So, I just found out about Apple announcing 
iBooks Author which according to the information they provide “is an amazing new app that allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks” and is a free download from the Mac App Store.
Installation was not too slow, considering that perhaps lots of other users were doing exactly the same. I had a quick go at selecting a template and it really seemed to be quite straightforward to use. It does look like a combination of Pages and Keynote. I will have to play more with it, but something that I did find disappointing was the lack of support to handle mathematics. I am not after LaTeX (I already use that quite a lot), but it would be nice to be able to handle equations natively. I do hope someone at Apple is reading!
Related articles
- Is Apple Set To ‘Digitally Destroy’ Textbooks This Week? (gizmodo.com.au)
- Apple To Announce “GarageBand For E-Books”? (macstories.net)
- Apple To Announce Tools, Platform To ‘Digitally Destroy’ Textbook Publishing (wired.com)