We've talked about publishing via RSS and via OPDS Catalogs but that is all about publishing unencumbered EPUB documents without payment to the author. While that may be your intent, there are other options. It is also possible to market an ePUb document and be compensated for that work. One attractive option is to use Apple's iBookstore which uses the agency model: you set the price and get 60% of all sales with Apple getting the remainder.

There are two basic approaches to using the iBookstore, doing all the work yourself or getting some help from an approved aggregator.

Your first step should be to acquaint yourself with the rules. They are simple and few in number. Go to iTunes Connect where you will see this :




... be sure to use the drop-down menu to choose "Books."
Here you'll see the requirements for submitting an eBook to the iBookstore.





The next two screenshots show the application and the info requested prior to uploading your .epub files. Of course it is essential that your book be exactly as you intend it to be. Involving an editor or at least other literate people as critical readers would be a wise move before uploading.







If this seems too much to bear, you always have that second option which is to involve an Apple-approved aggregator. For a small fee, these folks will handle most of what needs to be done. However, they generally do not support or market the book. That's your job and it can be a mighty challenge. There are lots of comments by other authors on this point so it's good to make an effort to find, read and consider the experience of others.





You'll want to investigate the requirements of each aggregator as they are not all the same. Smashbooks, for example, has a Style Guide that you should consult well ahead of time. Their style guide is an .epub file and they only accept manuscripts in the form of a Microsoft Word document. Smashwords also offers the option to publish via other venues in addition to the iBookstore.

An ePub document need not be a full length novel or textbook. It could well be a set of class notes, a handout, a monograph, or any other instructional support document. So, rapid and easy publishing of .epub files is of great interest to academics these days now that students have a wide variety of hardware and software that is optimized for reading the ePub format.

All one needs is access to a server with an RSS feed capability. In Georgia, all university system faculty have access to the USG Podcasting Server which is very easy to use and has the ability to dynamically generate RSS feeds. However, any standard web server can be used if you can create and maintain your own RSS feed, a simple text document that follows the RSS 2.0 Standard.

The following screencast will take you through the process of uploading an .epub file to the USG Podcasting Server, copying the subscription address to share with students and then follow the student path of subscribing to the RSS feed with the iTunes application and synchronizing those eBooks with a mobile device running Apple's iBooks application.





Note: If a student doesn't have an Apple device running the iBooks application, there are other options that we'll examine in an upcoming blog post covering the many ways there are to read an .epub file.

Now that we can create ePub-based eBooks quickly and easily, our thoughts naturally turn to finding ways and means of publishing those digital books and other ePub documents. There are several options to consider so I'll take them on one at a time in successive blog posts. This post will deal with establishing an online catalog that enables remote access to your book collection. Depending upon who you share the address and optional password with, this could be just for your personal convenience or it could be where your students go to discover and acquire ePub documents (books, monographs, handouts, etc.) that you have made available to them.

A tool that can help us achieve this end is the free, cross-platform application called "Calibre." Calibre has many attributes such as managing your eBook library, converting eBooks, syncing to eBook reading devices, viewing eBooks and providing you with a content server for online access to your book collection. It is this last capability that we'll be focusing on here.

Calibre's content server is based upon the Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS). Many eReader applications such as Stanza are capable of browsing an ODPS catalog by categories such as newest, title, ratings, publishers, series, authors, tags, etc. and then downloading selected items. The catalog can be password protected. Here's a screenshot of the server settings:

One thing that you'll want to be sure of is that you network administration has arranged for access via HTTP port 8080 or whatever other port you have configured the server to "listen" to for requests. There may be a firewall in place that would prevent that. If that is not possible, just use port 80 which is the default port for HTTP. If you can surf the web, port 80 is open and, so, this should work.

