A Guide to Producing & Marketing with Apple compiled by Apple Books for members of the Alliance of Independent

WHAT’S INSIDE • Producing & Your • Marketing Your Book

• Getting Paid

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PRODUCING AND MARKETING BOOKS WITH APPLE BOOKS

SELF-PUBLISHING SERVICES GUIDE FOR INDIE AUTHORS

APPLE BOOKS INTRODUCTION WHY PUBLISH WITH APPLE BOOKS?

Apple is still the number two retailer by market share for . The readership scrolling through Apple Books is huge and growing every day: Nine million sold last year. Apple phones now come with Apple Books pre-installed, making it easy for new users to try it out and download a free book. And bigger screens and high-res retina display are great for reading. Apple currently attracts more than a million new users a week and sells e- books in 51 countries, with well over a billion e-books sold to date. So it’s well worth the effort to help the millions of iPhone and iPad book lovers to find and buy your books on the Apple book store. While Apple does not specifically track reading on its devices, they have said that more e-book sales are coming from iPhones than heretofore. And self-publishing continues to grow on the platform. Apple’s core customer is the creative professional or entrepreneur and self-publishing is seen as part of that maker movement in the company. The Apple Books Store is editorially driven, there's no pay to play, no coop payments, or pay for placement. Book discovery is driven through the homepages and category . As to what genres do well on Apple, memoir and health are particularly big sellers on Apple, as well as the ubiquitous self-

iii Introduction published crime and romance genre fiction, and movie and TV tie-ins. Illustrated books and children's titles are slow but growing. Outside the US, he U.K., Germany and France have the most robust sales, while Japanese language is the fastest growing market. Latin America is also gaining momentum. Apple is happy to distribute free content. Like indie authors, often give away the first book in a series, Apple believes free content helps to attract readers and turn them into buyers. The downside, of course, is Apple’s closed ecosystem. You need a Mac computer for Apple Books to work.

A note from Apple about Branding

Apple Books is now the name of the entire books ecosystem at Apple, including the store where customers buy books and audiobooks, as well as the app where readers read books and listen to audiobooks, as well as the self-publishing wing. The iBooks brand name is no longer current and shouldn’t be used. So one would say: “Buy Only With You on Apple Books,” or ”I’m reading Only With You on Apple Books" (not "iTunes", not "iBooks", not "the iTunes Bookstore," etc.). The term Apple Books is always plural.

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AMAZON VERSUS APPLE

veryone knows that sells more books than Apple, but E it’s becoming obvious that Apple has moved past B&N into the number two position, and Apple is continuing to grow. According to iBooks Store Director Keith Moerer, addressing publishers at Digital Book World 2015, Apple’s businesses is gaining 1 million new customers every week. That’s a lot of new readers. If you’re an , and your books aren’t being sold through Apple, you need to rethink your strategy. Of course, that would mean you’d have to abandon Kindle Select as Amazon demands exclusivity if an author is in Select. And that brings up a question many authors ask.

hould You Be Exclusive On Amazon? S I’ve never been a big fan of Amazon’s exclusivity clause. I also haven’t been a fan of the way that Amazon treats authors in relation to how other companies treat authors. But let’s leave exclusivity aside for the moment, and focus on…

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ho Is The Best eBook Retailer For Authors W The answer to the question of who is the best eBook retailer is more complicated than it might appear. Amazon sells the most books. We all know that. And in an article last March regarding which eBook retailer is number two, Jeremy Greenfield from Digital Book World had this to say.

I wish I could give you a clear answer, but after nearly a month of investigation into whether Apple or Barnes & Noble is now the second-largest ebook retailer in the US, this is the best I have: It depends.

I think with developments we’ve seen in the last half of 2014, Apple has secured the number two spot, but let’s move off the sales topic and focus on other issues. I hear a lot of complaints about Apple, most of them having to do with how difficult they are to deal with, or how strict they are about accepting material, or how you need a Mac to submit a book. All of that is true—to an extent. But none of that has much to do with the long term. Even if it takes you two weeks to upload a book—what’s two weeks when your book will be there for years, theoretically, forever. And yes, Apple can be strict about what material they accept, but I’m convinced that’s better for indie authors in the long run. As to needing a Mac… I wish it wasn’t so, but it is. That leaves you with a few choices, the easiest of which is using a good distributor, which isn’t a bad idea anyway.

ut Who Treats Authors Best? B With Amazon firmly situated at the top spot for sales and Apple in control of the second position, I thought it was time to compare how the two stacked up regarding their treatment of authors.

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Categories

Amazon lets authors select two categories for books, although they do restrict some of the categories and won’t let you choose them. Apple allows you to select three categories, with no restrictions.

Commissions

Notice I said commissions—technically, these are not royalties. The process is complicated here, but only on Amazon’s side. The chart lists it, but here are the details and some additional information.

mazon A If your book is priced between 99c and $2.98, you are paid a 35% commission. If it is priced between $2.99 and 9.99, you are paid 70%. If it is priced at $10 or more, you are paid 35%. If you are not in Select (Amazon’s exclusive program) you will be paid 35% in the following countries:

Brazil India Japan Mexico

If that wasn’t complicated enough, Amazon also charges a delivery fee if your book falls into the 70% commission range.

pple A You receive 70% no matter what price or where it’s sold.

