Steve Jobs Replies from the Grave: From iBoles to iPad to iAuthor

When the iPad was originally introduced, I was already an Apple fanboi with iBoles and iJanna and a couple of Apple books in the pipeline — and I was especially interested in the iPad as a book publication vehicle.  At that time, Steve Jobs was still alive and randomly replying to email inquiries, and on March 23, 2010 at 8:29pm, I decided to take my shot with Jobs and I emailed him my iPad Book Publishing Query:

Here’s the text of that email query:

iPad iBookstore Publisher Query

Boles Books Writing and Publishing
Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 8:29 PM
To: sjobs@apple.com

Hi Steve Jobs!

I searched Apple.com today — and even sent an email to Dev Support — asking for a web page with a signpost process for independent book publishers like http://BolesBooks.com to exclusively submit iPad books to the iBookstore.  I couldn’t find the answer I was seeking.

We want to write and submit a series of American Sign Language books — and other exciting titles — for the iPad only.  We’re excited about the platform and its reach.  Here’s my early take on the iPad promise:

http://wordpunk.com/2010/02/05/ipad-kills-kindle-adobe-and-iphone/

Will we be able to submit books for sale in the iBookstore?

We thank you!

Best,

db

Steve didn’t immediately reply, but now, almost two years later, Steve Jobs has finally replied to me from the grave on January 19, 2012 in New York City:  iAuthor.

iPad book authors can now take control of their own writing and publish their own books under the Apple umbrella.  I think the idea is divine and exciting.

No, I don’t care that iAuthor iBooks for the iPad have to be under 2gigs.  No, I don’t care Apple takes a 30% cut.  Amazon takes the same sort of Vig. Yes, I like being able to control my product from beginning to end.  The gamble is entirely mine alone — and the spoils of any publication forays are mine alone as well.

I think this foray into publishing by Apple is overdue and delightful.  If you Go With Apple, you are not allowed to publish an iBook on any other platforms — like the Kindle — but if you want to publish to a specific spec, like the iPad, then you won’t be tempted by other platforms because they are not as multimedia rich and content is harder to create than on an iPad.  iAuthor allows writers to become their own publishers while retaining total quality control over their intellectual property and that’s a grand thing for any author.