How to Upload a Book to Ibooks
Your time as an indie author is precious. There are more enough tasks to make full up your schedule, and if you did them all, it's likely you lot'd be working fourscore hours a week. For nearly of the last ii years, publishing directly to Apple hasn't seemed like a worthwhile investment in time.
While there have been stories of some genres performing well on the platform, at that place are ten-fold as many tales of authors putting time and energy into Apple with no results to speak of. The publishing platform isn't intuitive, and information technology may require a Google Search or 2 for strange fault letters returned past your certificate. After uploading, Apple has been notorious for taking at least a week to get books live. Once the books go available, discoverability has been hit or miss, often leaving products languishing in sales despite your best intentions.
Without question, there are shortcomings to the Apple platform, simply there is hope for 2015 and beyond. Apple tree'due south contempo conquering of BookLamp, a book discoverability engine that could rival Amazon'due south recommendation algorithm, and a renewed dedication to faster book processing, has some authors excited nearly the platform'due south prospects. If you're because publishing on Apple tree's iBooks store, here are six things you lot should proceed in mind:
1. Apple is the #two U.S. Ebook Retailer
The iBooks store has a lot of readers. Co-ordinate to Mark Coker from Smashwords, Apple is the number 2 ebook retailer behind Amazon. While there are some restrictions on who tin can download books from the platform, the numbers are there to support your fourth dimension investment to get your books on board.
2. You Need a Mac or a Third-Party to Publish
The reason there'southward a restriction on who tin can download your products from iBooks is because only Apple users can access the store's app. While in that location are workarounds, well-nigh of the readers shopping on the store are Mac or Apple users. This roadblock is even more nowadays for authors looking to publish on the platform.
Publishing on iBooks requires the iTunes Producer programme, which is merely available for a Mac. Unless you accept the software to make your PC run Mac programs, yous'll need to take i of two steps to get your books on the platform. Either you'll have to get someone with a Mac to permit yous publish, or you'll demand to go through a third-political party publisher like Smashwords or Draft2Digital. Both paths come with complications.
If yous borrow a friend's computer to upload your books, and then yous'll need to borrow that same computer any time you accept to brand a change on your book. When you use a third-party publisher like Smashwords or Draft2Digital, you'll become lower royalties and you're stuck at their speed when you have to brand small changes. To avoid these two options, y'all may want to make a minor investment in a refurbished Mac Air laptop to requite you easy accessibility to iBooks.
3. More Readers Take iBooks Access
Apple has made two major changes in the concluding year that could give its store an advantage in the mobile reading sector. In the last twelvemonth, the retailer has started to pre-install the iBooks applications on both its Mavericks operating organization and its iOS8 mobile devices. While most readers demand to download the free Kindle app to get Amazon-based books on their phone, the latest Apple customers will be ready to download books right out of the box. Apple tree has been running a series of promotions to bring attention to the iBooks app, including several indie centered-deals.
4. Content Is Curated
On Amazon, you lot're more likely to go pulled into promotions like the Deal of the Day if you have great sales numbers. On the iBooks store, that's but half of the puzzle. Like Kobo and Nook Press, Apple has merchandisers who determine which books volition be a part of the Breakout Books listing or other promotions. This is dandy news if you know an Apple iBooks merchandiser. It's not then helpful if you don't.
In that location are two principal ways that authors get in bear upon with Apple merchandisers. The first is that they know a young man author with the connectedness. After being introduced to the merchandiser, the hopeful writer can pitch his or her series to be part of a promotion. The other manner is to meet Apple reps straight during a conference or other book-related event. The latter method could pay more than dividends because of your new personal connexion. It never hurts to accept a confront to put with a proper name.
Another matter to proceed in heed is that Apple tree is known for promoting its free books. Since the company's primary focus is hardware, free iBooks can assist bring customers into the Apple ecosystem. The more gratis books information technology pushes to new users, the more potential iPads and laptops it can sell down the line. As a result, your pitch to an iBooks representative may go more traction when it involves a costless series starter.
v. You Need to Show Your Support
Apple tree is notorious for rejecting manuscripts that accept Amazon and other competitor links within. This is pretty smart on their part. When you lot but copy and paste your Amazon manuscript over to your Apple version, you're wasting an opportunity to get more than sell-throughs to your other work on iBooks. Past placing Apple-specific links in your calls to action, you'll exist better equipped to succeed on the platform.
Apple reps like to see iBooks support across the contents of your book. One of the quickest ways to put the reps off is to have no Apple links any on your site. It'due south very important during the pitch stage to place sales links to your piece of work that bespeak toward the iBooks store. It'southward worth pointing these links out during your Apple tree rep proposal. Beyond your pitch, this will ensure that iBooks readers who visit your site will have a identify to click through to buy your books.
6. There Are Features Y'all Can't Find on Amazon
While some will decry Apple'south slow processing speed when compared to Amazon'southward, the retailer has several features you can't find anywhere else. Apple will permit yous do a pre-gild for a book upwardly to a year in advance. Unlike Amazon, where yous need to have a rough typhoon to mail your xc-24-hour interval pre-guild, Apple simply requires a embrace and a blurb. Reps for iBooks also tend to like an writer who'southward generated sales and fizz through pre-orders.
Apple tree has been known to do indie-centric deals, and has besides invited self-published authors to join their Breakout Books promotion. There are diverse monthly and weekly deals that indies can be apart of, once they've fabricated inroads with an Apple rep.
When you lot publish a series on iBooks, Apple tree will link them together on a convenient series page. While Amazon is experimenting with a amend interface for a series, Apple's current layout makes it easier for readers to access follow-ups of your piece of work. Apple tree also has several Amazon-like tools that tin can assistance you build links and widgets for iBooks products. Make sure to examination out the iBooks LinkMaker, the Banner Architect, and the Widget Builder when you're trying to grow an Apple-based audience.
How Much Is Your Time Worth?
Information technology'll probably take about x hours for you to get a handle on the iBooks platform. A lot of authors but think of their fourth dimension commitment in terms of the short-term value per hour. In this example, call back about how much value your time could exist worth, fifty-fifty in a semi-worst case scenario. Let's say for all your trouble, you sell one copy of one book a day for the side by side three years. At a $ii.99 toll point, that'due south approximately $two,200 of income for your 10 hours. Not a bad style to spend your time.
Larn the iBooks platform to open up upwards a new potential acquirement stream. It may provide you with boosted income and more time to take your sales to the next level.
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Source: https://authormarketinginstitute.com/6-things-you-didnt-know-about-publishing-a-digital-book-on-apple/
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