New iBook

JackH · 1 June 2012, 10:13 AM

Guys,

I am happy to tell you that my first iBook is available on the Apple online bookstore. If you go into the bookstore via iTunes, search for ISBN 9781935881506 and it is there! The title is Development of German Warplanes in WWI.

After I get back from vacation on June 11, I will complete my second iBook titled, German Seaplane Fighters of WWI, ISBN 9781935881513. Right now Bob Pearson is doing some additional profiles for it. It should be published around the middle or end of this month.

The next book I'm planning is on German ground-attack airplanes, the CL and J types.

Development of German Warplanes in WWI has 156 pages, 208 photos (15 in color), 58 color profiles (by Bob Pearson), 5 color posters, and 26 tables of information, including all the Frontbestand tables.

The book sells for $9.99 and requires an iPad to read; I suggest the new iPad with Retina display. You can enlarge the photos to really see the detail, or enlarge the tables to read them better. There is one table at the end of the book where that will be important. You can also read it on your iPhone, but the iPhone screen is too small to be practical for that.

Cheers,
Jack

JackH · 1 June 2012, 09:33 PM

Guys,

After publishing the new iBook to the Apple bookstore, I decided to export the file as a PDF and see what that looked like. Frankly, I liked it as much as the iBook version.

So today I made the PDF version of the book available for download from the

Aeronaut Books website. No iPad, no problem! Now every computer user can see the book.

Cheers,
Jack

Frederic Mason · 4 June 2012, 11:49 AM

Hello Jack; Will the German Warplanes book be available eventually in hardcover hardcopy? I wouldn't wish to buy it online and then have a hardcover come out? That would be a waste of money? Sorry, fancy as IBooks are for the me-now generation, they are not as useful as a good old hardcopy. In order to read it, you have to crank up a desktop and sit in one spot. Or you have to hoist a laptop onto something to get it off your lap. My 17-inch laptop weights a heck of a lot and its too uncomfortable to lug around the room and cut off the blood flow to the legs. I'd love to have an IPad, but just can't justify the price, cause I already have two systems. I can't use my wife's IPad cause she's on it eternally.

With a good old book you can cart it anywhere and sit down and read it with no fussing around. Plus it will be there when you want it - more than one can say for some electrons that will vanish in a power surge. Or burn away with the old harddrive. NO, you can keep the electrons, let me know when the paper version happens? It's a proven fact paper lasts longer than electrons. And I won't print it out on paper either - you know what laser cartridges cost these days - whew??? Cheers; FM

JackH · 4 June 2012, 12:24 PM

Hi Frederic,

There are strong opinions on both sides of the 'paper vs. electronic' debate, and some feel as strongly about electronic books as you do about paper books. I intend to publish both paper and electronic books, but not the same books. Some will be paper, some electronic. The electronic books will be primarily those that would otherwise be paperback books.

As a publisher of paper books, I have to invest a lot of money in a print run, store the books, and ship books when they have been purchased. This limits the number of books I can publish. And some international customers pass on the books due to shipping charges. Publishing ebooks solves the problems of speed and cost; I can publish a lot more books, use more color throughout, and can afford to do so. And people around the world can buy the ebook and get instant gratification.

To specifically respond to your question, my intention is to eventually publish a book on all German airplanes that is on paper. The research for this takes a very long time and the books will be large and expensive when they are published, but they will be wonderful reference books when done. The timeframe for this is at least five years from now! Meanwhile, I can publish a number of books on WWI aviation that are smaller, have a lot of photos and color graphics, and explore the subject in new ways and present new information.

So I view paper and electronic books as complimentary and plan to continue publishing both. Later this year you will see the second aviation art book from

Aeronaut Books, which will be the aviation art of Jim Dietz. It will be to the same size and format as the Russell Smith book. You will also see the first two volumes of our PLM series that covers all the aviation PLM awardees. Those books will be similar in format to the Navarre book.

To get back to the ebook subject for a moment, I'm making the books available in iBook format for the iPad and PDF format for all other computers, so readers are not limited to iPads and can see it on the big screen. It allows readers to expand the photos to see all the detail when they want.

