Will iBooks Author Revolutionise Comics Self Publishing?

[Rich Johnston]

Making your own digital comic for worldwide distribution on iOS. And by digital, I mean with all the bells and whistles. Panel by panel guide, animation, sounds, the lot, courtesy of iBooks Author, now available free for Apple Mac computers, and publishable in the iBooks format, as well as PDFs or text, and suddenly available to anyone with an iPad, iPhone or other iBooks compatible device.

They're pushing this as a way to publish new forms of textbooks for kids. Balls to that. This is for digital comics. Actual digital comics, rather than scans of ink placed on thin slices of dead trees.

It's infinite canvas time.

[thekeith82]

Honestly, I would say no.

Sell Your Book in the iBookstore and Apple Won't Let You Sell It Anywhere Else

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/apple...agreement/4360

[ericpalicki]

It's cool and all, but for now, the software is only available on Macs (and only those running OSX Lion and above), the distribution is exclusively through iBooks, which means no Amazon/Kindle (or any Android platform) or Graphic.ly.

[Barbatos]

And we will ALL go blind in no time.

[Ian Coke]

Making your own digital comic for worldwide distribution on iOS. And by digital, I mean with all the bells and whistles. Panel by panel guide, animation, sounds, the lot, courtesy of iBooks Author, now available free for Apple Mac computers, and publishable in the iBooks format, as well as PDFs or text, and suddenly available to anyone with an iPad, iPhone or other iBooks compatible device.

They're pushing this as a way to publish new forms of textbooks for kids. Balls to that. This is for digital comics. Actual digital comics, rather than scans of ink placed on thin slices of dead trees.

It's infinite canvas time.

It sounds like a great info-node for material that nobody rational will publish anywhere else, but, copyright issues aside, if there's no editorial control, who's going to read, never mind pay for this stuff, this brain-vomit, if you will, spewed out randomly all over the long-suffering web, apart from the artist's equally long-suffering friends and family?

For anyone in the arts field who hasn't already established a reputation (and even then) this sounds like an infinite canvas in the sense that what anyone does in, on, or to it would be pretty much meaningless.

Oh brave new world! Ayn Rand would have a fit, and for once, I wouldn't blame her.

[betty boolean]

An infinite canvas maybe but not for comics. Sound and animation means cartoons right?

[Uthor]

Honestly, I would say no.

Sell Your Book in the iBookstore and Apple Won't Let You Sell It Anywhere Else

Apple's mind-bogglingly greedy and evil license agreement | ZDNet

I was going to say the same thing. Only a fool (or i-fanboy (the same thing?)) would use iBooks.
iBooks Author: You Can Sell Your “Work” Elsewhere, Just Not In The Format Created By iBooks Author [Opinion] | Cult of Mac

[djcoffman]

I think this could be pretty incredible for digital comics. If you can't see the possibilities with this, you're just not thinking creatively enough.

I already have begun playing with this, and a few things struck me, --how cool this will be for kids to read new comics and explore and interact with your world. Interactive fiction, if you will. Secondly it says clearly you can sell the iBooks format on your own. You can export the file and sell direct to your audience without the apple cut. (but of course with the sales of iPads and ebooks going up and up you'd be silly to not want your ebooks made for this thing, on this thing) -

One could with the interactive galleries alone create a pretty neat thing, but the huge news is the HTML live embedding where you can keep certain things updating live. Imagine buying one book that updated with new content each week? What about a webcomic embedded within this? Imagine the pageviews that could generate if you offered your little ebooks for "free"

It's time now to start thinking outside the longbox folks. (nerds)

[Ian Coke]

I think this could be pretty incredible for digital comics. If you can't see the possibilities with this, you're just not thinking creatively enough.

I already have begun playing with this, and a few things struck me, --how cool this will be for kids to read new comics and explore and interact with your world. Interactive fiction, if you will. Secondly it says clearly you can sell the iBooks format on your own. You can export the file and sell direct to your audience without the apple cut. (but of course with the sales of iPads and ebooks going up and up you'd be silly to not want your ebooks made for this thing, on this thing) -

One could with the interactive galleries alone create a pretty neat thing, but the huge news is the HTML live embedding where you can keep certain things updating live. Imagine buying one book that updated with new content each week? What about a webcomic embedded within this? Imagine the pageviews that could generate if you offered your little ebooks for "free"

It's time now to start thinking outside the longbox folks. (nerds)

I wonder if you've ever thought about creating comics, or anything else much, on a professional basis?

I'm imagining some character writing/drawing 'one book that updated with new content a week,' with an embedded webcomic, offered for free. And the absolute impossibility of sustaining this while keeping up a job or a functional relationship.

[Drew Melbourne]

It sounds like a great info-node for material that nobody rational will publish anywhere else, but, copyright issues aside, if there's no editorial control, who's going to read, never mind pay for this stuff, this brain-vomit, if you will, spewed out randomly all over the long-suffering web, apart from the artist's equally long-suffering friends and family?

For anyone in the arts field who hasn't already established a reputation (and even then) this sounds like an infinite canvas in the sense that what anyone does in, on, or to it would be pretty much meaningless.

Oh brave new world! Ayn Rand would have a fit, and for once, I wouldn't blame her.

You don't seem to be familiar with the long and respected history of self-publishing in comics. Or, for that matter, of user generated content on the internet.

Be honest: Are you secretly Rupert Murdoch?

Edit: Nevermind. I saw your response to DJ. I am now convinced you are taking the proverbial piss.