Last updated on Feb 07, 2023
How to Publish (and Sell) on Apple Books in 2023
When it comes to selling ebooks, many view Apple Books as Amazonâs main competitor. And that hunch is backed up by the numbers. A 2015 analysis by the (now defunct) Author Earnings website showed that Apple Booksâ market share in the US was bigger than that of Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Google Play combined.
Itâs still under 10% of the total US ebook market, which feels small when compared to Amazonâs +80%. But with the rise of Kindle Unlimited, which has lured many authors into Amazon exclusivity, it may be easier for authors to get a big chunk of Appleâs 10% than a small chunk of Amazonâs 83%.
That is, if you play your cards right. And thatâs exactly what weâll show you how to do in this post.
How to publish your book on Apple Books
The first thing to know about Apple Books is that they are âaggregator agnostic.â What that means is that they really donât 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 donât give authors any âdirectâ 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 allow you to get your book on a bunch of other retailers and library distributors at the same time.Â
That said, going through Draft2Digital will cost you a small percentage of royalties (15%). So if youâre 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!
Step 1: Create your iTunes Connect Account
To create your iTunes Connect account, head here: https://authors.apple.com/epub-upload and select âCreate account.âÂ
Note: if you already have an iTunes Connect account, head straight to step 3.
Now, Apple will ask you for an Apple ID. If youâre an existing Apple customer, thatâs basically the email address and password you set up on your first purchase/registration.
If youâre not an existing Apple customer, youâll 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 âPayment & Shippingâ section, otherwise you wonât be able to use that Apple ID to create your iTunes Connect account.
Once youâve connected your Apple ID, youâll be prompted to accept iTunes Connectâs terms and conditions. Apple lets you choose between âindividualâ and âorganizationâ for the account. You should only select âindividualâ if you arenât registered as a company, or if you are a sole proprietor.Â
iTunes Connect will send you an email to verify your address, and youâll finally be able to log in to your iTunes Connect account.
Step 2: Enter your banking and tax information
Now, iTunes Connect is not what youâll use to publish your books. Instead, itâs where youâll provide all your business and tax information. To do so, click on âView & Agree to termsâ and follow the steps.Â
Next, set up your tax and banking information. Appleâs interface for the banking information is a bit clunky, so make sure you enter your IBAN and other account numbers without spacing, otherwise youâll 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 youâll receive an email if youâve been approved, or if Apple requires any additional information. You donât need to wait for that to continue the publishing process, though.
Step 3: Upload your book
For this, youâll need to quit iTunes Connect and instead go back to that initial URL: https://authors.apple.com/epub-upload, and this time, select the option to âSign in to iTunes Connect.âÂ
If youâre setting up a pre-order, select that option and then upload:
- Your cover file (JPEG or PNG). You can learn more about recommended cover dimensions here;
- A sample file (EPUB). This is a sample of your book that will be made available to readers on the store (similar to the âlook-insideâ feature on Amazon).
If youâre looking to publish the book right away (no pre-order), then youâll also need to upload the EPUB file for your full book.
If you donât have that EPUB file yet, you can create it easily (and for free!) using our Reedsy Book Editor. Weâve 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).
Step 4: Enter your metadata
This bit will be pretty easy if youâre already published a book elsewhere. Youâll have to enter:
- The bookâs title, subtitle, and series title (where applicable);
- The authorâs (and any other contributorâs) name;
- The blurb (or book description).
If you havenât written your blurb yet, youâll 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.
Step 5: Choose your categories
While Amazon KDP only lets you choose two categories, you can select up to three when submitting your book on Apple Books. Apple will use these categories to know where to âplaceâ your book on the store, so youâll want to make sure that:
- You choose three distinct categories (to maximize your visibility);
- You only pick categories that are fully relevant to your book. To double check, you can go to the Apple Books store (if you have an Apple device) and check each category youâre considering, to see what kind of books are in there;
- If relevant, try to have at least two different âPrimary subject categories.â If your book is in a subcategory, itâll automatically show up in the parent one. So by listing your book in two subcategories that have a different parent category, youâll be in four different categories (two sub and two parent).
After that, youâll just have to enter the publisher name, enter the ISBN (optional), and the publication date, and youâll be able to upload your book to Apple Books.
Once thatâs done, you can leave the âpublishing portal,â but the full process is not quite finished yet.
Step 6: Set up your territorial pricing
To finish publishing your book on Apple Books, youâll have to go back to iTunes Connect. You should now see your book in the âMy booksâ section there. If you donât, wait 24 hours and come back, as it can take up to a day for the book to be uploaded there.
