MagAppZine's goal: From PDF to app in about 15 minutes

MagAppZine looks to make mobile app creation easier for publishers.

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The next TOC Sneak Peek webcast on August 25 will feature startup company MagAppZine, a platform that allows publishers to create custom apps without a lot of overhead.

In the following interview, MagAppZine founder Paul Canetti (@paulcanetti), who worked at Apple during the birth of the iPhone and the subsequent app revolution, talks about how the MagAppZine platform works and the benefits he sees for publishers.

How did MagAppZine get started?

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Paul Canetti: I was working at Apple when the iPhone was first released and I got to see the effects of the “app revolution” firsthand. I left in 2009 and started creating apps for hire, and that is when I realized the huge potential for publishers — but the costs and demand on resources were just too high. So I set off to create a platform where publishers can actually create apps themselves and manage their content over time, quickly, easily, and affordably.

MagAppZine really aims to get publishers of all shapes and sizes up and running in the digital age as painlessly as possible. Anyone that tells you it’s hard is just doing it wrong.

What’s the process for creating an app through MagAppZine?

Paul Canetti: There are five basic steps:

  1. Sign up for an account at magappzine.com
  2. Once logged into MagControl, our web dashboard, click “Create New App”
  3. Enter basic information like name, description, and upload your logo, app icon, etc.
  4. Start adding issues by uploading PDFs
  5. Click “Submit” and we send your app off to Apple

The whole process takes about 15 minutes, assuming you already have your icon and such ready to go. I should also mention that starting in September, it is going to be free to sign up for an account and try out the MagControl tool. You can make an app and upload issues using your free account. Only when you want to actually submit it to the App Store in step 5 will you be charged.

Is the platform targeted toward a specific kind of publisher?

Paul Canetti: Clearly the name brings in magazines first and foremost, but the tool itself is really applicable to all sorts of publications. Anything that can be a PDF is fair game. I have a lot of conversations with small book publishers looking to create a bookstore app on a particular topic or as a branding tool for the publisher or a specific author. It is my philosophy that you should be everywhere your readers potentially are, so when someone searches for you on the App Store, it’s you that they find.

How can book publishers use the platform?

Paul Canetti: The bookstore app is really cool, and chunking up books into collections fits nicely under the umbrella of the app. I’m also excited to start seeing sub-divisions of books — selling chapter by chapter — or using the subscription functionality to have a sort of book club app or a series where new content is being released regularly. The possibilites are really endless. Not only that, but using our new multimedia and link tools, you can add audio or video to your books, skip around within the book — remember the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series? It really opens up the doors for being creative and taking advantage of the format.

What’s your launch schedule?

Paul Canetti: Our most basic app package launched in April of this year, but in September we are re-launching MagAppZine 2.0, which will include the new links and multimedia, an InDesign tool, and integration with Apple’s upcoming Newsstand feature. We’re also rolling out a new tiered monthly pricing structure that has plans starting at $99 a month.

This interview was edited and condensed.

Webcast: TOC Sneak Peek at BookRiff, LiquidText, and MagAppZine — Sneak Peeks are a TOC webcast series featuring a behind-the-scenes look at publishing start-ups and their products. Our next episode will feature presentations from BookRiff, LiquidText, and MagAppZine.

Join us on Thursday, August 25, 2011, at 10 am PT

Register for this free webcast

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