Why Write An E-Book App?
The e-book market was valued at over US$16.9 billion in 2020 and is predicted to hit nearly 25 billion dollars by the year 2025.
The success of titles like A Game Of Thrones and The Lost Tartarist could be attributed to the rise of e-books and tablet devices. Indeed, since the majority of books are now available in electronic form, it’s natural that people would want to read them on their iPads and other tablets. But the rise of e-books and tablet devices didn’t happen overnight. It took a while for the general public to figure out how to use these new-fangled devices, and for businesses to recognize their worth. For instance, the Kindle was first released to the general public in 2010 and didn’t become widely adopted by consumers until several years later.
Despite this, almost every business and individual has now found a place for a tablet in their homes. And since so much of life now takes place on a digital device, it’s only natural that people would want to “immerse” themselves in their reading material. This is especially true if you consider that many people now prefer to read books on their tablets instead of traditional bookstores due to the ease and convenience of using portable devices.
Now, if you’re looking to dive into the world of e-books and tablet devices, where do you start? How about with writing an e-book app for your iPad? You could do this with the help of a number of e-book apps already available on the App Store, none of which are hugely complex or expensive. In fact, you could even use the free iBook Author app to begin with.
Why Should You Write An e-Book App?
The App Store now has over 2 million apps available for download, and it continues to grow every day. While this might suggest that you’d never find a suitable niche for your app, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Thanks to the API (Application Programming Interface) that all apps on the App Store share, finding a place for your app is actually quite simple. Just search for your favorite book title or author and you’ll see a variety of apps that you could build upon.
Even better, many of these apps already have a community built around them, which means you could potentially launch your app and instantly have customers.
Now, this doesn’t mean that every niche will be able to find a use for your app. Some are indeed very specific and might not generate enough revenue to justify the time and effort it would take to create one. However, if you’re looking for an e-book app career, this is certainly a route to take.
How To Start
If you already have experience in software development or design, the next step is to take your skills and apply them to “the other side of the screen.” That is, the side where you write the app. For the sake of this guide, let’s assume you’ve chosen to develop an e-book app. Now, you need to pick a book title and work on adapting it to a functional and engaging app. Luckily, with so many titles available, you have numerous possibilities to choose from.
Depending on how experienced a developer you are, this could either be a very easy or a fairly challenging task. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say you’re a beginner programmer and have never developed an app before. In this case, the easiest and probably the the “nicest” way to start would be to use a tools like Xcode or Visual Studio to “visualize” how the app would work. That is, you could use these tools to create a “prototype” of the app and test it out on a physical iPad before ever writing a single line of code.
This might seem like an unnecessary step to some, as Xcode and Visual Studio are both available for free from Apple and Microsoft. However, this step is crucial if you want to develop an e-book app that users can actually enjoy. Indeed, many programmers end up wasting a lot of time with trial and error before they figure out the right API and design to build their app.
Now, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you could also choose to build your app using Flutter, a mobile app development platform from Google that works on iOS as well as Android devices. Using Flutter will not only help you build an e-book app easily but will also allow you to access the Google Play Store, where you could potentially find all the books you need for your project.
Design & UI
Now that you have a functioning app, it’s a good idea to redesign it using responsibly-sized images and tasteful color palettes. When done right, users won’t even realize that they’re browsing an ebook app, as apps on the App Store typically look like web pages do. This is mostly down to the fact that apps are mobile-first and optimized for touch screens, which means they usually have clean modern design.
However, despite this clean design, you should avoid stark white spaces and stick to using textures and brushstrokes to create a more “handmade” look. Also, since your goal is for users to engage with your app, don’t hesitate to add little quirks here and there. For example, you could add a rolling ball or an animated eye icon on your app’s home screen to make it stand out (the eye icon is currently popular on the App Store).
Back-end & Database
Back-end development is all about giving the “glue” that connects your app’s front-end (what users see) to its back-end (the code that makes your app work). As you’re probably aware, all apps on the App Store are equipped with some sort of a back-end, which means they typically have a database of some sorts. In the case of an e-book app, this is where all the data (titles, descriptions, etc.) related to your book titles are stored. So, now that you have a back-end, it’s time to think about what kind of database you’ll need.
Do you need an ON/OFF switch for your app or do you want it to be possible to read all the books in your library at once? Are you planning to offer exclusive titles and updates for paying customers? These are all important decisions that you’ll need to make and, hopefully, this article will help you figure out what’s important to you.
Localization
Since your app’s users will be around the world, you’ll need to provide localized information for different regions. For example, if you’re planning to release an e-book app in multiple languages, you might want to provide localized descriptions for each of these languages. This is fairly easy to do, as you just need to add a few lines of code to provide localized information.
If you’re looking to broaden your readership, providing localized content for various regions could help you reach a large audience. However, keep in mind that not everyone will have access to all the content you provide, especially if it’s in a different language (for non-English speaking users). In this case, you might want to consider removing some of the content or providing an alternative, hopefully simpler translation for those without access to the original.
Marketing
If you’re looking to broaden your readership, adding a bit more to your app’s marketing plan could help you reach a larger audience. For example, you could run some ads on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook, as most people use these sites to find relevant information about products and services. Or, you could develop a blog and write articles about how to write an app like this one or how to create a certain design.