Reshared post from +Martin Lindner

+PressBooks , der wordpress-basierte e-book-authoring service, hat eine weitere evolutionsstufe hinter sich: das plugin gibt es jetzt auch als Open Source.

"I tried the service and it works quite well. It creates a nicely laid-out, easy to maneuver online book and the export features work fine. It is, as McGuire writes, a content management system for books. The system now uses PrinceXML to turn the HTML into PDFs for output and you can export the entire book at any time. There are plans to add a print-on-demand service for customers as well.

In addition to the open source code, there is also a freemium website, Pressbooks.com, where authors can host their own books for free or pay for more features and customization.

“While there are other tools out there, focusing on ebooks or print, I don’t know of any other services that have taken such a broad view, of making a book content management system that will output,” he said.

McGuire hopes to be the Linux of e-publishing – mostly free – and the real money comes from installation and support."