iBooks Textbook Sales: Authors Set Pricing Up to $14.99, Apple Takes 30%, iBooks-Exclusive

[Porco]

Clearly Apple need to explain the exclusivity thing better, it's putting people off.

The way I read it is that you can't use the iBooks Author app to make a book with all the bells and whistles then sell that actual 'iBook' somewhere Apple doesn't get its cut. Fair enough, that's the price for the free authoring software and distribution. Otherwise, everyone could just make the iBooks, sell them on their website and Apple gets nothing.

But of course you can also use some or all the same text, images (that is your own work) etc in a different authoring app, output it as a different file format and sell it elsewhere, for the kindle or whatever. Right?

Actual exclusivity of *the content* (rather than the individual production/formatting only when using Apple's freely provided software) would be crazy... I don't think that's what they mean though. Right?

 

[linuxcooldude]

Clearly Apple need to explain the exclusivity thing better, it's putting people off.

You will be surprised by how many people don't actually read it.

The MacRumors article "A Closer Look at iBooks Author, Textbooks and Exclusivity" it plainly states in the very first paragraph what Apple means by exclusivity. which is:

Apple is not claiming exclusive sales rights to the content of published textbooks but to the specific output format (iBooks) generated by their iBooks Author tool.

Yet post after post comments on how Apple's wrong for making the author sell his book only through the iTunes store.

Its like a kin to everybody agreeing to the Terms Of Service without actually reading it when installing software or service.

 

[DiscFreak]

Textbooks

As a college student paying $80+ for computing textbooks, as many as 4 a semester, I was ecstatic about this morning's announcement, but with the $14.99 cap, I'm suddenly thinking I'll never see these books on my iPad. Theres no way that many of these college publishers, with there greedy, money-grabbing yearly "updates", are going to sell a book for $14.99. The publisher that my school uses almost exclusively, no doubt due to wonderful kickbacks and incentives, Cengage Learning/Course Technology, loves cooking up ways to increase the cost of these books with "online components" that are the same cost as the book and usually offer nothing but a crude online copy of the text.

I'm a college professor and the cost of textbooks is a continual issue among my students and a source of angst on my part as I require them to buy the latest editions. I want to assure you that, as far as I am aware, there is no kickback from publishers for choosing them...I use Cengage nearly exclusively and I get nothing for that...aside from free copies for myself.

I'm very excited about the development of this tool and the price point of $14.99 on textbooks. I disagree with the poster who said that large publishers will not go with this. What you fail to understand is the true enemy of the big publishers is not the low price point of these files, but the secondary book market...used books. A textbook can have a "life" of several years in higher education and NO kickbacks to the publisher at all. It does not take too many purchases at $14.99 to make up for those tremendous losses...let alone the reduction in cost of production (no paper, no binding, no printing, no shipping).

I think the big companies in higher ed textbooks are going to create exclusive versions of their textbooks. A print version done traditionally and an iPad version of the same book but with all the bells and whistles. The bonus for teachers and students. They are more motivated to keep the book, it is more updated than used books, and students don't lose access to the online tools we MAY use when their pass codes no longer work (think about students who buy a book and pass code but then fail the class...when they take it again...they have to buy a new passcode!)

Professors will be able to order textbooks through their campus bookstores and then will be able to provide access to purchase of the digital ones if the student chooses to do so.

I think this is fantastic.

Mark

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But of course you can also use some or all the same text, images (that is your own work) etc in a different authoring app, output it as a different file format and sell it elsewhere, for the kindle or whatever. Right?

I wonder if I can actually sell the PDF output version.

Mark

 

[swishyfresh]

Apple greedy as ever.

I think these kinds of replies are the most asinine of them all.

You wouldn't have a macbook air, imac, ipad, whatever if Apple didn't attempt to make as much margin as possible on their products. It's called supply and demand and has been around since the dawn of man.

Part of Apple's business model for attaining the best possible margin, includes keeping tight control on their products so that they don't become fragmented. A fragmented product for example is the Android OS.

They need to be "greedy as ever" so that you and I can keep getting the products we keep getting from them.

 

[Maury]

apple is giving you free software

go check the price of adobe cs super duper premium version and then complain

Ummm, I said "GOOD". Engrish much?

