Here’s a [quick FAQ](http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-providers/book-faq.html) (has been around a while) from Apple detailing how you get a book on Apple’s iBookstore. You can compare and contrast it with Amazon’s for the Kindle Singles [here](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_354802082_5?ie=UTF8&docId=1000700491&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=browse&pf_rd_r=1CRR091ZCKXT26JN88GT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1326127342&pf_rd_i=2486013011).
Even more information about publishing from Apple’s iBooks Author tool can be found in the help for the software. There’s a very interesting, distinctly different, feel between these two FAQs.
I am talking about Kindle Singles because I think Apple is really bringing the fight to Amazon, the fight for independent publishers. [We already know that Amazon wants these writers](http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/17/confessions-of-a-publisher-were-in-amazons-sights-and-theyre-going-to-kill-us/), but Apple seems to be making it a bit more competitive for this niche.
This is a line from Amazon’s Kindle Singles FAQ:
>We are currently not accepting how-to manuals, public domain works, reference books, travel guides, or children’s books.
Do you notice a common thread amongst those types of books?
Imagery.
How-to manuals, travel guides, and children’s books — these three types of books *need* to have great images in them to make the books infinitely more useable and entertaining. Beyond the imagery the design and layout of these books can often make or break them — something that you would be hard pressed to control when the book is read on a keyboard-less Amazon Kindle.
Black and white e-ink screens, well, don’t do so well with this type of media — the iPad though? Yeah, now you see why this is a shot across Amazon’s bow.
Amazon also limits the word count and price of Kindle Singles — I have yet to see mention of Apple doing that. Both services review books before publishing them, though it’s fair to say Apple will be just — if not more — stringent that Amazon.
This should be interesting.
Note: This site makes use of affiliate links, which may earn the site money when you buy using those links.