Apple Discontinuing iBooks Author on July 1, Encourages Writers to Transition to Pages

[MacRumors]

Apple today sent out an email to iBooks Author users, letting them know that the Mac app is being discontinued on July 1 and removed from the App Store.

In the email, Apple says that following the inclusion of book creation tools in Pages, the company's new focus will be on developing features for the Pages app.

Thank you for being a member of the iBooks Author community. We have some news to share with you about the future of book creation.

Two years ago we brought book creation into Pages. With key features such as the ability to work on iPad, collaborate with others on a shared book, draw with Apple Pencil, and more, Pages is a great platform for making books.

As we focus our efforts on Pages, iBooks Author will no longer be updated and will soon be removed from the Mac App Store. You can continue to use iBooks Author on macOS 10.15 and earlier, and books previously published to Apple Books will remain available. If you have iBooks Author books you'd like to import into Pages for further editing, we have a book import feature coming to Pages soon.

Apple says that iBooks Author will continue to be available on macOS 10.15 and earlier for those who have already installed the apps, and books that were published to Apple Books will remain available.

In the future, Apple plans to add an import feature to Pages to allow books to be imported into the app, and a support document covers details on how users can transition from the iBooks Author app to the Pages app.

Apple first debuted iBooks Author for to allow Mac users to create ebooks in 2012, providing tools for creating textbooks, cookbooks, picture books, and more for the iPad. Apple offered templates and page layout options, along with drag and drop editing tools, but most of those features are now available in Pages.

Article Link: Apple Discontinuing iBooks Author on July 1, Encourages Writers to Transition to Pages

 

[Azrael9]

That's a shame. I quite liked that app.

Azrael.

 

[ashleykaryl]

I completed a very long book using iBooks Author. I seriously hope that import feature in Pages works really well.

 

[Undecided]

I take full responsibility for this. I just started working with iBooks Author a couple of weeks ago.

 

[sublunar]

Almost as though they had plans for the iBooks name

 

[Mr. Awesome]

This was actually a pretty cool piece of software.

 

[nt5672]

That's a shame. I quite liked that app.

Azrael.

Yep, but it was not convoluted and hard enough to use, so Apple wants to add the complexity to Pages. Eventually Pages will grow warts like iTunes and the functionality will be broken out into separate Apps. Not sure if this arises from the need to innovate, the need to appear to innovate, poor long term strategy, or just plain chaos.

 

[ZZ Bottom]

Great tool. IMO mainly hindered by fact that iBooks was only way to view interactive content. I would have used it many times if users could have viewed them through the web, even as a specific iCloud service page, to accommodate PC or Android users.

 

[CarlJ]

This was actually a pretty cool piece of software.

Indeed, it seemed like they built a nice book authoring system, aimed at educators, and... got very little uptake. I’d be interested to see a several paragraph explanation of what happened, from someone who has the full picture.

 

[frosty18]

Almost as though they had plans for the iBooks name

I was thinking the same thing recently, maybe the new ARM MacBook will be called the iBook. I think that would be pretty cool but it might confuse a lot of people
[automerge]1591813056[/automerge]
I'm assuming they no longer want to support it on the new ARM architecture and it's just not worth their time.

 

[Expos of 1969]

Indeed, it seemed like they built a nice book authoring system, aimed at educators, and... got very little uptake. I’d be interested to see a several paragraph explanation of what happened, from someone who has the full picture.

Don't hold your breath waiting for a full disclosure explanation from Cupertino.

 

[happyprozak]

The majority of books read and purchased are by a small group of users as the general public does very little reading these days. It is my belief that many of these voracious readers much prefer e-ink over LCDs technology. There is something that feels different being on a device that doesn't have so many potential distractions.

If Apple wants to be a major competitor to Amazon's Kindle, they need release a dedicated e-reader.

Until then, their marketshare of the books market will be small.

Amazon really has the book market dominated by Kindle, Audible, and Comixology.

 

[randolorian]

In other words, this app will not be ported to the ARM architecture.

 

[jayducharme]

I did work with iBook Author a bit, but the fact that the rich content would appear only in iBooks was a deterrent. I could export as an ePub of course, but that would "dumb down" the content's layout. Pages has its own issues with exporting as ePub, so I hope Apple straightens all that out first (but I'm not holding my breath).

 

[MaxLeopold]

Well, iBooks Author had the last Update on September 24th 2018 -

I wonder when Apple discontinues some of the other Products that barely have seen any Updates -
like Apple Remote Desktop, which saw a Minor Update to 3.9.3 in Dec 2019
and before that to 3.9 in Feb 21st 2017.

And then we have macOS Server - will 10.16 completely be done with it?

 

[Exile714]

How did iBooks Author compare to Ulysses? Will Pages finally be a good replacement for third-party software?

 

[Westside guy]

The majority of books read and purchased are by a small group of users as the general public does very little reading these days. It is my belief that many of these voracious readers much prefer e-ink over LCDs technology.

I'm only one person - but having done both, I strongly prefer reading on my Kindle versus reading on my iPad.

 

[BornAgainMac]

They are cleaning house and getting things ready for ARM.

 

[naturalstar]

I was thinking the same thing recently, maybe the new ARM MacBook will be called the iBook. I think that would be pretty cool but it might confuse a lot of people
[automerge]1591813056[/automerge]
I'm assuming they no longer want to support it on the new ARM architecture and it's just not worth their time.

I stated this weeks ago as well in the ARM MBP thread. It may not be the name of the 16” MBP that will go to ARM, but it will very likely be the name for the ARM MacBook that will be a revival of the 12” MacBook. The MB Air will become the iBook Air.

 

[Morgenland]

Sad news! Wouldn’t be an issue, if one could import iBooks format into Pages. But this currently is of course not possible due to Pages limitations. Catalina causes major issues during Author file imports and forced us to go funny workarounds, at least Apple was not able or willing to repair their software...
Thanks to the old good Author Team. They created a very good piece of software for the creative folks.

 

[CarlJ]

Don't hold your breath waiting for a full disclosure explanation from Cupertino.

Oh I didn’t say that I expected it any time soon (it might be possible from someone just outside the event horizon), just that I’d like one.

 

[jasonefmonk]

As much as this sucks, if they add a few of the iBooks-specific features to Pages it will probably work well.

As an aside, I have always gotten a tremendous amount of value out of Pages and more recently Numbers as well. iWork was a big deal when I bought my first Mac in 2007, and the the current apps are even better with mutiplaform iCloud sync, web support, collaboration support, and little improvements on a regular basis (dark sheets in Numbers!).

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

Indeed, it seemed like they built a nice book authoring system, aimed at educators, and... got very little uptake. I’d be interested to see a several paragraph explanation of what happened, from someone who has the full picture.

Regarding uptake: When I plan to invest serious time and effort in a book-writing project, I would make quite sure that the format of the source is something that can be read and used outside any particular software system. I therefore quite willingly go through the pains of writing the stuff in LaTeX.

It may be a fair bit more cumbersome to use than the latest and greatest from Apple, but it has stood the test of time and can be easily transmogrified in a multitude of other formats by using https://pandoc.org

 

[goobot]

They are cleaning house and getting things ready for ARM.

They also have been slowly phasing out “i” branded products for a while now.

 

[sublunar]

They also have been slowly phasing out “i” branded products for a while now.

Somehow I doubt they'll be phasing out the iPhone brand.