Writing your Book on the iPad
With the introduction of Apple’s iPad last week, I can’t help but wonder how thewriting community will be affected — not so much in terms of whether or not writers will use the iPad to write their work (there’s no question there, considering we so openly use laptops), but rather in terms of a new store Apple has built for the iPad …
iBookstore
It reflects the look and feel of iTunes and the App Store and replicates their ease of use, which for readers, makes the iPad the best e-reader available. With the major publishers onboard with the iBookstore, readers will not only be able to purchase, download, and read their favorite titles in an instant, they’ll also be able to read titles made available by smaller publishers (much like the app developer community — sounds like a perfect opportunity to get involved with the digital platform for independent and self-publishing companies out there.
So with the iBookstore coming shortly,what is the iPad and how will writers be able to use it?
iPad
As a device that fills the gap between your computer and your smart phone, the iPad will act as your mobile computer — smaller than your laptop, yet more powerful than your smart phone. a Device that can float around the office or the house; some have even called it the first, true household computer. That said, I just saw a video of the iPad being installed to the dashboard of a vehicle, so it’s clear their are plenty of uses for the device.
Apple also introduced a suite of apps along with the device, called iWorks — including spreadsheets, keynote presentations, and what writers will find most useful, the word processing app called pages. In addition, with such apps as WordPress and other blogging focused platforms, writers will almost certainly find their iPad a convenient tool to write and publish their work on the fly.
Apps
The App Store currently features over 140,000 apps — both for sale and for free, from professionals and from amateurs … you’ll even find a few writing related apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
With the success of the app store and the innovation and creativity of the developers creating apps for the platform, there’s no doubt there will be writing related apps available for the larger platform, the iPad.
The question stands — what might those apps include?
I’d love to hear what you think about all this — the iPad, using the full size touch keyboard, adjusting to the platform, and writing while on the go.
Do you see yourself writing your book on the iPad? Publishing your work to the iBookstore through a self-publisher, or do you see yourself continuing to pursue traditional publishing?
CHRISTOPHER
I have been using Scrivener for a while to do research, but am considering writing a book soon. I hope that scrivener will make a app otherwise i will get iwork for the iPad.
Nice! Do you think you’ll purchase the keyboard dock as well, or stick with the soft keyboard?
I’m thinking of buying one soon. Thanks for this post!
Thanks for reading! I’m sure you’ll find it useful in your business — plenty of geo-oriented enabled apps available out there.
I did order the keyboard dock, the regular dock, and the camera connector. Today on April 3 I picked up my 64 GB IPAD and am very pleased with the device. The few apps that I tried and love are pages, keynote, brushes And the best is netflix
Nice!! How’s the soft keyboard? Is it pretty natural to type using it, or does it take getting used to?
The onscreen keyboard takes a bit to get used to but the Bluetooth keyboard from apple is awesome. The iPad keyboard dock combo I won’t get till may 28 according to apple that is the ship dat for that. But the iPad dock in front of my Bluetooth keyboard works good. The interesting thing about the iPad is that once you use it it has the potential to replace a laptop for the everyday tasks. If i need to do something heavy or need a specific application like downloading various items then I will use my laptop (MacBook pro 17 in). The only app that I wish they would make is scrivener. That is the writing program that I use only Mac. But pages works very good on the iPad.
Right on! I finally got around to checking it out about a week ago and found the soft keyboard more than suitable for all your typing needs — but for long sessions of writing, the bluetooth keyboard would definitely come in hand.
I’m really excited to see what the iBookstore does for writers — I have a feeling publishing your book will become much more accessible, and writers will be able to make money from their work without the pain of rejection from the major publishers.
i am planning to buy an iPad since it looks lighter than a regular desknote and i don not use much of the features of a laptop.-”.
[...] while back I wrote about Writing Your Book on the iPad, but today I’d like to explore a more likely use for the [...]