There is no short answer to this question (yet). But we did figure out a way to get our books on the iPad and in the iBooks app library. Here’s how…

But first, an overview:

1. Apple’s iBooks app supports the ePub format. Therefore you cannot just add a PDF or Mobi file. You have to create the ePub format.

2. The ePub format is 99% HTML. So if you’re comfortable editing HTML, you’ll do fine. If not, then get comfortable by practicing, perhaps, on your book. Programming HTML is the entry level skill needed for programming Web pages too.

3. Apple has still not granted access to their iBooks bookstore to independent publishers. That said, there are companies that can help you get your book for sale on the iBooks app. Namely Smashwords and Lulu.

OK, now for the tutorial.

Create the Master Template

Create an HTML template that you’ll use to add the content of your book. Keep it simple. You can get more complicated with your formatting later. For now, we just want to get chapters created and bind the virtual book. Here’s what I start with:

DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”>

xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>

<head>

<meta http-equiv=”content-type” content=”text/html;charset=utf-8″ />

<title>Template</title>

</head>

<body>

</body

</html>

Duplicate the Template for Each Chapter

Each HTML page you create will eventually be a whole chapter in the book once you’ve converted it. So in advance of getting your content into the chapters, you need to create those HTML pages. You can name them what you want, but I recommend giving them names like chapter1.html and introduction.html depending on what content they represent. This will help you later when you compile the pages into the ePub format later. Here’s a screenshot of the pages I included in our book. Notice that there is an images directory. If you have any images, it doesn’t matter where you put them, but if you include them all in one directory it makes the compilation process later a little easier.

Pages in the book

Add Content to Each Chapter

This part looks a lot like old school HTML editing. It’s easiest to describe by showing a sample from our book:

<body>

<H1>Chapter 1</H1>

<H2>Meet Google Wave</H2>

<p>Chapter 1 is an overview of what Google Wave is and the problems it solves. To dive straight into using Wave, skip ahead to Chapter 2, Get Started with Wave. </p>

<p>Google Wave is a web-based collaboration tool that helps groups of people grow documents out of conversations. Google created Wave to alleviate the problems that have plagued email for over 40 years. In this chapter, you’ll see how Wave combines features from several different modern web applications into a single interface, and how it distinguishes itself from existing collaboration software. See the most common uses of Wave, how Wave got its name, and why you won’t have to depend solely on Google to wave for long.</p>

<p>Come on in and meet Wave. </p>

<h2>“What email would look like if it were invented today”</h2>

<p> Google Wave is a group collaboration tool that makes it easy for several people to work together on a single document on the web. Wave combines some of the best features from modern web applications you already know and love—such as email, instant messenger, wikis, and forums—into a single, hybrid interface. As such, it’s difficult to describe Wave in only a few words. The Google Wave team bills Wave as “what email would look like if it were invented today.”[1]</p>

<p>Why does email need a reinvention? </p>

Relative to the lifespan of most technology, email is ancient. Invented over 40 years ago, email predates the internet as we know it—and in fact was a crucial tool in the creation of the internet. Despite its age, email hasn’t evolved much since the 1960s. Electronic mail is based on the paradigm of postal mail, a system of passing messages back and forth between senders and recipients. Wave makes a bet: surely there must be a better way to send, receive, preserve, and grow shared communiqués than via email.

<H4>Email’s Problems</H4>

<p>Email is simple, wildly popular, and works well—or else it wouldn’t have stayed in such widespread use as long as it has. But email has serious drawbacks when used to manage a conversation within a group. </p>

<p>Email propagates multiple copies and versions of messages. As soon as email is sent, the message’s contents are locked in. You can only copy, paste, edit, and send yet another copy of that message. As a result, email propagates copies of copies, storing each in a filing system of “boxes.”</p>

You’re simply entering in the content. Use standard tags H1-H6, P, EM, STRONG, A, and IMG as needed. Your markup works like HTML does in that H1 will be given semantic priority over H6. EM will be italicized. STRONG will be emboldened. Etc.

Compile with eCub

When you’ve finished creating the content and formatting lightly with your HTML markup, you’ll want to compile all of these assets into a single ePub file. Luckily there’s an app for that. eCub is that utility. Its available for use on Windows, Macs, and Linux machines. Download it. Install it.

This is a multistep process. I’ll summarize it in words first and show more detail in pictures below.

Start a new project and import all of your HTML files into that project.
Select each page and rename them, add them to your table of contents, and give them a chapter type.
Compile the project into the ePub format.

Select each page, rename it and give it a "type"

The various types of chapters you can assign each HTML page

Before you compile your ePub book, you need to name each chapter, give it a type and also make sure the order of your book’s chapters is correct. The order they appear in your files menu above is how they will appear to the reader.

Tip: you don’t need a table of contents. The ePub format handles that for you.

Compile your book into the ePub format

Look in your publish directory to find your ePub file.

Import into iTunes

This part’s easy. Just drag your file into iTunes. Right here:

Import the ePub file into iTunes

Sync and Enjoy!

The book imported into iBooks

iPads and Earthquakes

Kelly Abbott | April 5, 2010 - 10:50 am

Racing on the iPad

Did you feel that?

No, not the earthquake. The media world exploding into a 300,000 little pieces. I got a chance to test out the newest weapon in Apple’s arsenal and have put together a few posts this morning. We’re interested in developing apps as well as publishing content through the bookstore. But for productivity and gaming, it’s not too shabby. Excellent battery life and always on accessibility guarantees I’ll be carrying mine with me wherever I go. How about you? Read more to see if the iPad is right for you right now. Enjoy!