InDesign iBooks Author Workflow

I think I have a good IND to IBA workflow solution- I am so excited I thought I would share!
1. In InDesign, export your file with well defined styles as an EPUB.
2. Find the EPUB file on your machine.
3. Change.epub to .zip.
4. Expand the file.
5. Open the xhtml file contained within in Dreamweaver.
6. In DW, use File>Convert>HTML 4.01 Transitional
7. Open the resulting file in word.
8. You should now have well formed 'drag and droppable' content for IBA.

Hi Mary, this workflow is helpful but I have some questions:
When I open the XHTML 4.0.1 Transitional file in Word (after sort of 'forcing' Word to open it, and Pages won't open it at all), I get no styling at all. All the INDD styles are gone, and while I see a CSS file in the package that was created on export from INDD, Word doesn't see them.
I started with an INDD file with well defined styles, anchored images. Images came over just fine.
How to get styles to show up in the Word file for drag/drop into IBA? I don't want to have to restyle from scratch in IBA.
Can anyone offer insight? Thanks!

Similar Messages

Best workflow practices for iBooks Author re Enhanced Books?

Hi
I have already published one Enhanced iBook in iTunes (The Wandering Gorillas) about my research in Rwanda. I am now working on several others which will contain much more interactive media - photos and video.
I have vast amounts of unique photos and video - which would be useful for education purposes. So, 'where fools rush in...' I began to creat a new Enhanced iBook with lots of rich media.
However, I immediately started to have serious problems as the fille sizes grew very large - due to the many images and especially because iBooks Author creates versions etc. Thanks to solutions provided on another post by Pondini & Linc Davis these problems have now been resolved and I have regained my 'lost' 100 GB - which had been gobbled up into the folder DocumentREvisions and private/var - you can read their solutions here
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22800295#22800295
Now, I wish to avoid the same problems - and try to get the best possible workflow to use when creating Enhanced iBooks - which contain lots of rich media files such as photos and video.
And so I am asking advice form anyone who has created such iBooks using iBooks author - or who is an expert in the finer workings of this software.
First - Since Apple restrict the final iBook size to 2 Gb (and recommen smaller) I am considering creating my new iBook via separetly published chapters - so that each will be less than the max 2GB. Obvioulsy these will have to have some 'stand alone' usefulness!
But, is this a good practice? has anyone done this? Is there any way for the separate chapters to be later combined - by the user - in order to have a complete, coherent book?
Second, re image file sizes. For best quality on their new Retina Display iPads Apple suggest images of (No larger than ) 5000 x 5000. I used this - and it produced image file sizes of 20 -30 MB. I did some other trials - using images of 1024 x 1024 max - and on my iPad 2 (non Retina) my failing eyes could not see any difference? Their file size was reduced to 2- 300 KB
Would the difference be obvious on a Retina Display though? Should we use the largest possible resolution (and file size) - but this has serious implications for the eventual overall iBook file size.
What is the best compromise?
Third, I have an iMac with an i7 250 Gb Flash drive and a separate 1TB hard drive. All my 'media assets' are on the 1TB hard drive. The still images are exported from my various Aperture libraries - as jpegs of the size mentioned above (and into a newly created folder) . Same with video - to Apple's recommendations for video replay on iPads.
So far I have kept and used the actual iBook Author file - for the new book - on the desktop of my 250GB i7 Flash Drive.
But, as I reported in the other post, this soon caused me huge problems as my disk space was rapidly 'eaten up' by duplicate versions etc.
I am now considering using a separate, 1Tb Firewire External drive for the actual iBook Author file (with backup copies onto another 1TB drive) I am certain this will be slower than using my internal flash drive - but is this 'good practice?' Can it avoid the problems of all 'lost' storage space which caused me such hassles when using my flash drive? Or, will this be minimised if I create separate iBooks from separate chapters?
And, delete uneccessary versions of course!
I do feel that this is an emerging issue which many will face - as we incorporate more and more rich media into our iBooks.
Any help or suggestions are gratefull received!

