iBooks Author vs ???

iBooks Author vs?

The buzz over the last several weeks has been on Apple's new multimedia authoring program for iPads.

There has been a minor firestorm over the license restrictions, i.e.; if you sell the product created with Apple's software, it HAS to go through the iTunes store. If you give it away (free), you can distribute it anywhere. The initial reactions intimated that if you created your product and HAD to sell it only through the Apple store meant Apple owned the rights to the text. As it turns out, Apple's restriction applied only to the output of its software. Not as draconian as it was first thought.

As an aside, for those of you using Microsoft Office Student Home Edition, note that it cannot be used for commercial use. At least one business has been turned in by a former employee and had to pay fines. Pay attention to the EULA, you might really be selling your soul.

But now from the shadows, a competitor has emerged. Atavist! 

Atavist? Who are they?

“The Atavist publishes bestselling nonfiction stories that are longer than typical magazine articles but shorter than books for digital devices like the iPad, iPhone, Kindle, and Nook. In our app publication for the iPad/iPhone, each story is laced with video, audiobooks, additional layers of information, and a host of other features."

A boutique publisher with its own software package developed for internal use, Periodic Technology, which has one click creation for almost all devices. Right now it can be licensed through the company, but they have announced a FREE beta test program. To quote:

“We will soon be launching a free version of our platform for everyone: authors, photographers, creators, small publications. To join the list for our private beta please enter your email below, and we’ll be in touch.”

I've signed up for to be a beta tester (masochist that I am) and received the email below



Hello from Atavist, and thanks so much for signing up for our free-version beta. We've been overwhelmed by the response! It's only reconfirmed our suspicion that there are a huge number of talented people who could use our platform for creative projects. So...now we're rushing to get it to you. Our current plans are to let a small number of people into an initial beta on March 1, with everyone else to follow about four weeks later. We may be in touch between now and then if the schedule shifts at all, as these things sometimes do...

In the meantime, we greatly appreciate your interest, we're extremely excited at what people have planned, and we're working overtime to get started helping you produce it.

Thanks,

Evan Ratliff
Atavist
www.atavist.com


As the testers get their hands on it, we'll see how it plays out. Since they're already publishing for all of the platforms, the output should be fine. It depends on how complex it is to prepare the input files (the requirements for iBooks is very specific and not always easy to follow).

A viable competitor in the public market. So all those textbooks won't necessarily have to be on an Apple product.

If it works, how long before Google or Amazon moves in on them?