Well, after 1 week of fiddling with my newfound companion I bought from Machines Malaysia, I realized 2 things:
1. Technology does matter
2. Malaysia is not good place to publish ebooks.
10 years since the day I got my first Apple device. It was iPhone 4 then, which I bought on an online shop in Moscow during my medical school days. I liked it, but got disappointed when the motherboard fried when I got greedy and started downloading games with high graphics demand.
I switched to Samsung, and never looked back.
Until recently, I heard some rumors that Apple Pages can be of great help in my writing career. After some discussion, testings, contemplations, and sleepness nights later, I finally succumbed to the temptation and went to Machines to get it.
Truth be told, I was having a high expectation for my newfound companion, hopefully, it can bring an answer to all my frustrations since I started to write. Unfortunately, it didn’t, but it doesn’t disappoint either. It was awesome, I drew in digital for the first time in years, I explored the incredible writing software iOS Pages, and I start familiarizing myself with iOS by letting the Apple in me kill my Android-loving soul.
I look for weaknesses but there’s almost none. The whole thing is so convenient, solving my previous problems with ease. Everything is easily accessible: transferring, uploading, inserting files between one app and another requires no hassle. I fell in love again, to the one I abandoned 10 years ago. Pages in iOS is not perfect, but it answers most of my problems. Making a book is way easier now, and conveniently portable.
Also, I started another long lost passion of mine, now with the help of apps so powerful, it made my smile.
Definitely, I will not stop making something bigger. Stay tuned for the next drawing!
Alright, that’s the good news, now the bad news, and I gotta make this stick:
“APPLE BOOKS IS JUST LIKE AMAZON-INACCESSIBLE FROM MALAYSIA!!!”
There I was happily uploading my first book ‘Datuk’ to Apple Books through Apple Books, I spent the whole night setting up my account, readjusting the file to make the Ebook readable… then I was met with this:
Same as Amazon, Apple Books, for my upload, is not available in my beloved Malaysia. The lists of countries they gave when I upload the book, although quite extensive, does not include my country of residence- Malaysia. That sinks my spirit down.
But on the bright side, I still found a new platform to publish, right? Making the total of 4 online platforms:
1. GooglePlay EBooks- the only one directly purchasable in my country.
2. Payhip- Paypal supported payment, PDF format
3. Amazon Kindle
4. Apple Books- currently in review
I will still look for more. Thanks for your support, do drop a comment if there’s any suggestion for me, OK?
Dr Vie Cheong Thong M.D. 