Thunderstorm played havoc with box from my ISP - and I am ruuning on a reserve and internet access flaky!
but, here goes with one reply. Will have to wait later re tests for your other suggestions when weather calmed down
Re 'as Apple suggessted' I should have said - no larger than 5000 x 5000 pixels (the 3240 was my vertical proportional dimension from choosing 5000 horizintal dimension)
this is from Ibooks Author help
Add and edit photos and other images
You can add a photo or other image (in a supported file type) to a page in your book by dragging the photo from theMedia Browser, the Finder, or another application.
After adding a photo to your book and positioning it on the page, you can use the tools in iBooks Author to mask (crop) the photo; change its brightness, contrast, and other image qualities; or erase its background.
Important: When you export your book for distribution outside the iBookstore, images are automatically scaled to a width of 2048 pixels, which is optimized for iPad with Retina display. Readers can view these images on other iPad models, but the viewing experience might be slower. You can improve the viewing experience on iPad models without Retina display by using images no wider than 1024 pixels.
ShowMask (crop) a photo
ShowChange a photo’s brightness, contrast, and other settings
ShowRemove the background or unwanted elements from a photo
Important: Images can’t be larger than 25 megapixels (5000 x 5000 pixels) or 50 MB.
SEE ALSO
Add an accessibility description to an object
Add a title, label, or caption to an object
Was this page helpful?Send feedback.
Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

IBooks Author or InDesign CS6 for interactive eBook?

I've been asked to create some "marketing collateral" (free, not for purchase) for my company that in addition to text would include some vidoes w/ audio. The material HAS to work on the iPad b/c that's how it will be displayed at the tradeshow.
However, if the materials could reach a larger audience than just iPad users, that would be a bonus. I've just read that iBooks now supports ePub3, and I understand that InDeisgn CS6 can export to ePub3?
My questions is whether I should use iBooks Author or use InDesign? I use InDesign for print & PDFs, but never for interactive. I don't want to use the DPS - we have no intent of selling this material. I have no experience with iBooks.
I have such a short window of time to produce this, that I thought it would be best to ask some experienced designers which direction you would go.
Thanks in advance.

The idpf links to some epub3 samples hosted on google ( http://code.google.com/p/epub-samples/downloads/list ), and there is one that contains embedded audio & video. I opened it on my 1st generation iPad, and it opened & played the video. It's rather visually uninteresting, however, and I'm not sure if that's b/c of the epub format or the intent of the author.
There are other examples of epub3 out there if you google it, and they will show how how others have utilized the format ( http://vimeo.com/24954073 ). It's still not really what I'm looking for visually.
I looked into DPS on the Adobe site, and the example of Univeristy of Ohio app was amazing especially considering the lack of developers involved. This probably won't work for my current project, b/c it looks as though you have to upload the file to the Apple store, and I've been told they don't want to do that. Bummer; but I'm keeping it in mind for future marketing purposes.
It looks like iBook Author is going to be the winning platform.

Workflow and uses for iBooks Author ?

02-04-2012 Sat
Before I begin I want to thank the developer team from Apple for the last update. Now all the iBooks in my library are opening smoothly and the system is not locking up anymore. Thanks guys.
Besides the typical Questions, Problems, Suggestions, . . . I'd like to hear how others WRITERS are using iBooks and how they have incorporated it into their daily workflow.
I don't think there are many writers out there using iBooks Author as a complete replacement for their notes, outlines, and drafts. But, I would think that they would share some kind of common approach before publishing a book.
For me, I'm guessing you would need a good calendar to keep a schedule, a notebook to catch all your thoughts and some form of a word processor to organize your thoughts, create an outline, and start writing the chapters.
The combination of The iPhone, Siri, iCal and Notes seems to work perfectly to catch thoughts before they make it to a written page. Thank you Apple.
Entering text directly into iBooks never worked well for me. So I prefer to pre-write the copy and paste it into my iBooks file. To do this I use an app called iA Writer but you always have the option to use Pages if you feel more comfortable in that environment.
I'm sure we would all like to think that we are going to start publishing books and make a lot of money. But odds of that happening are very slim. The point is to focus on the true strength of using iBooks Author and for me that is publishing my own content to my iPad.
Here are a few examples that I would like to share with you, if you have any others ideas please post your thoughts here.
Make your own List of Affirmations.
Once you read a book you can always write a review that highlights your thoughts at the time of reading.
Create a Menu or your own recipe book.
Create scrapbook.
Document a time period.
Use it as a business tool to distribute company information to clients.
A student can maintain class notes, highlight them, and create study cards.
Create some form of yearbook or travel log.
I recently made a complete timeline that includes all the major events in my life.
Don't forget you can use aperture to create a short introduction video explaining who you are and why you are publishing your book.
Well thats my list, I'd like to hear your ideas. Thanks for listening - John Franco

When asking about a product, always ask the seller...

