The good news is that Apple now lets you sell your own books via the iBookstore. It’s great news for indie publishers and independent authors as they get another channel to add on to the Kindle Store and B&N’s eBook store.
The bad news is that you have to own a Mac.
Want to self-publish for iBooks? Get a Mac
Typical Apple attitude. Here’s the iBookstore Online Application (found courtesy MacLife) -
Requirements for Distributing Content on the iBookstore
Technical Requirements:
An Intel-based Mac running OS X 10.5 or later
At least 1 GB RAM
QuickTime 7.0.3 or later. This is so you can encode and deliver content using our dedicated software.Book Content Requirements:
ISBNs for all titles you intend to distribute
You must be able to deliver your book content in EPUB format, passing EpubCheck 1.0.5.Financial Requirements:
A US Tax ID
A valid iTunes Store account, with a credit card on file
Apple does not pay partners until they meet payment requirements and earning thresholds in each territory. You should consider this before applying to work directly with Apple as you may receive payments faster by working with an Apple-approved aggregator.
The Mac requirement is an exceedingly annoying one. It’s the same with making games for the iPhone – you must have a Mac. The solution is to work with an iBookstore Aggregator.
Apple iBookstore Aggregators
Here are the Aggregators -
BiblioCore
Book Baby
Constellation
INgrooves
Ingram
LibreDigital
Lulu
Smashwords
They can help indie authors to meet the iBookstore’s technical requirements, deliver ebooks, manage marketing, and do lots of other things. Smashwords seem like a good choice as they also get you into the Kindle Store and into the B&N ebook store. Ingram are the giant of the group and probably have the best distribution network.
It seems to be US only at the moment
The requirement for a US Tax ID means you’ll need to be a US citizen or resident or have a US incorporated company. It effectively rules out independent authors outside the US.
It doesn’t make much sense. Developers outside the US can submit apps - Why not let authors outside the USA self-publish books?
Self-Publishing in the iBookstore is an important win for independent authors
Despite the Mac requirement (which could be bypassed by letting an Aggregator submit for you) the addition of self-publishing to the iBookstore is very important -
- All iPhone and iPod Touch owners will be getting iBooks with iPhone OS 4.0 (summer 2010).
- There may be a lot of iPad owners by end 2010 - estimates are that 5 million iPads will be sold by end of 2010. Apple lovers are claiming that 1 million iPads are selling every month (even after the initial launch buzz) and that Apple is planning on shipping out 2.5 million iPads a month during holiday season.
- Some portion of iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch owners will read on their devices.
- Your competition is mostly going to be Publishers selling their new books at $12.99 and $14.99.
- You’ll be able to sell your books in all the countries that these devices are sold in.
You have to wonder how Publishers feel about this.
Self-Publishing through iBooks goes very well with Self-Publishing for Kindle and Nook
There are quite a few people unaware that you can self-publish on the Kindle and hopefully they become aware of the option.
You now basically get two distinct markets -
- The LCD compatible hard-core readers and casual readers and one book a year readers who you can reach on their iPhones and iPads and iPod Touches.
- The LCD incompatibles and hardcore readers and casual readers who own dedicated book readers.
Let’s be realistic – People who read one book a year are never going to buy dedicated readers and you probably couldn’t reach them even if you got into bookstores. With iBooks you at least get a method to reach them and perhaps even sell them a book or two on their iPhone.
You know what though – It’s not a given that iBooks is the best choice to reach these users. The deeper you dig into this the more you realize that it’s the Kindle platform that’s the better choice.
Kindle for iPhone and Kindle for iPad are still the better channel
Consider the comparison between Kindle for iPhone/iPad and iBooks -
- Available on iPhone – iBooks: No, Kindle App: Yes.
- Works across various devices – iBooks: No, Kindle Platform: Yes.
- Huge range of book titles to pull readers in – iBooks: No, Kindle: Yes.
- Kindle for iPhone/iPad users are likelier to be serious book readers.
- Kindle for iPhone/iPad users are likelier to add reviews at Amazon and help your book’s sales in other formats.
For independent publishers and independent authors the Kindle Store is still the place to be.
This highlights some non-obvious benefits to Amazon of having its apps available on various platforms. If there wasn’t a Kindle for iPhone/iPad then Apple could strengthen up iBooks as lots of authors would want to reach iPhone/iPad owners and have no option other than iBooks.
Thanks to its apps for iPhone and iPad Amazon ensures that authors and publishers keep choosing the Kindle Store as their first ebook store.
The two big advantages of iBooks are -
- Since there are only 30,000 new books there isn’t as much competition.
- Since nearly all these new books are from Agency Model Publishers you can easily compete on price.
The third advantage it’ll have is that Apple will promote it heavily and it might end up having more users than Kindle for iPhone.
In the grand scheme of things the addition of self-publishing to iBooks will put pressure on Agency Model Publishers to lower prices and raise awareness of self-publishing options. The Kindle was and remains the best self-publishing option.
Filed under: publishing Tagged: | future of publishing, independent authors
Non-US citizens need to use Form W-7 to apply for an individual tax identification number (ITIN). Any non-US citizen who receives money from the US is required to have one in any case, so it has nothing to do with Apple’s requirements and everything to do with US tax law. If you want to blame someone, blame people who fly airplanes into buildings, as the strict enforcement of this provision is intended to identify when money is being sent to terrorists.
So, anyone in the world is technically able to list titles with Apple, as long as they have an ITIN.
Well, that’s a good point.
It IS possible to self-publish onto Apple’s iBookstore… I have done it with my novel ‘The Dare Ring’, which is accessible through the iBooks app on all iPads and iPhones. I’m based in the UK, so it is possible here too.
It wasn’t all that easy – creating the epub book is non trivial as none of the free conversion tools did exactly what was needed. But it can be done. Once you’ve created the epub document (and triple checked it – some of the conversion tools make unexpected changes) – then uploading it through iTunes Connect is relatively straightforward.
If you like thrillers or Fight Club, check out The Dare Ring by Titus Powell. Only $2.49 and I guarantee it’ll be the most gripping novel you have ever read.
[...] different requirements for the indie authors (like having a Mac or an ISBN number for your title see example about this). Today we have the possibility to skip one of the traditional publishing layers. However, there is [...]
Why is the requirement of a Mac “annoying”? You’re talking about publishing something for an Apple product, so why wouldn’t it require their machines? Besides, PCs just suck so bad. Why anyone would continue using a PC in this day and age is a real mystery.
Dave, there is no answer for your question. Macs are obviously so good that Apple has to use ‘post-PC’ because it’s given up on ever beating Windows with Mac.