribution page that lets you opt-in and opt-out of retail channels for all your titles with the click of a button.

With our step-by-step eBook Creator Guide, you can be sure your customers are getting the most robust experience reading your work too.  All of these new tools, resources, and features can be found on Lulu’s new eBook Landing page – your source for all things eBooks.

Don’t forget to explore all your print book options too, and publish the way you, and your readers, want this holiday.

• eBook Landing page
• Print Book Landing page
  

eBooks keep gaining in popularity. Readers just can’t resist the competitive pricing many eBooks bring or the convenience of carrying around entire libraries of their favorite titles wherever they go. eBook sales have grown 80% at Lulu alone and we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help your books grace the digital pages of your favorite devices and platforms.

Our new eBook page is where you’ll find answers to all sorts of frequently asked eBook questions like what’s the difference between different eBook formats, what’s this “metadata” term mean and why is it so important, and you can learn what your eBooks will need to get into tip top shape for your readers. You can also download our handy new eBook Distribution Guidelines that’ll save you lots of headaches when it comes time to sell through other retail channels.

We’ll keep updating our eBook page with the latest in eBook news and opportunities, so be sure to keep checking back, and as always – happy publishing.

The only way to predict the future is to invent it.

Only seven short years ago Lulu launched what was one of the very first, if not the first, self-publishing sites on the Internet.   Since then, we’ve served millions of authors by helping sell tens of millions of their books.

But what was a great idea then is only a good idea today.  Our success has spawned a myriad of imitators some of whom, I am forced to admit, are almost as good at what we do as we are.   Competition is the least of our concerns.  The bigger trend we are embracing to better serve our customers is, of course, the explosion of eBook readers and digital marketplaces, which are changing the very nature of what a book is.

As you no doubt expect, we’ve been working hard to re-invent Lulu to offer features our competitors have yet to even dream about.   We are moving from a concept of self-publishing to one of open-publishing.   In very broad terms self-publishing is what it sounds like:  we give you the tools and you get to publish your book yourself.    The concept of open-publishing is one where we give you the platform and you are empowered to innovate the tools and solutions that best fit your needs and help you sell more books.  The Lulu platform will be of particular benefit to a new generation of publishers who can create new tools to help authors reach more readers, monetize out-of-print or back-catalogued titles, and grow their customer-base.  We will have several more major announcements coming throughout this year, the first being our exciting new Open Publishing APIs (Application Programming Interface), recently made available to the public.

With our APIs, which you can download and play with over at developer.lulu.com, Lulu is helping a new generation of creators profit by enabling them to bring their knowledge and expertise to their customers more easily than ever before. For those of you who don’t know, an API is like a Lego® block that makes a website or application work. And with Lulu APIs, authors, publishers, businesses, and developers alike, are able to create a new breed of web applications, powered by Lulu, and marketed under their own brand names – absolutely free.

So far, we’ve been blown away by the creativity and innovation we’ve seen in the sites and applications people have come up with. Some of our favorite examples are twournal.com, that lets turn your tweets into a book, and beforeigrewup.com, where you can capture your children’s life into a book and seamlessly share it with friends and family. Since its launch in late 2010, developer.lulu.com has grown to 150 registered developers, 45 applications and is live on 10 sites.

By releasing all of the great features found on Lulu.com such as document conversion, order fulfillment, and ecommerce through a series of APIs, Lulu is redefining the future for all publishers and providing our creators with even more freedom.  Now a new generation of publisher can now offer unique and innovative publishing services to their authors and the audiences those authors serve by using Lulu’s global print and retail networks, our commerce engine that can calculate royalties in a range of currencies all in real time, and our publishing tools that can help those authors turn their ideas into valuable books.

To learn more, or to tell your techie friends about it without having to learn more, visit:  developer.lulu.com

Cheers,

Bob

In order to add great new services we need to retire those products and services that have not proven to be as popular with our community of customers as we thought they might be when we launched them.

Specifically, this means we will no longer be offering CDs, DVDs, brochures, images, or digital files for sale on Lulu.com.

While we still see the value in these types of content, and greatly appreciate our creators’ contribution of these products to the Lulu catalogue over the years, these products will be phased out over the next few months.  We will reach out to the Lulu creators who have relied on these services with advice and recommendations for their products, to minimize any inconvenience this change may cause for them or their customers.  If you have ever used one of these services you can expect to hear from us shortly.

In our mission to provide the world’s first, and best, open-publishing platform, we are committed to empowering a new generation of creators to publish and sell their content anywhere, anytime. Through our growing network of retail distributors, open publishing APIs, and partnerships, we are building Lulu into a one-stop shop for authors, publishers, developers, and businesses alike.