Indesign to iBooks Author

Can you take an Indesign file or PDF and load that into iBooks Author with recreating? We have a 100+ page book that we would like to put in iBooks Author - can we go from Indesign or PDF straight to iBookAuthor? If not is there a plug-in that will help?

You could also use Text Edit to save to word format if you don't have Pages.
I've been experimenting with starting the editing process with Pages, which allows for creating an iPhone friendly ePub file first and then moving to iBooks author.
Seems like a fairly smooth transfer so far

In ibooks author how to make an existing page start a new section

I have imported a Pages document into ibook authors (version 2.1.1 in OS 10.9.1) using the Classic Text Template. The original Pages document was basically a book, with title and table of contents and forward and several sections. Now everything is one huge unit. During the import I can choose a layout, but only a chapter or a section. Then all of the document is regarded as having that layout -- every page is regarded as having the section layout, for example, though only the first page has the smaller text area and the large text as a header. I can see all the layout possibilities in the Layouts sidebar, and they include section and forward and 1 column. When I hover the cursor over a particular page the book sidebar I see the little triangle that has been mentioned, and it offers options for changing layout, but it does not allow me to make that page a new section or a forward. I can only make the page 2 column or put a sidebar on it. I cannot see how I can import the book and be able to create chapters and sections with ibooks author. I can insert a new section layout, or a new page, but I do not see how to to change a page, after it is imported and is considered to be the text of a chapter or section, into the start of a new chapter or section. I do not find anything in the inspector or on the menubar or in the help center that makes this change. The "add a chapter title" does not change the layout to make the text box smaller, as it should for a layout. Is it actually possible to convert a Pages book into an ibook authors book, or must I create the blank chapters and sections in ibook authors and then cut and paste each section from Pages?

The advice given for iBA, is to preplan your book. Modify an exsiting template as your layout suits you, to present a quality book to your readers.
iBooks Author is really more "app" than a book maker like inDesign or even Pages, - and users should really get to know how to use it before starting out on a serious project.
The insert options are clear - you can insert a Chapter from MS Word or Pages in iBA a "chapter" is a distinct "standalone" part of a book which can include sections and pages as required. Sections can be moved up or down within their chapter or can be copied from one chapter to another. The pages in any chapter are static and the only way to change content location is copy and paste.
From your post, its seems you decided to create you book using Pages and in one chapter expecting iBA to reformat it.
I would suggest a solution is to count your chapters and add that number into an iBA new book, then copy your Pages chapters. I would guess that the whole process would take less than 30 minutes.
Apple recieves feedback and suggestions for improvements, however the last update made very few changes to the application and none of those seen in many posts - such as being able to move pages. This indicates that Apple at least, are satisfied that the version is functional enough for how Apple see books being made for its store. 12 months ago this forum was taking hundreds of posts per day asking advice, its now a trickle- which I take to be in indicator that as a group, iBA users have taught themselves how to use the application and its many options and third party add on's. iBA is more suited to the interactive side of publications as Apple intended, creating a mainly text only "novel" seems to be considered by Apple as the easy part!

Embed pdf into iBooks Author

Hi,
I've been creating a book in iBooks Author.
But the customer wants to include some pdf articles into the book.
What i have tried so far:
drag and drop pdf -> only imports first page of the pdf
PDF to Keynote -> bad quality, not zoomable
HTML widget with:
A <object data="myPDF.pdf" type="application/pdf"></object>
This gives some sort of source code of the pdf
HTML widget wit a object but the data referece to a pdf that is on the internet
=> shows the pdf but you can not navigate to the other pages
redirect to a pdf that is on the internet
=> shows the pdf and you can scroll to the other pages W00t!
Now i want this result but with a pdf that is embedded into the widget so that the reader shouldn't be connected to the internet to read the pdf...

raphaelfreeman wrote:
Okay, so sticking with an English book which has Hebrew text in it. Assuming that the book has been first typeset in IDCS6, then would recommend simply sending the ePUB3 file to the iBooks store?
Yes. For testing, just email or otherwise transfer it to your iPad and see what it looks like in iBooks.
I assume you've seen the stuff Adobe produces, like
http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/indesign/pd fs/indesign-to-ipad.pdf

Possible to update from old iBooks Author file using new version?