Right now I'm on vacation. I took a couple of books with me and also my Macbook Air, with some novels on Kindle. Since I am using my Macbook for email (using it right now), it was no extra size or weight to bring along a number of ebooks. I also have the iBook I've just published and the one I'm going to publish later this month. For weight and space reasons I could not bring along "Schlachtflieger!" that I wanted to bring!

To wrap up, you'll see both print and ebooks from Aeronaut in the future. If you only want print, you can choose to do that. There may be others who only want ebooks. Both will be with us a long time.

Cheers,
Jack

wizardofthenorth · 6 June 2012, 11:10 AM

Hi, how do I download the book? I started the checkout procedure...but the only option was shipping via usps.

TY
Brian

Quote:

Originally Posted by JackH

Guys,

So today I made the PDF version of the book available for download from the

Aeronaut Books website. No iPad, no problem! Now every computer user can see the book.

Cheers,
Jack

JackH · 6 June 2012, 07:54 PM

Ty,

If you press on you can download the file; a number of other customers have already done it. If you have problems, please contact me via the

Aeronaut Books website.

Best,
Jack

YavorD · 7 June 2012, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JackH

... If you press on you can download the file ....

It works but someone may be confused what is going on until the file appears on the screen. Time necessary for download on slow connections is considerable (68 MB file) and it took me about a minute to figure out and just wait

As a rule I am more inclined to Frederic Mason's attitude about "electronic books" altough, I must confess, there are some stored as reference on my external hard drive.

Development of German Warplanes in WWI (PDF version) is a handy reference (e.g. Frontbestand tables and list of airplane / engine manufacturers).
There are some good pictures and Bob Pearson's color profiles.

One error found:
"Type to enter text" artifact over Dornier Rs.IV picture on page 146.

Regards,
Yavor

JackH · 7 June 2012, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YavorD

It works but someone may be confused what is going on until the file appears on the screen. Time necessary for download on slow connections is considerable (68 MB file) and it took me about a minute to figure out and just wait

As a rule I am more inclined to Frederic Mason's attitude about "electronic books" altough, I must confess, there are some stored as reference on my external hard drive.

Development of German Warplanes in WWI (PDF version) is a handy reference (e.g. Frontbestand tables and list of airplane / engine manufacturers).
There are some good pictures and Bob Pearson's color profiles.

One error found:
"Type to enter text" artefact over Dornier Rs.IV picture on page 146.

Regards,
Yavor

Yavor,

Thank you for the feedback. I looked at p.146 and at first I didn't see the text artifact you mentioned, but then I looked closer and saw it. When I get home next week I'll correct that and upload the corrected file. If you want the corrected file, please let me know and I'll see you get it.

These files are fairly large, about 70MB, so it takes a little time to download. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I plan to continue publishing both print books and electronic publications on different subjects. With electronic publications I can publish a lot more than if I just publish printed books. I have some interesting electronic publications coming so stay tuned.

Thanks,
Jack

georgerutherford1861 · 7 June 2012, 01:08 PM

Jack,

Is there much overlap between the ibook and your book on WWI aircraft from the Essential Aircraft Identification Guide (if I have the right Jack Herris in mind)? I loved that book for its combination of text, pics, and especially color profiles of both the famous and the not so famous planes, and would love any book that extends on that same idea, without too much overlap. Thanks in advance for your reply.

Doug

JackH · 7 June 2012, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgerutherford1861

Jack,

Is there much overlap between the ibook and your book on WWI aircraft from the Essential Aircraft Identification Guide (if I have the right Jack Herris in mind)? I loved that book for its combination of text, pics, and especially color profiles of both the famous and the not so famous planes, and would love any book that extends on that same idea, without too much overlap. Thanks in advance for your reply.

Doug

Doug,

First, thank you for the kind words on the WWI aircraft book that I wrote and Bob Pearson illustrated.

Now, the iBook I just published is the first of a new series. Of course, there is some overlap with the Essential Aircraft book in terms of color profiles, but there are new ones too. However, the iBook has more than 200 photos, only one of which is in the Essential Aircraft book. Furthermore it has all the Frontbestand tables; the Essential Aircraft book had only the early types. Plus it covers a lot of types not in the Essential Aircraft book.

Future titles will similarly go into more depth, with new color profiles and lots of photos and other information, than in the Essential Aircraft book. I really enjoyed that book but was limited in the amount of content by their standard format and size.

Cheers,
Jack