Here's a screen shot showing Stanza on iPad browsing an OPDS catalog:

It's also possible for Caliber to send eBooks and magazines via email. Here's the setup for that:

It used to be that human communication was limited to the range of one's voice. Writing changed that and the ripples of this innovation are still expanding outward. Initially, any literate person could write to others using paper and pen. Transcending death itself, these letters could be quite persistent but were still limited in range. Gutenberg's press and its successors extended the range of human communication to potentially include all other literate persons on planet Earth. However, the ability to print words and distribute them in the form of books, magazines etc. was in the hands of only a few and subject to various limitations ranging from qualitative filtering to outright censorship. Finally, the desktop (computer) publishing and Internet revolutions of the 1980s and 1990s made it possible for anyone to print and distribute their words on a worldwide basis. The constraints upon written communication may have been minimized as much as they possibly can.

Still, the audience had to be somewhat literate. Without universal literacy, written communications may have reached their limit.

Enter video. Thanks again to the computer and internet revolutions, we have a method of communication that is not constrained by literacy. Some video doesn't even require spoken language to make a point. Where spoken language is required, the fact that video can have multiple, selectable language tracks seems a better, less costly solution than printing books in multiple languages. Not even Esperanto could save us from the Tower of Babel incident but perhaps some day we will have a universal spoken language.

So video may be seen as a more powerful and more universal medium of communication. That's the good part. The bad part is that, unlike our written and spoken languages, video may not be entirely unencumbered. I'm ignoring the fact that some font faces are encumbered by copyright because there are plenty that are not and there is no compelling reason to choose one over the other in written communications.

The composition and publishing of video necessarily entails compression and decompression and that requires software called a CODEC. Video also requires a container format examples of which include MPEG-4, Ogg, QuickTime, Flash, Silverlight and so on. Thus, all Internet video is some combination of container and CODEC(s). It's mostly the CODECs that are encumbered by patents and this is the focus of our concern about open and unfettered communication in the Internet video age.

Recognizing the fact that using video was a complicated process involving web browser plug-ins that present stability and security hazards as well as multiple lines of complex code, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sought to make video as simple to use as including a still image. The first major upgrade to the HTML standard in more than ten years, HTML 5, presented the perfect opportunity to do just that.

Not only does the HTML 5 video element simplify including video in a web page, it also eliminates the need for video plug-in or 'helper' applications such as Flash, the QuickTime Plug-in and Silverlight. Web browser plug-ins are a continuing source of performance issues(slowdowns and even crashing) and security threats. The HTML 5 video element promised to make it possible for more people to use video to communicate and to help their audiences as well.

However, the key piece to this scheme involved web browsers standardizing on a single video CODEC and container. The two main contenders for this were and still are: a) MPEG-4/H.264 (video)/AAC (audio) and b) Ogg/Theora (video) /Vorbis (audio). Unfortunately, the W3C group working on the video element, unable to agree on one, specified neither. The unresolved issue was not about open standards. Both options are open standards. The unresolved issue was about patents. No one argues that H.264 is patent-free, not even in the face of MPEGLA's recent announcement that it would not charge royalties for Internet video that is free to end users through 2016. Proponents of Ogg claim that it is patent-free. However, there is significant skepticism surrounding that claim.

Work-arounds have been developed such as the Google code cited below but the originally intended simplicity and elegance have eluded us. Worse, there is the prospect of having to pay directly or indirectly for the privilege of communicating with video. Imagine if we faced that prospect with words in the form of text on a web page? The time for governments to review and rescind copyright and patents for software may be at hand. What do you think?

References:
Dive Into HTML 5: Video on the Web
Daring Fireball (John Gruber): Why the HTML 5 'Video' Element is Effectively Unusable, Even in Browsers that Support It.
Brian Crescimanno: Dear Mozilla, Please Don't Kill HTML 5 Video!
MPEGLA: MPEG LAs AVC License Will Continue Not to Charge Royalties for Internet Video that is Free to End Users
WC3: HTML5 Video Element
Daring Fireball (John Gruber): GIF, H.264 and Patents
Daring Fireball (John Gruber): On Submarine Patents vis-a-vis H.264 and Ogg Theora
Google: HTML Video and Audio for Everyone