Although Apple with its iBookstore seems to have not locked up a ton of major publishers for international eBook distribution through its iBookstore, which is evident to it only having Classic Titles available. Apple appears to be making things easier for independent authors without a publisher to have their work included in the store.
If you are an author and are wondering how you can submit your books to the iBookstore, Apple has added book submissions to iTunes Connect. It is not a super straight forward system because it’s not as simple as just uploading a PDF to the site and making a ton of money.
In order to submit your prospective ebook to Apple it must be in ePub format and validate against epubcheck 1.0.5. You will also need to already have a 13-digit ISBN. You can get an ISBN number at the US ISBN Agency. Obtaining an ISBN isn’t as difficult a process you might think; it can take as little as two weeks.
One of the other big requirements is that you, as the author, must have access to a modern Mac. In order to participate, you must encode your eBook with Apple’s software, which needs an Intel Mac running at least OS X 10.5. The encoding process most likely adds Apple’s very own brew of DRM to the book, ensuring that your writings won’t be distributed outside of the iPhone or iPad.
Finally you will also need to have a valid credit card and an iTunes account. Word has it, that Apple will give authors a 75% cut of each sale you make, which has promoted Amazon to offer the same deal to its self-published authors.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