Will the just-released new version of iBooks Author allow me to update an existing book which was created with a previous version of the software?
I created a book in landscape mode, but placed all of the images in portrait orientation. Now that there are portrait-only templates, I want to redo the book. Will I be able to replace my book on iBooks without having to relist it?
The new iBooks Author description states the following: "And to keep your work current, add updates by publishing new versions of your original title. iBooks will automatically notify your readers that there’s a new version of your book ready to download."

nanobear:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Do you still have the original library on our old Mac? If so, connect the two Macs together so you can manually copy the iPhoto Library folder from the old Mac into the Pictures folder of the new iMac. download and run BatChmod on the iPhoto Library folder with the settings shown here, putting your administrator login name in the owner section and Staff in the group section. You can either type in the path to the folder or just drag the folder into that field.
Now launch iPhoto and it should inform you that the library will need to be upgraded. Select OK and the library will be converted to the latest version.
What version of iPhoto were you running on the old Mac?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Using custom fonts in iBooks Author

I have a book in South Asian (Indic) script. The encoding is Unicode. I wanted to see how different fonts would look on iPad. Using iBook Author i created two different versions of the book. One used Gujarati MT, Apple supplied font. The second used open source TTF font. It checked out fine by MacOS when I installed it. The rendering of conjuncts (which would use additional glyph present in the font file) on iBook Author looks good. When I use "preview" function of iBook Author to see how the content would look on iPad, conjuncts dont use special glyph but only standard character (I guess GSUB is not utilized). I tried the same experiment with Arial Unicode MS and Shruti both are standard fonts provided under Windows. it appears that only Apple supplied fonts have correct glyph substitution on iPad.
Is there a way to fix it?
If the issue is with iBook Author, I can use another software. My book is plain text so Author is an overkill. I was using it to test embedding of custom fonts because Author is easy to use.
If the issue is missing definition in the font that is required by iPad rendering engine, I can get the font author to enhance the font.
I attach four images. First two are from iBook Author where rendering is correct. The next two are from iPad where rendering using non Apple font is messed up.

rajeshfrompalo alto wrote:
Is comment about enhancing the font to support AAT still relevant? Are you saying that iOS needs those AAT extension that macOS does not need? Is this mostly around MORX table?
iOS (and OS X) comes with two Gujarati fonts, Gujarati MT and Gujarati Sangam MN. So the easiest thing to do is to use one of those.   Other platforms will probably have their own default Gujarati fonts with different names.
If you want to embed a different Gujarati font in your .ibooks format book, then you will indeed have to convert that font from OpenType to AAT before iBooks will display it correctly.   It's not true that OS X no longer needs AAT Indic fonts -- Pages for example still cannot use Opentype Indic fonts.
To convert an Opentype Indic font to an AAT Indic font I think someone will have to add a morx table along the lines of what is contained in Gujarati MT.
Bear in mind that iBooks Author creates a format that can only be read on an iPad (unless you want to export to PDF). If you want to produce books for all platforms and readers, then you need to use .epub format and a different app, like Pages or Indesign.   With epub format you would probably not normally try to embed fonts but just rely on the reader to supply whatever Gujarati font is already on the device.

IBooks Author Page Size Question

I would like to use iBooks Author to put together a book for print (instead of using InDesign which is not intuitive for photo placement). iBooks Author looks good and the templates seem to work very well, but I have found no way to specify total page size dimensions - specifically A4 (210 × 297 mm) in portrait orientation.
Also the PDF export - which I should be able to use for printing - has strange lines around the overall graphics (indicating larger actual document size?), and has a big watermark at the bottom reading "iBooks Author," which wouldn't be good for printing.
Can anyone give me instructions as to how I can:
1) Specify page spread dimensions for the whole document (except for the cover which I will design separately)?
2) Export to PDF in proper printing format without faulty document dimensions or watermarks?

