So our application to get The Proviso into the iTunes store was denied. Seems it’s a tad too racy for the terms of service. Who’d’a thunk it, right?
Roger from eBook App Maker tells us that Apple is in the process of applying a ratings system to their games and he doesn’t think it’ll be too long until they start in with the ebook apps. So instead of sanitizing the book, we’ve decided to wait until Apple has a rating system.
UPDATE:
Today Richard Curtis (I love this guy, really) discusses Steve Jobs’s dismissal of ebooks as a viable revenue source a la iTunes with the comment, “People don’t read anymore.” I’ve discussed this before and it makes my head explode every time I think about it.
Fortunately, a number of determined and enterprising programmers took it upon themselves to spec – or hack – a reader application for the iPhone. And even more fortunately, Jobs did not discourage them. One hopes he realized he had spoken recklessly.
There is another way to read The Proviso on the iPhone/iTouch and that’s using Stanza and our EPUB format (included in the zip file).
But he also talks about Fictionwise:
Aside from the satisfaction of seeing Steve Jobs proven wrong, it’s also inspiring to see Fictionwise taking this initiative. We at E-Reads are big fans of Fictionwise. It is our principal e-book distributor and a major reason why this industry is beginning to thrive.
Now, I like Fictionwise, I do. But we can’t get on Fictionwise, either, because they require a publisher have 25 different titles by 5 different authors and although B10 Mediaworx does have titles in the works by people other than I, it’ll be a long time before we see that goal realized.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
YIKES! Waiting For Spring would never make it.
A good 75% (possible exaggeration) of the music on iTunes is labeled ‘explicit.’ Why haven’t they come up with something for books before now?
Good on you for not sanitizing your book, by the way.
December 5th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I believe it has to do with the wireless carrier’s terms of service (e.g., Verizon, AT&T, et al).
December 5th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
THere has got to be a way to create some kind of writer’s co-op where everybody can get their work under one publisher’s name onto something like Fictionwise. I just haven’t figured out how it would be feasible yet. And it may not be. But surely there is SOME way to bypass this ludicrous requirement and get in the system.
Also, on the “people aren’t reading” thing, on the Dragon Pages Podcast they talked about that, about how it’s like a ketchup manufacturer with low ketchup sales concluding that “people aren’t eating anymore.”
Of course people are reading. People read all the time. We have more reading people now than ever because of the internet. People just aren’t reading in the way they were.