 

[phillipduran]

You're thinking about the old publishing model (which still works, of course). But these days POD ("Print On Demand") makes warehousing, inventory management, etc. irrelevant. Yes, somebody has to take care of shipping from (say) Lightning Source (a big POD operation) to Amazon's warehouse, or to Ingram (a major distributor), but that's a much easier task.

I'm involved in a small press that uses POD rather than the traditional model. The books appear on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and Powells exactly as they would from a traditional publisher, and any bookstore that uses Ingram or other major distributor orders the book precisely as they would order any other book. The only difference is that it's going to take an extra day for Lightning Source to print and ship the book. We have no warehouse, no ordering or invoicing system, no inventory or inventory management, no up-front costs that amount to anything; the retailers pay Ingram or pay Lightning Source directly, Lighting Source does all the accounting, and remits payments to us directly.

The per-book cost is higher than a big traditional print run, but the overhead is dramatically lower.

This is a bit OT, I know. But people thinking about new publishing modes need to realize that the traditional mode is no longer the only one. Don't equate POD with self-publishing or vanity publishing. It only refers to the way the book is produced and enters the distribution stream.

Nah, its not OT. I love to learn about the details about how things are done. thanks for taking the time to explain the process.

 

[waldobushman]

Mega publishers are on the way out. This service is the harbinger of things to come, but the restrictions speak of Apple's ignorance about this market. They think the universities involved in itunes U are indicative of all schools. What works for a college system won't really work for a K-12, much less home-school co-op system.

K-12 will work just fine under Apple's iTunes U system, perhaps better than universities. The needed investment in iPads is the only downside for both, but it would be justified in the long term. Public school challenges that such a system could address is the wide divergence of student skills and mastery. Teachers, today, must address classrooms where they must teach to students who differ by three standard deviations or more in current ability, for each class they teach. Truly, this is practically impossible.

Then there are many parents and community members volunteering to mentor or tutor children who need one-on-one time. The ability of mentors to work with the teacher, school or district to make available additional materials will be enhanced. This is true for those falling behind, and those that might be labeled gifted.

With some enhancement to textbooks and the iTunes U app into an LMS (learning management system), teachers, parents, mentors will be able track progress and more readily offer solutions. That is, each student's iPad will contain the standard curriculum plus any specialized curriculum the student needs to progress.

The software and curriculum is not there yet, but this approach can be hugely successful.

 

[notjustjay]

I feel like these restrictions and this price point kind of make sense. If I can't copy them, lend them, print them, resell them, or even view them on any device other than the iPad, then I'm certainly not paying anywhere near regular textbook prices ($50-150). $15 sounds about right.

And viewed from the other direction, the publishers might have said: "You want us to sell our intellectual property for only $15?! OK, but lock it up so it doesn't get shared around too much, otherwise it will damage our physical textbook sales..."

 

[deconstruct60]

it plainly states in the very first paragraph what Apple means by exclusivity. which is:

Apple is not claiming exclusive sales rights to the content of published textbooks but to the specific output format (iBooks) generated by their iBooks Author tool.

False. Apple lays claim to all output from the program. Not just iBooks. The license, in part, reads

any book or any other work you generate using this program ....

That includes any exports of pdf , text file, etc. Anything that involves using the program's services/features locks you in.

If had limited itself just to proprietary output specific to the iTunes bookstore that would be one thing. That is not want they lay claim to though. Your content touches their program and Apple has lock-in of whatever you can get back out.

Sure other programs can be used to generate pdf's or text files but it would be highly unusual if any of those tried to claim distribution restrictions on your output to a single store.

 

[linuxcooldude]

False. Apple lays claim to all output from the program. Not just iBooks. The license, in part, reads



That includes any exports of pdf , text file, etc. Anything that involves using the program's services/features locks you in.

If had limited itself just to proprietary output specific to the iTunes bookstore that would be one thing. That is not want they lay claim to though. Your content touches their program and Apple has lock-in of whatever you can get back out.

Sure other programs can be used to generate pdf's or text files but it would be highly unusual if any of those tried to claim distribution restrictions on your output to a single store.

How can that be false when from what you quoted me clearly states Apple is claiming exclusive sales rights to the output format from its software program?!?

The key word here is content. You still own all the content that goes into making that book. That has not changed.

How can you be locked-in if you can use that same Content to write another book to sell somewhere else using different software?