Cheers,

Bob

Doors opened bright and early the morning of the 24th to floods of authors, publishers, journalists, librarians, and businesses all clamoring to get the latest scoop on the publishing industry and Lulu didn’t disappoint. With exciting new initiatives such as our Open Publishing APIs, Partner Program, and growing print network, Lulu has an affordable publishing solution for just about everyone – no matter if you’re an author looking to become a publisher, or a publisher wanting to monetize your back catalogue.

We definitely stood out in our bright orange booth too, but what really stole the show were our “author-ego” cutouts (pictured).  All three days of the show people lined up at our booth to have their photos taken behind their favorite author’s body and we’d display them on our wall.  They’d also be entered for a chance to win a new Mini 5303 laptop, courtesy of our partners at HP.  I can’t tell you how many times I heard the phrase:  “My friend Blahbity Blah, told me I had to come see the Lulu booth. You’ve gotta take my picture!” And we were happy to oblige.

For those on the go, we also had mobile author-ego cards (pictured) that folks could use with their camera phones to encourage their friends to publish (or just make them look ridiculous). At Lulu, anyone is empowered to publish and sell their work to customers all over the world and our author-ego cards and cutouts really drove that point home – that and the fact that people love to get their photo taken.

We easily talked to about 2,000 attendees, but with the way boxes of author-ego cards, Lulu hats and tote-bags were flying off our tables, we definitely reached all 30,000+ attendees.  Lulu CEO and Founder, Bob Young, also presented to convention attendees Monday, May 23rd on the future of publishing and the impact of eBooks and e-readers.

While eBooks were a hot topic among the BEA crowd this year, we were surprisingly asked about print-on-demand books even more.  This boils down to what the new generation of authors and content owners really seems to want:  options.  And with Lulu’s open-publishing model we’re providing the freedom to creators that tons of options bring.  At Lulu, you’re free to publish and sell books immediately, electronically or in print. You pick the price.  You pick the market.  You pick the medium.  You are the new face of publishing and you are in control.

By working with Elastic Path, we’ll be able to add new capabilities such as registration-less checkout and customized sales campaigns that will benefit all of our customers whether you come to Lulu to buy or to sell.  In fact, our unique online community of 2.5 million customers, made up of great folks just like you, has been the primary inspiration behind this partnership as we work to provide creators with more freedom and buyers with more savings.

This new eCommerce strategy is just one more element of the open-publishing market that Lulu is building. Through our growing network of retail partners and open publication APIs, Lulu is empowering you to sell your works anywhere, anytime. Be on the look out for Lulu and Elastic Path at two upcoming events. Our CEO, Bob Young, will be presenting along with Elastic Path CSO, Cliff Conneighton, about the future of publishing at the World e-Reading Congress in London, May 9-11, and at Book Expo America in New York May 24-26.

We love technology at Lulu, especially technology that helps our authors reach more readers.

Today, Apple is set to unveil the new iPad after the first version shattered sales records (15 million units sold in 2010) and introduced a new retail channel, the iBookstore, for authors to distribute their eBooks through.

Last year, eBooks accounted for $263 million of total trade book sales, which represents a 193% increase from 2009 according to the Association of American Publishers. As readers continue to find new ways to discover and purchase content, any author would do well to provide their work in as many formats and on as many devices as possible because you never know how your next biggest fan may discover your work.  As speculation builds over new iPad features, more eyes are turning towards the device, which opens up even greater opportunities for authors to expand their readership across millions of people.

In recent posts, we’ve shown you how to get your Lulu published eBook into the iBookstore and onto the iPad and we know how eager you are to see your books out in the world. That’s why we’re happy to help you distribute your remarkable works through our growing network of retail partners. Keep in mind too, that authors are always able to publish and sell their books immediately to the 2.5 million unique customers in the Lulu Marketplace for free, either electronically or in print. Lulu continues to help you bring your knowledge and expertise to your customers more easily than every before. We look forward to your continued success with Lulu and our retail partners.

Close your eyes and make a wish, because today is Lulu’s birthday!

That’s right, Lulu is officially nine years old and we want you to help us celebrate.

I’m sure you’ve seen the banners around the site for 20% off any order (Coupon code: HAPPY) and for 25% off a bulk order of 500 books or more (Coupon code: BIRTHDAY), but while we were pulling out the party hats and putting up the streamers, we decided to extend the sale – just for our big day.

Lulu started back in 2002, after our CEO and Founder Bob Young experienced his own frustrations with publishing his book Under the Radar. Having founded open-source software company Red Hat in the past, Bob thought of ways he could apply to the open-source mentality to publishing, thus Lulu, and our our new model of open-publishing, was born.

Nine years later, we’ve helped over 1 million creators in over 200 countries and territories publish their works and gain equal footing in the industry.

So take a big breath and help us blow out our candles because it wouldn’t be a Lulu birthday without you – our remarkable customers.