Apple launches iBooks Author

A new development in the Apple world has educators and aspiring authors alike practically peeing their pants with excitement. iBooks Author, the latest addition to their list of worthy apps, is a new OS X program that allows for creating and publishing ebooks with just a click of a button. And despite the coolness factor of this must-have app, they’re offering it for FREE.

The app is intended mainly for educators, allowing them to drag and drop photos, videos, and even Word (yes, from competitor Microsoft) into a variety of templates to create interactive textbooks that allow for a deeper learning experience. In return, those viewing the textbooks can make photos bigger, view videos, create notes from the text, view diagrams, swipe through visual aids, and so much more.

But it’s not just for teachers. Books of all types are able to be published into the world of Apple iBooks with incredible ease. The app determines the best way to lay out the book, chapters, sections, headers, etc. And the user can then revise it to suit their needs. They can then preview their book and/or publish them directly to the iBooks store (anywhere from free to $14.99).

Of course there are a few things you should know before putting your own book out there.

1. You must be using OS X Lion to be able to access iBooks Author.

2. You must create a separate Apple ID for your iBooks Author account to be able to publish a textbook, as they won’t accept your regular Apple account.

3. You must give Apple all your tax info to be able to publish, even if you’re publishing for free. That’s easy enough, but they also require an ISBN – an International Standard Book Number that costs $125 for every type of publication you plan on for your book.

4. You must agree to a 70/30 split of all royalties with Apple (you would receive 70%).

But when you see videos like this, it’s hard not to drool:

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Have you downloaded the new iBooks Author app? What do you think?