How To Publish and Sell On Apple Books In 2023
This is the only guide to book marketing that you need. Complete. Practical. 100% free. When it comes to selling ebooks, many view Apple Books as Amazon’s main competitor. And that hunch is backed up by the numbers. A 2015 analysis by the (now defunct) Author Earnings website showed that Apple Books’ market share in the US was bigger than that of Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Google Play combined. That is, if you play your cards right. And that’s exactly what we’ll show you how to do in this post. The first thing to know about Apple Books is that they are "aggregator agnostic." What that means is that they really don’t care whether you publish your book directly to Apple Books using their tools (and the steps below), or whether you send your book to them through an aggregator like Draft2Digital. They also don’t give authors any "direct" marketing privileges or options. So all in all, we recommend distributing to Apple Books through Draft2Digital to start with.
This will make the whole process easier, and www.amazon.com/author/stevenjroberts allow you to get your book on a bunch of other retailers and library distributors at the same time. That said, going through Draft2Digital will cost you a small percentage of royalties (15%). So if you’re confident your book will sell a lot on Apple and want to avoid that aggregator fee, use these steps to publish your book to Apple Books directly! Now, Apple will ask you for an Apple ID. If you’re an existing Apple customer, that’s basically the email address and password you set up on your first purchase/registration. If you’re not an existing Apple customer, you’ll have to create your Apple ID. To do so, just head here and fill in the form. Once registered, make sure to fill in the "Payment & Shipping" section, otherwise you won’t be able to use that Apple ID to create your iTunes Connect account. Once you’ve connected your Apple ID, you’ll be prompted to accept iTunes Connect’s terms and conditions.
Apple lets you choose between "individual" and "organization" for the account. You should only select "individual" if you aren’t registered as a company, or if you are a sole proprietor. Tunes Connect will send you an email to verify your address, and you’ll finally be able to log in to your iTunes Connect account. Now, iTunes Connect is not what you’ll use to publish your books. Instead, it’s where you’ll provide all your business and tax information. To do so, click on "View & Agree to terms" and follow the steps. Next, set up your tax and banking information. Apple’s interface for the banking information is a bit clunky, so make sure you enter your IBAN and other account numbers without spacing, otherwise you’ll get an error. More importantly, make sure you enter all your personal details as they appear on your tax records, as Apple will be checking that information with the IRS. The process can take a couple of days, and you’ll receive an email if you’ve been approved, or if Apple requires any additional information.
You don’t need to wait for that to continue the publishing process, though. Your cover file (JPEG or PNG). A sample file (EPUB). This is a sample of your book that will be made available to readers on the store (similar to the "look-inside" feature on Amazon). If you’re looking to publish the book right away (no pre-order), then you’ll also need to upload the EPUB file for your full book. If you don’t have that EPUB file yet, you can create it easily (and for free!) using our Reedsy Book Editor. We’ve worked with Apple Books to make sure that all Reedsy-produced EPUB files are fully compatible with their publishing portal (and look great on Apple devices). This bit will be pretty easy if you’re already published a book elsewhere. The blurb (or book description). If you haven’t written your blurb yet, you’ll find some helpful tips in this article on Amazon book descriptions.
The advice applies just as well to Apple Books, especially considering you can also use html formatting there. While Amazon KDP only lets you choose two categories, you can select up to three when submitting your book on Apple Books. 2. You only pick categories that are fully relevant to your book. 3. If relevant, try to have at least two different "Primary subject categories." If your book is in a subcategory, it’ll automatically show up in the parent one. So by listing your book in two subcategories that have a different parent category, you’ll be in four different categories (two sub and two parent). After that, you’ll just have to enter the publisher name, enter the ISBN (optional), and the publication date, and free ebooks you’ll be able to upload your book to Apple Books. Once that’s done, you can leave the "publishing portal," but the full process is not quite finished yet. This post was done by GSA Conte nt Generator Dem oversion.
