Month: January 2012

iBooks Author for Authors  →

Matt Gemmell gives a high-level look at what you’re getting into if you decide to publish a work via the iBooks Author app.

I’ve spent a the majority of my afternoon working in iBooks Author, and it is very simple to use. If you are wanting to ship a book that does not require this deep functionality then it would not be too much more work to release your book as an eBook, a PDF, and an iBooks book (or whatever the proper term is for a work that’s been built within iBooks Author).

iBooks Author for Authors

An SDK for Writers

There are four primary components to publishing a book:

  1. Writing and Editing: The first and most important component to publishing a book is the actual writing of it followed by the editing of that writing.

  2. Distribution: How will you sell it and distribute it?

  3. Medium: Will it be a PDF, an eBook, a physical book, or any combination? And now there is a new medium: an iBooks book. This is more akin to book-app combos such as Our Choice by Al Gore and Push Pop Press.

Our Choice is a deeply interactive book that shipped as a standalone iPad app. However, version 2 of iBooks now supports books like this natively. If you want to make a powerful, interactive, unique-looking book you can do so via Apple’s new tools, and then you can ship and sell them as books, not apps.

  1. Design / Layout: Until today, if you wanted a book that worked like Our Choice then you needed to hire an iOS developer to build your book in Xcode. If you were designing a PDF or eBook you could do it in Microsoft Word or Pages, or for more control of the design you could use Adobe InDesign. The cost of these tools ranges from $19 (for Pages), to hundreds of dollars (for InDesign), to thousands of dollars (to hire iOS devs).

But now, if you want to make an attractive and interactive eBook you don’t have to hire an iOS developer to build you a dedicated app. If you are even remotely familiar with Pages then you’ll be able to take what you’ve written and turn it into a good looking and interactive book for the iPad and then distribute it on the iBookstore to an audience of millions of iPad owners who can buy it and download it with one tap.

In short, the iBooks Author app is a huge breakthrough for the independent writer and publisher. In this author’s humble opinion, this new and free app from Apple was the primary announcement of Apple’s education event today.

iBooks Author is the iPad SDK for writers and publishers. And it’s been simplified so it’s as easy to use as a word processor.

An SDK for Writers

How I Test Ideas (Or: Discerning Good From Great)

The Web is the most empowering tool for organized, creative folks in the history of the world. If you have an idea and you are willing to work hard, then you can ship something.

Between the inception of an idea and its advent there is a great deal of hard work and many opportunities to quit. It takes skill and character to push through and ship something when you’re afraid of failing, or of being embarrassed, or even afraid of succeeding (What if this actually works!?).

However, courage isn’t the only character trait needed when it comes to turning our ideas into something tangible…

I suspect many of you can relate to the dilemma of having more ideas than time. Which means that, in addition to endurance, we also need discernment to know what ideas are worth pursuing and what ideas we should let go of.

Discernment is anything but an exact science, but I do have a bit of a routine that I find myself acting out every time one of my ideas seems to have an extra amount of energy behind it.

  • The first rule of ideas is that they have no rules. They can strike at any moment, but they prefer awkward locations when we cannot write anything down. Such as: when mowing the lawn, taking a shower, driving to the airport, or working out at the gym.

The reason ideas love to pop up at these times is because when our mind is at rest doing a mindless task or routine (such as showering), things are free to float to the surface. Not only do new ideas come to us at these times, but also solutions to current problems. As Paul Graham says, what one thinks about in the shower in the morning is quite important.

  • My first reaction to a new idea is to write it down as soon as I can. Since the idea is still organic and fresh at first, it’s important to jot it down in its purest form. Also, by writing the idea down it clears my mind to continue thinking about the idea some more and even exploring its grander scope. Or sometimes, after I’ve written the idea down I have nothing more to think about and my mind is clear once again.

This is why I keep a waterproof notepad in the shower, I have a Keyboard Maestro shortcut key that brings up a new TextEdit window in a split second, and I keep DropVox close by on my iPhone’s 2nd Home screen.

  • Once I’ve written down the idea, I let it simmer. Sometimes I keep thinking on it over the next days, weeks, or months, and sometimes I forget about it altogether.

If I find that it keeps coming back to me, I’ll bring it up in conversation during dinner with Anna to see what she thinks about. And, if I’ve already thought of a cool name for this new project or venture then I’ll buy the URL as well. (More ideas than time, but also, more URLs than ideas shipped.)

  • If Anna likes it even a little bit, then I’ll start crunching the practical details and asking myself a lot of questions:
  • If this idea were to turn into something tangible then what does that look like?
  • How will the website work?
  • How will I market it?
  • Will I be proud of it?
  • How much of my time will it take to build and ship it, and then how much time will go into maintaining it?
  • Will it be worth my time? What is the expected return on my investment of time and money? (And that return doesn’t necessarily have to be a directly financial one — sometimes new projects have indirect financial returns through other means.)

  • If all of the above seem viable, then I begin pitching it to some trusted friends in order to get their feedback. I ask them to shoot holes in the idea and tell me why the name (and thus the URL) is dumb. I ask them to tell me what they do and don’t like about it and if they think it could work.

  • And so, if everything seems to add up and the idea just won’t go away, that is usually when I decide to go for it.

Going for it doesn’t guarantee success. But to me, that’s not entirely the point. I want to take risks, try new things, and continue to build and create. If I was guaranteed to succeed then it wouldn’t be called a risk. And if I waited for the can’t-fail moment, then I would never try anything new. The key is discerning what’s worth going for and what’s worth shelving.

They say good is the enemy of great, and I agree. Some ideas, as good as they are, should be left alone so that when a great idea comes along there is a place for it. Discerning the difference between a good idea and a great one takes practice and the support of trusted friends and advisors.

How I Test Ideas (Or: Discerning Good From Great)

Sponsor: Scrivener  →

My thanks to Scrivener for sponsoring the RSS feed this week.

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Sponsor: Scrivener

Access, Commitment, Courage, and Discernment  →

Seth Godin on how access to ideas, information, tutorials, and capital is easier before. However:

The only access that’s harder than ever is access to the part of your brain that’s willing to take advantage of all of this. Precisely because it’s easier and faster than ever before, it’s easy to be afraid to reach out, to connect and to commit. No one can help you with that but you.

The Web is the most empowering tool for organized, creative folks in the history of the world. If you have an idea and are willing to work hard, you can ship something.

What Seth is talking about here is the Lizard Brain that tells us we’ll fail or be rejected or embarrassed, and that takes guts to push through that and do something anyway. But courage isn’t the only dilemma. Many of us have more ideas than we do time, and so we also need discernment of what ideas are worth pursuing and what ideas we have to let go of.

Access, Commitment, Courage, and Discernment