 

[deconstruct60]

How can that be false when from what you quoted me clearly states Apple is claiming exclusive sales rights to the output format from its software program?!?

Your claim was that it was restricted to the iBook format. It is not restricted by output format. It is any output regardless of format. The format is immaterial. You cannot use the program at all to sell on different store.

The key word here is content. You still own all the content that goes into making that book. That has not changed.

You own the content at a copyright level but by using the program you have placed it into a container. Effectively Apple says you can't fill that container and sell it elsewhere. They are not trying to grab your copyrights of the abstract expression, they are essentially tagging the actual bits that came out of the program. [and there is likely some Apple content mixed in also. ]

How can you be locked-in if you can use that same Content to write another book to sell somewhere else using different software?

A couple of issues. First if you use two different epub, pdf, or text distillers it is unlikely you are going to get a bit-for-bit exact duplicate produced by the two generators. So at the bit level there are differences. Copyrights aren't at the bit level. They cover the abstract expression (it doesn't matter if your file in Unicode, ASCII, or EBCDIC format it is the same. bitwise those could be three different encodings. )

Second, elements such as Apple templates, boilerplate, notices ("generated by.... " ) are byproducts of the software. Those Apple let 'slide' as being OK when used in their store but get uppity when sold elsewhere. Similar to mixing your IP with some GPL code. That GPL doesn't take the IP, but does place conditions on your IP if you co-mingle yours with GPL code. If you don't like the restriction you can't co-mingle. In this case, you can't use the program.

 

[garylapointe]

I wonder if I can actually sell the PDF output version.

I read it as not being able to sell ANY output, but if you typed it in iWork, as they recommend (and not in iBook creator), it's easy to create other PDFs.

Gary

 

[stevensr123]

30% is high since Apple already has all the infrastructure in place for this.

They understand not bleeding students in terms of maximum price, but still want to bleed teachers with their percentage.

To be honest though, normally I don't like the 30% cut apple takes, however apple is providing free tools to create the text book, and giving the author an easy and simple way of delivering there work to millions of people, without the need to consult or get help from the major publishers.

They (apple) provide a very easy, simple and quick way of uploading there book to the masses and also provide advertisement (via the book store).


The author won't have to go through publishers, pay for advertisement etc.

So they Are getting a very, very good deal.

 

[smoledman]

To be honest though, normally I don't like the 30% cut apple takes, however apple is providing free tools to create the text book, and giving the author an easy and simple way of delivering there work to millions of people, without the need to consult or get help from the major publishers.

They (apple) provide a very easy, simple and quick way of uploading there book to the masses and also provide advertisement (via the book store).


The author won't have to go through publishers, pay for advertisement etc.

So they Are getting a very, very good deal.

Apple has a right to charge 1000% if they wanted to, it's their right to set whatever prices they want. However the market will decide if those prices are valid or not. So far the market says Apple is winning.

 

[rheb1026]

As a University student, I would absolutely love to see this happen! It sucks paying $150-200 for some of the math and engineering books, some of which you only open a handful of times. You can almost forget about reselling them at the end of the year, as well. If I could get all the books I needed for my classes for $15, I would gladly fork over $500 for an iPad (though it would be nice if students could get a discounted price, too).

Not only that, it's a pain lugging some of those books around!

I really hope that this idea pans out

 

[gnasher729]

Clearly Apple need to explain the exclusivity thing better, it's putting people off.

The way I read it is that you can't use the iBooks Author app to make a book with all the bells and whistles then sell that actual 'iBook' somewhere Apple doesn't get its cut. Fair enough, that's the price for the free authoring software and distribution. Otherwise, everyone could just make the iBooks, sell them on their website and Apple gets nothing.

But of course you can also use some or all the same text, images (that is your own work) etc in a different authoring app, output it as a different file format and sell it elsewhere, for the kindle or whatever. Right?

Actual exclusivity of *the content* (rather than the individual production/formatting only when using Apple's freely provided software) would be crazy... I don't think that's what they mean though. Right?

When you choose "Export..." in the File menu and choose "iBooks" as the option, the result may only be sold through Apple, but can be given away for free. Everything else is yours, without any restriction.

I wonder if I can actually sell the PDF output version.

You can. However, iBooks Author might not be the best tool for creating PDF files.