esagustin013,
Indesign as well as Quark are still the mainstream layout tools fore creating Print collateral...as of the latest versions of InDesign and Quark...both are beginning to introduce ebook production.
As for your last sentence, it is not true that both are beginning to introduce eBook production. Adobe InDesign has been doing that for a couple of years, along with PDF technology. Now it even gets much better and, it is true that it is getting more powerful. It is not recommended for novices to use these apps, so iBooks Author app is a very nice simpe app especially designed for iPad platform.
I would highly suggest you search for a tutorial pertaining to how to place images into indesign and how to minipulate them with your text boxes. Far more power in these programs...completely tailored for Print.
Again, last sentence, it is not true that it was completely tailored for Print production. Adobe InDesign app is a totally different app now than it was once developed for at the time when Adobe first released InDesign 1.0 some years ago. I can't believe how time flew from 1.0 to now CS5.5. However, you are correct it is very powerful professional layout app for print and even eBook production and even ePUB production and all. And even PDF files for web. Even it works just fine in iPad opening PDF files.
I am intrigued by iBooks Author is capable of making more interactive iPad iBook textbooks.
I am interested about what Adobe have to say about iBooks Author app. I wonder if Apple eventually develop professional-grade layout app - more powerful than that of iBooks Author or iWorks app. I guess we'll wait and see. Probably not.

Image size for ibooks author

Hi
I am making a book using iBooks author. It will be image heavy. (40-50 images)
I have a few question on images.
1. I do not want the file to be huge or take an age to download so an Apple rep informed me that the images should ideally be no more than 500-600kb per image saved at 72dpi
Forgve my ignorance but can someone eplain to me what this means in terms of pixels? What size (height and width) and resolution (pixels per inch) should I save images so that they can be seen at their best but not be overly large?
The finder window when I try to resize images gives me some standard options. Should I take these? Also if I click on 1024 x 768 pixels as a standard size, the width and height boxes do not change.
I'm a little confused.
Many thanks

This thread is over 12 months old now...perhaps you posted here by mistake. Your problems have slready had rep,ies in another thread, however to answer your question..
No, iBA does not seem to change image size....which is why you see posts about tickets for images size in books held back by the review team.
Consider that Apple gave you free use of iBA. Pages, inDesign and others come at a cost.
If you intend to create other books with a high photo image content, you really need to consider investing in suitable software.
I suggest you search the net for "photo image editors" or similar, dont wait for iBA updates..I doubt Apple will address image sizing and "cropping" can effectively be done using the image mask.
As in all projects be it eBooks, making kitchen tables or building a tree house...its sensible to gather all your assets and ensure they are suitable for the planned use....before starting the construction process.

IBooks Author app for iPad?

Is iBooks Author available as an app for iPad or only for laptop/desktop?

There are a number of apps available from the Apple app store which enable eBooks to be created on an iPad. They are obviously not as interactive or as functional as iBA, although Book Creator which I have used creates ePub files.
Unlike iBA, most of the content needs to be prepared outside the app and inserted. There are quite a few such applications so you would need to evaluate each against your needs.
Pages is available for iPads so I assume that it will produce ePubs as it does on Macs.
If your ambitions for creating eBooks to distribute via the iBookstore, iBA is the best application currently available although InDesign seems to be the choice of those creating "novels" with minimal illustration.
I do not have any connection in any way with any of the apps other than as a user.

IBooks Author does "real" 3D why doesn't Adobe

We have been evaluating iBooks Author and it does "real" 3D. We have demo'd this using a Collada file and unlike ADPS's faux 3D it can be rotated in all direction and doesn't require the laborious creation of incrementally rotated still images.
Why can't ADPS handle real 3D?

I think 3D features should be split into a few areas:
- 3D Animations to be used as decorative ways of navigation/interaction
- 3D Support for serious content like models, simulations, visualisations.
For the former, this could be done by adding HTML/script-like methods.
The script could take a portion of the page, turn it into a sort of Canvas,
and then handle it with CSS-like transformations.
There are already a number of HTML-scripts that perform such an effect.
You can incorporate them by using Web content items or pages in DPS.
I wonder if it would be useful to have such animations (back) in InDesign.
The Flash-driven Animation palet could be revised/revamped to do that.
On the other hand, any feature in that direction (available in InDesign)
will just lead to requests for more features. It would become bloated.
Imagine InDesign doing Photoshop-like stuff; we'd be asking for more...
So a separate application to do (3D) animations migth be a better way.
For the latter (full heavy-weight 3D support), I think it's too soon.
Bot tablet hardware and software is too weak to build such features
into an app that does many other things as well. Of course, 3D games
perform well on tablets, but these are totally dedicated to these tasks,
and don't have to let 3D work alongside other (complex) techniques.
So time will tell when full 3D support of any format (standard?) arrives.

