iBookstore Features 'Breakout Books'

Stepping up its support of self-published and independently published books, the Apple iBookstore has launched a new category called Breakout Books.

While the iBookstore has always accepted self-published works, the new iBookstore category gives publishers and authors a new platform for marketing and promoting their books and highlights both the growing sales of self-published titles and the increasing significance of the category.

The bulk of the titles featured right now in the iBookstore's new Breakout Books category are from Smashwords, the self-publishing platform founded by Mark Coker. Smashword e-books are distributed through Apple devices to the North American market and globally to about 50 countries. Smashwords distributes about 120,000 e-book titles via Apple devices. According to a spokesperson for Smashwords, "Since Christmas, iBookstore customers have downloaded an average of more than 1 million free and priced Smashwords books a week."