Tag: Publishing »

instaPress allows you to create your own books from word docs, PDF files, and web pages. Once created, books can be ordered through the app in quality hardcover or softcover formats and shared as eBooks with family and friends.

Jim Dalrymple of The Loop just launched The Loop Magazine, which will serve as an enhanced extension to the kind of great topical curation as on The Loop website. You'll find plenty of great long-form articles here, in the style of Marco Arment's The Magazine, a noted inspiration for this current venture. Dalrymple's new mag will be published bi-weekly for only $1.99 per month. We wish Jim and his collaborators the best of luck on this new project, not that they'll need it.

Emanata is a new comics app focused just on independent comic creators. They can publish their graphic stories for free, then get a portion of the sales proceeds. For the first month, artists take all of the revenue from sales (after Apple's 30% cut). After that, the artists will split revenues 50/50 with Emanata. The artists also retain all of the rights to their work, which lets them publish elsewhere.

With Emanata, users can browse all types of free comics as well as purchase premium stories within the app to directly support the artists they like. The app’s new built-in news feed makes it even easier to follow specific creators and keep up with their latest work. The reader can also use in-app social tools to share memorable works with friends via email, social networks, and on the Web.

“Tablet devices are the natural platform to showcase great art and storytelling. We want to provide a dedicated place where the independent artists can find new audiences, and for the connoisseur of comic books to discover something unexpected and edgy,” said George Chen, CEO of Emanata.

We got a chance to go hands on with Narr8 a few days ago, and it's been officially announced today. Narr8 is a new kind of publishing platform, and a very ambitious one. The all original content will cover everything from entertainment to education and all be interactive, animated, and in series form. Fully developed, it will be an engaging and eclectic mix of content. Think of it as adult comic book-style with interactive content.

Could be an interesting new platform for content creators once they open up to outside authors. Right now all content is developed in-house. Take a look at the link below for more info on Narr8. Coming soon to the iPad.

A number of iOS developers decided to talk numbers at BAFTA's recent What's App event in London. The Guardian's article is full of all manner of interesting tidbits and discussion. Taking the stage to talk about storytelling, profit margins, and children's content were Peter Sleeman (co-director, P2 Games), Paul Bennun (chief creative officer of content design and creation, Somethin' Else), and Tom Bonnick (digital project and marketing manager, Nosy Crow). The trio divulged some interesting numbers, as well as their perspectives on various app models.

P2 Games' bread and butter has been largely based around children's brands, including Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam, and have sold just under 600 thousand apps in less than a year and a half. Somethin' Else, responsible for the indisputably different Papa Sangre, also did quite well with their $4.99 interactive experiment. The audio-only horror game sold a respectable 70K copies since its release back in 2010. Nosy Crow opted out of the numbers game at the event, but they did put out a couple of critically acclaimed book apps (Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs) so they're probably doing just fine.

The general consensus revolved around knowing one's audience. According to Sleeman, Preschoolers are a very different market than the typical demographic so it's important to bring in people who know what the young-uns like and what keeps them coming back. Bennun championed the Premium model; keeping prices high and letting the quality of the product do most of the selling. Bonnick echoed the sentiment of quality, and mentioned Nosy Crow's strict adherence to in-house development.

I'm curious to see if anyone agrees or disagrees with these ideas. They certainly seem sound to me. Especially the one about refusing to use in-app purchases in apps meant for children. Thoughts?

[Via: theguardian.com]

There are a lot of text editors out there for the iPhone and iPad. I should know, considering I have 4 on my iPad vying for my attention on a regular basis. Elements is the latest addition, thanks to a new update which is clearly setting out to be ahead of the rest.

Recently reaching its 2.0 release, Elements offers a lot above what we saw when we last looked at it. Besides the basic functionality that all text editors tend to provide, Elements allows users to edit Markdown formatted documents also. It stores all its data on the user's personal Dropbox account too ensuring that all data is accessible from any device at any time. 2.0 has also added support for other sharing methods with the ability to publish articles as a text post on Tumblr or as a note on Facebook. Evernote exporting is also now available. Support for exporting files in both HTML and PDF formats is available too. Finally, Elements has also benefited from a redesigned UI making it that bit more pleasant to use.