Can I Create Chapters Separately in iBooks Author and Merge Into a Single iBook?

In a print page layout package like InDesign, chapters of a book can be created separately and then merged into one book file. Is it possible to do that to create an iBook in iBooks Author?
Thank you.

Yes, it is possible and very easy to do.
If you want your chapters/sections/pages to have the same layout and colour scheme... make your template and and save as template - or use teh same free template for each chapter.
Create a Master version - and it is to this you will eventually copy and paste youe separate chapters.
Just select and copy the chapter and open the master.. then paste in the left "Book" column.
If you are using different chapter layouts - It also takes its template and that also appears in the hidden Layout tree.
I use this method on every book, simply because it does not slow down the machine. A multi chapter book with videos and photo images makes a big file - which is slow to process every time you preview or check things.

Header or Index facility on iBooks Author and Pages?

I'm an academic who has just published an eBook.
I used iBooks Author to write it, thinking that would be as convenient as Apple equipment normally is....
BUT: Neither iBooks Author nor Pages has
a) Index facility
b) Header facility.....
Finally, to use the Publish facility on iBooks Author one must have a US Tax code.
This limits the use of iBooks Author to USA Residents only.
I'm shocked by this restrictive, exclusive limits from Apple iBooks Author...
PLEASE can this be changed, Apple?!!
Till then, I feel obliged to write my next book with Microsoft Word: though I shouldn't think iBooks will be able to accept a Word index....!!
Mark

Hi Mark
Apologies for the confusion in not finding the 'masters' - coming from a print background, I tend to use the terminology of the main software I use. iBA calls them 'layouts'.
These can be accessed from top of the sidebar by going to the two horizontal lines next to the word 'Book', and dragging it down. There you will see the layouts for chapter, sections, etc. Looks like this:
These are the pages on which are used as the basis for the pages in the book. They can be changed (by clicking on the appropriate thumbnail on the sidebar), copied, or deleted (by right-clicking, and selecting from the options provided). I strongly recommend taking time to familiarise yourself with how these 'layouts' work, and really understanding them. Getting the template right from the outset is imperative. Take a look at the layouts for section and chapter starters. These already have text boxes which are set up to include Chapter name, section name, etc. 'Text variables', if you like. If you scroll down this list in the sidebar, you'll get to some alternative layouts for individual pages – 1 col, 2 col, 3 col, etc.:
Now - as you rightly point out - iBA has no idea what a facing page is - they are not relevant to what it does - make Apple-only ebooks. but if you wanted an 'illusion' of a facing page, this is where you could make it, by adapting one (or making a copy of one and adapting that), and sticking your name at the top of the page.
The problem is, this layout would not be used by default. You'd have to select every other page, right click on the thumbnail in the side-bar, and choose "Change Page Layout", whereupon you'll be able to select the layout you created for facing pages:
One final caveat - you say you want to create a print book from a PDF of this. You say "Print publishers always accept PDF files of my book, and iBooks easily creates PDF versions of the eBook". Have these printers ever used a PDF from iBA to print from before? It might not be as straight-forward as assumed. Print PDFs include crop marks (for imposition), will have 'bleed' if necessary (bleed is where images or colours actual go over the edge of a page), and will use the CMYK colourspace - used in both litho and digital print. The PDFs from iBA have no crops, and so do not support bleed, and the one I have tested was RGB, so you could expect colour variation conversion from one format to the other. And that's without taking into account page size/proportion, etc.
I would create a dummy book and make a PDF of that, and send it to your publisher/printer, and get them to see if they can use it first.
In my experience, the print books have always come first - done in specialist software (InDesign/Quark, etc), then the text content is then exported (either via a Word format, or .idml in the case of InDesign), and the resulting file is imported into iBA, and the images formatted (i.e. changed from CMYK to RGB .jpgs) resized, and images imported into iBA.
Hope that helps.

InDesign iBooks Author Workflow

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