iPad owners: check out the photo book I just self-published

[melsam]

I know some of you here are interested in ebook publishing, and it relates to earning from photography, so thought I would share this news. I just successfully self-published a photobook to Apple's iBookstore. It is live now and selling in all major markets around the world. Here’s a link to the book:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id432034564 (if you have an iPad or iPhone, click the link on the device to launch it directly in iBooks).

This book was a bit of an experiment for me, so I’ve priced it very low (priced more like an iPhone app rather than a hardcover book). However, the sales have been very encouraging, and the best part is I can easily update the price at anytime. I am releasing this exclusively on iPad because the other ereaders (such as Kindle) lack the resolution, color or size to display my landscape photos.

You can download a free preview, or just buy it for a couple bucks to see why it's selling. As far as I know, there aren't any other full-spread photobooks like it available in the iBookstore yet. If you have any questions about self-publishing or the iBookstore, I'll be happy to answer questions here.

Thanks,
-Mel

[gturner]

That looks like a really good job. For $2 you get a book cheaper than a cup of coffee.

What resolution do the images load at? I see a comment that says the image zoom feature is really handy.

[melsam]

Thanks gturner.
I use large size images that are at least 2400 pixels wide, which is double the current iPad screen resolution (1024x768). That way you get a great pinch & zoom experience on current devices, and the book still looks good on future iPads which may have Retina displays.

[gturner]

Thanks.
I have a pet project on the go and although I am not an ipad user, but this may be the solution.

[Zulu109]

Can you give us the details on how you went about self publishing it? Thank you

[graciousness]

That's fantastic! That front cover is just great. Will definitely look into this for future reference! Cheers!

[graciousness]

What software did you use to create the pages? Is there an apple software for this or did you use an external one?

[melsam]

graciousness: I didn't use any specific software. An EPUB book is built with HTML files, just like a website. So I just hand created an HTML template using a simple text editor, and then duplicated it for every page in the book (just replacing the image and text for each page). If you want to know more technical details, just Google "Creating EPUBs" or here's a link:
The EPUB Format

[graciousness]

Thanks for that

I did some reading earlier on, too, and discovered that you have to be a US resident to be able to do it (need TAX and or business number). Boooooohooo on that, so have to wait until they can accept submissions from Australia.

Cheers and thanks for giving me an insight on other self-publising avenues.....this is great!

[melsam]

Grace: send me an email (mel [at] islastudio.com). Since I now have a publisher account with Apple, I might be able to help you in some way. Let's discuss it offline.