Elements is out now priced at $4.99. Previous owners can of course download this update for free. This seems like an ideal time to return to it.

No one has ever accused media mogul Richard Branson of playing it safe, and today the multi-millionaire shook things up again by announcing the debut of Project, an iPad-exclusive magazine. While Project will publish a monthly "issue" it won't be a bunch of static content like subscribers would get with a traditional periodical. Instead, the app will morph and change over the course of the month, adding new content and incorporating content from readers and bloggers. For instance, the mag is currently hosting a Facebook contest which is inviting users to redesign the front cover. The entries will be available for download in issue three and the winner will get to design a crowdsourced cover early next year.

If the idea seems hard to wrap your head around, that's because it is, and even Branson had trouble figuring it all out at first. "When my daughter Holly, who is Special Projects Manager at Virgin Group, first told me that she had agreed to sponsor an iPad-only magazine idea from one of our young entrepreneurs, Giovanni Donaldson, I thought she was talking double Dutch!" he said. "It wasn't until Anthony, Gio and Holly showed me the amazing, innovative editorial and advertising in PROJECT that I ‘got’ how groundbreaking digital publishing can be. To be frank it blew me away."

The project is being overseen by former FHM editor-in-chief Anthony Noguera, who has big plans for the publication. "I must be the luckiest editor alive," Noguera said. "To be given the opportunity to create a magazine that is completely unique and innovative, to work with like-minded journalists, contributors and advertisers who are just as passionate and excited as I am about PROJECT has been inspiring. I am proud of PROJECT. Proud of what we have achieved and delighted to have played a small part in determining what will become the future of what we as readers expect from the magazines of tomorrow. Today, PROJECT has set the standard."

Project is available now for $2.99 an issue, so go ahead and take a peek if you're curious. What do you think? Is this the future of magazines, or is Richard Branson just throwing away a lot of money on a really crazy venture?

Beyond the unusual name, Mongoliad is an exciting new project that could play a part in changing the landscape for modern-day literature and the way it's published. While everybody is busy talking about how the iPad could revolutionize the magazine market, this new serial novel collaboration is breaking new ground for both writers and consumers of traditional books.

Looking beyond the simple eBook reader mentality, Mongoliad harnesses the writing skills of Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear and others who will all contribute to the developing narrative. While a traditional story exists, Mongoliad's aim is to create a world of interactivity between writers, readers and other non-literary members who can contribute to and enhance the story.
Mongoliad is due for launch this year and will be available on the iPhone and iPad.

Demoing just a few of Mongoliad's promised features, Jeremy Bornstein of Subutai told us: "We think that devices like this really change publishing in a pretty fundamental way. Not just moving books into eBooks but really allowing for a lot more creative possibilities for engaging audiences".

Set in around 1241 with the Mongol hoards threatening to destroy Europe, the novel will pull from a number of sources to ensure authenticity and from what we've heard so far, this includes experts in sword fighting to provide a healthy dose of swashbuckling knowledge.

The ins and outs of Mongoliad are still sketchy right now but we're excited to see how the project progresses and, with such big names on board, how many others attempt to produce their own "novel within an app within an online service". Most will likely be waiting to see the kind of buzz Mongoliad generates before taking the plunge but, from what we've seen so far, it'll only be a matter of time.

[ as seen at the SF App Show ]

It seemed like the much talked up Wired Magazine for iPad, made in collaboration with Adobe, had hit a major problem when Apple banned Flash-based apps from the App Store, but now it has arrived and with Adobe’s help.

Rumor has it that Wired and Adobe had to rewrite the app to comply with Apple’s Objective C requirements after Apple blocked the use of 3rd party creation tools, namely Adobe's new Flash tools in CS5. Today, the app has gone live on the App Store and, it seems, all the blood sweat and tears were worth it. Wired Magazine for iPad looks to have set a benchmark among other publishers who have rushed out digital versions of their apps and uses interactive features as well as traditional page viewing techniques to show off the magazine’s content in an exciting new way.

The app does weigh in at a hefty 500Mb so you're not going to be able to keep too many copies on your iPad at one time, however, if all magazines follow this model and perform this well, it looks like the digital publishing revolution, hailed when the iPad was still just a rumor, may have well and truly begun.

The video below is Wired’s official video for its app that, ironically, requires Flash.