{"id":737204,"date":"2013-02-05T10:18:08","date_gmt":"2013-02-05T15:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paidcontent.org\/?p=224145"},"modified":"2013-02-05T10:18:08","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T15:18:08","slug":"itunes-launches-breakout-books-section-to-highlight-self-published-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/737204","title":{"rendered":"iTunes launches Breakout Books section to highlight self-published titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amazon intensely promotes self-published Kindle books, and now Apple is taking steps toward doing the same thing. The company has launched a new section of the iBookstore, “Breakout Books,” a “hand-picked collection of books from emerging talents…independently published to the iBookstore.” New books will be added “as they begin taking off.”<\/p>

Apple had previously launched Breakout Books sections in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.K.\u00a0The section focuses primarily on genre fiction, with sections for romance, sci-fi\/fantasy, and mystery\/thriller.<\/p>

While Apple mentions “hand-picking,” the books in the section primarily seem to be chosen based on how well they are selling.\u00a0In a very long blog post about the benefits of self-publishing, Mark Coker, the founder of self-publishing company Smashwords,\u00a0notes that<\/a>\u00a054 of the 64 titles in the Breakout Books section were distributed by Smashwords. He’d\u00a0previously noted<\/a>\u00a0that Apple is now the largest retailer for Smashwords authors. (Smashwords does not distribute books to Kindle.)<\/p>

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