Apple's much-anticipated iPad tablet went public on Saturday.
This sleek and lightweight aluminum and glass device comes with 9. 7-
Inch touch screen without keyboard.
IPad has access to all common entertainment devices on iTunes
Music, movies and television.
But like the iPad, Apple is launching its own digital book business. E-
Books on the IPad may help the self-World
Publishing is a push, the authors and consultants say.
The internet has opened itself up with new digital technology.
Publishing industry.
Take a writer like Mark Moford as an example.
Ten years ago, if Moford had written a book, he would probably have sold it to a major publisher.
His provocative column on the San Francisco Chronicle website has 50,000 regular readers.
In a recent dispute over the school textbooks in Texas, he published an article entitled "Dear Texas: please shut up.
Sincerity, history.
"He also has a forthcoming book, The Wonder of boldness, and his column set.
Initially, Moford did meet with the agent and traditional publishers were interested in him.
"I am very excited about this book," he said . ".
Both the agent and the publisher said, 'Yeah, that's a good idea. We like it.
"But the book deals they offer are not what they used to be.
No greater progress, no national book reading tour for accommodation in trendy hotels.
Moford said he was told, "The whole idea is gone, it's gone.
There is no more money for marketing.
Moford began to wonder if he needed a big publishing house.
He looked around and found an emerging corporate industry that helped authors publish their own books in whatever format they liked, from traditional printed books to electronic books
E-books and Amazon's Kindle, and now the iPad.
Moford decided to work with a company called bookmaker to publish it.
In Moford's opinion, he has his own columns and core fans, so he can do his own marketing.
If he needs an example, he can look for other successful selves
A writer published like Tim Zhou.
Zhou is very different from Moford. He's a geek.
His recent book is called "cloud". he is not talking about the fluffy white color.
Zhou's book is about the future of online computing.
Not exactly a pager.
For most people, Turner.
Zhou may have tried and succeeded in gaining interest from traditional publishers, but after he finished his calculations, he decided not to do so.
He pointed out that the average retail price of books on the Internet is $25.
But, he said, "the author may get a book for $1 or $2.
Zhou found a company called Lulu.
Com doesn't charge anything, it prints a book only when someone buys a book.
But if they did, Zhou said, "in the context of Lulu, the same book, I would get $10 --12 per book.
"Jay Chou sold nearly 10,000 clouds through Lulu.
If you calculate it, it means that he has more than six numbers. Lulu.
Com CEO Bob Young thought of writers like Zhou when he started the company.
Young sees that large publishers need to sell tens of thousands of books in order to make a profit, and Lulu and its authors can make money even when the company sells a book.
According to Young, the problem made Lulu angry.
Com is, "If the Internet, as a medium, connects each of us with others, why, as a writer, can't I bring my book to my audience without permission from the publishing industry?
Lulu makes the whole process very simple, Zhou said.
"Essentially," Zhou said, "you can create a book if you can create a Word document.
"Lulu will also help authors find edits if they need them and provide design templates and marketing advice.
There's Lulu's book online.
Readers like the Kindle can see it on the iPad.
IPad books will be colorful and feature interactive features such as video and related website links.
Michael Schatkin, who consulted publishers on digital books, said the iPad may make itself
The published books are more competitive than those published by the big press.
"The biggest thing publishers offer is the ability to put physical books on the shelves of bookstores," said Shatzkin . ".
"As this becomes a less important part of the whole business proposition, the influence of the publisher or the reason why the author goes to the publisher is seriously weakened. "Self-
Publishing has even begun to attract well-known writers like John Edgar Wideman.
Wideman's work involves serious themes such as race, class and alienation, who twice won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award and the coveted MacArthur "genius" award.
When Wideman put together a brief set of what he called a "micro story", he decided to try to post it on Lulu. com.
Wideman says that to some extent he is just tired of the way traditional publishers treat serious novels.
"Cooking books and novels are treated the same way," he lamented . ".
"Competing for space in a chain store is effective for certain types of books.
But I don't think it's suitable for fiction.
If his first experience on Lulu goes well, Wideman says, he may use it to publish a complete novel.