Click on the book cover, then on âRights & Pricingâ and âAdd New Countries or Regions.â There, youâll be able to set up your bookâs price and customize it for each country. To do so:
-
- Tick the DRM free box (DRM is useless);
- Set your release date;
- Choose your base currency;
- Ignore the âlist priceâ;
- Enter your price in the âsuggested Apple Books priceâ field;
- Select all the countries you want to publish your book in (you can use âselect allâ).
Apple will use your suggested price and base currency to auto-generate âattractiveâ prices for all countries and regions, based on their data. For example, if you select 4.99 USD, Apple will price your book at $4.99 in the US and most of South America, 6.99 CAD in Canada, ÂŁ4.99 in the UK, and âŹ5.99 in most of Europe.
That said, you can also customize the price for each country if you prefer.
Once thatâs done, your book will automatically go live in each country store you selected, at the price you selected, on your release date.
Of course, publishing the book on Apple Books is just the first, easy step. The hard part is getting it to sell. For that purpose, here are some essential marketing tips for selling more on Apple.
Marketing tips to sell more on Apple Books
Apple Books is probably the main non-Amazon retailer where you can make a lot of money if you manage to build a solid audience. We personally know several authors at Reedsy who earn a full-time living writing, and make most of their income from Apple Books.Â
Just like all other âwideâ retailers, though, it generally takes a lot more time to get established on Apple Books. So our first tip for marketing your ebook is to be patient! Donât jump into Amazon exclusivity after a few months because youâre frustrated by your results on Apple. Most writers who build their careers on Apple Books do so over several years.Â
That said, the Apple Books store has several specificities that make for great opportunities down the line.Â
Try higher prices
While thereâs no official statistic to confirm this, itâs common knowledge that Apple Books readers are less sensitive to price elasticity. After all, most Apple Books readers own Apple devices, and those arenât exactly cheap. Essentially, this means that you can get traction for a $5 or $6 book more easily on Apple than on Amazon.Â
Even better, Apple is one of the only retailers who donât price-match. So while itâs not super fair to their readers, you can try pricing your book a bit higher on Apple Books than you do on Amazon, Google Play, Kobo, or Barnes & Noble.
Leverage âfree first-in-seriesâ
Another tidbit of common knowledge: while permafree first-in-series donât work as well as they previously did on Amazon (due to Amazon splitting up their free and paid bestseller lists), they still work extremely well on Apple. If you have a series and youâre using Apple Books, make sure to try making Book One free.
Note: this is a strategy that also works very well on Google Play.
Publish exclusive mega box sets
You probably know that Amazon only pays you 35% royalties on books priced above $9.99. Well, Apple doesnât have that upper limit: you still earn 70% royalties on sales at $10.99, $19.99, or even $24.99. This makes Apple Books a perfect place to sell exclusive box sets.Â
You might not sell a lot of them, but each sale will be worth a good dinner. More importantly, the Apple Books team tends to reward exclusivity a lot: if they see that your box set is only available on Apple, and is doing well, theyâll be all the more tempted to give it more visibility on the store.
Leverage pre orders
Perhaps the best advantage of Apple Books when compared to Amazon is this secret weapon: pre-orders. If you get a pre-order sale on Amazon, it counts (towards bestseller rankings and popularity lists) as one sale at the time of the preorder. Now, on Apple Books, it counts as one sale at the time of the pre-order â and then as another sale on launch day.Â
This means that if you manage to get 500 pre-orders on Apple Books, your book will shoot to the top of the ranks on launch day (and attract the attention of the merchandising team).
Sign up to the Apple Books affiliate program
The first thing you should do if youâre serious about driving sales to Apple Books is to sign up to the iTunes affiliate program. Apple Books allows authors to place affiliate codes anywhere, including on websites and within advertising spheres (while Amazon Affiliates doesnât allow you to use their links on ads).Â
Using affiliate links in your communications and ads will allow you to:
- Track your sales and conversion rates more effectively, and
- Earn 7% more on your sales (thatâs the affiliate percentage).Â
Send traffic through ads
The great thing about the iTunes affiliate program is that theyâre fine with you using affiliate links in online ads. So you should definitely take advantage of that, especially considering itâs pretty easy to target Apple Books readers on Facebook and BookBub:
- On Facebook, you can select âiBooksâ as an âinterestâ â or âiPhone 6, 7 ⊠X ownersâ as âbehaviours.â This way, you can narrow down your usual audience and reach readers who are more likely to buy on Apple Books.
- On BookBub, you can simply enter your Apple Books affiliate link, and BookBub will automatically only target readers who theyâve identified as Apple Books buyers.
If you use these tips, you should be able to gradually build a fanbase on Apple Books â a fanbase ready to pay for higher-priced books, and which wonât be lured away by free books or subscription programs. And if you want more marketing tips like these to grow your sales on all retailers, you can sign up to our weekly marketing newsletter here. The tips youâll find there are fully exclusive to its subscribers, so you wonât find them anywhere else!