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ote About Commissions N Before Apple entered the scene, Amazon paid indie authors 35% across the board. It wasn’t until it became obvious that Apple was coming out with an iPad that Amazon said… “Holy shit, I better pay these guys more.” (My words, not Amazon’s.) And so they raised the royalties to 70%, which was not much of a surprise as that is the percentage Apple was paying musicians and app developers.

ote About International Sales (Brazil, India, Japan, Mexico) N Before you go thinking—I’m not worried about those countries, I don’t sell anything there—think again. India is the second largest English-speaking country in the world with about 130 million people. Add another 40 million from the other three countries and you’re looking at a population of English-speaking readers about half that of the US. The reason you’re probably not selling anything there is because you’re not marketing there. It’s not a coincidence that Amazon recently borrowed $2 billion to invest in their infrastructure in India. Think about that—if Amazon considers that India warrants a $2 billion investment, shouldn’t you invest a little time for your own future in India? The point is, Amazon already has indie authors thinking that India, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan are worth nothing. They are insignificant. Who cares if we’re paid 35% instead of 70%? By the time the markets explode there, it will be too late. Don’t let Amazon fool you. We should be fighting for our 70% rights now.

oupons C Apple provides coupons to give out to customers, bloggers, reviewers. It’s a nice touch and easy to use.

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Amazon does not.

elivery Charges D This is one of those things that—when first looked at— seems like nothing. But the more you analyze the cost, it becomes apparent how serious it is. (Amazon only charges you if you are in the 70% commission plan.) My charges for normal mystery books average 10–12c per book. On a book priced at $2.99 that reduces your earnings from $2.10 to about $2.00. That represents an effective cut of about 4%. So in reality, you’re getting 66% instead of 70%. The actual charges amount to 15c per megabyte. This could get serious if you have a 10-meg file and are selling your book for $4.99. Instead of receiving $3.50, you’d get $2.00. That’s taking your commission from 70% to 40%. A huge cut in commissions. This is so important, I want to spend a moment on it. If you’re a typical novelist and your book is primarily text it won’t affect you much. Maybe the 3–4% I cited above; however, if you produce cookbooks, illustrated books, non-fiction books heavy with charts, tables, graphs, and images—then these delivery charges mean a lot. Before you go thinking…“A 10meg file is a lot…” consider that many of the cookbooks run from 20 – 50 meg or more. The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook, and it weighs in at a whopping 90meg! Of course, at that size it has to be priced much higher, so it falls into the 35% commission range, which means Amazon doesn’t charge a delivery fee —but Amazon now keeps 65% of sales. This book lists at a Kindle price of $29.95, which means Amazon rakes in $19.47 per book! If an indie author produced this book, they would only receive $10.48 per book. Of course, Amazon had it discounted to $21.78, but that doesn’t come close to matching Nook’s price on the same book: $16.49.

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hy doesn’t Amazon match the price? W I’m not sure. Maybe they haven’t noticed …. ….. ….. Now that I’ve finished laughing, let’s speculate on the real reason. If you are in the 35% commission zone (or if you’re with a major publisher) Amazon pays you commission on the list price—not the matched price. In this case, that means that Amazon is paying this publisher $10.48 per book[2] even though they discounted the price to $21.78. If they went so far as to match Nook’s price of $16.49, they would still have to pay the $10.48, which would still leave Amazon a healthy profit…but they don’t want to do that. Not all the time. This brings up a question though—if Amazon is so keen to give their readers lower prices, why not do it with these high-priced books? They certainly have the margins to work with. No matter. We’re not going to delve into that today. That’s a topic for a future post. For now, let’s move on to exclusivity. One thing to note before we move on—if you had that same cookbook on Apple and priced it at $29.95, your commission would be $20.96.

xclusivity E Amazon demands exclusivity if you want to participate in the Lending Library, Kindle Unlimited, or Kindle Select, which allows you to give books away free for five days per quarter. Select also pays equal commissions in Brazil, India, Japan, and Mexico. Apple has no exclusivity.

ile Types F Amazon uses .mobi files and Apple uses ePub.

ree Books F As noted above, with Amazon you must be in the Select

6 Producing and Marketing Books With Apple Books program in order to give books free and even then it’s limited to five days per quarter. With Apple, you can give books free at any time.

ayment Terms P Amazon pays 60 days after the end of each month, while Apple pays 32 days after the end of each month.

rice Matching P Amazon insists on having the lowest price, no matter where your book is sold. It will typically price match if they find it at a lower price elsewhere, but they can take other actions, such as removing your book from KDP. Apple has no such requirements. This is a big concern for me. I don’t want anyone dictating the price I set for my books. Suppose I want to offer Apple readers a special deal on the anniversary of the launch of the iPad, or do the same for Nook readers when a new reader comes out. The problem is that Amazon won’t allow it.

ricing Internationally P With Amazon, there is some control over how you price your books on the international front, but with Apple there is complete control. This can be a big factor if your strategy is to use price to break into a new market. With Apple you have 51 countries where you can adjust price individually, and even put the price in the local currency.

erritory Pricing T If you don’t immediately grasp the significance of territory pricing, let me provide some detail. One of the biggest problems with selling internationally is the high cost of books in other countries

7 APPLE BOOKS related to the cost of books in the US. We might be able to sell a solid mystery or fantasy for $5.99, but take that price to Mexico, Brazil, or India, and your book will likely sit on the virtual shelf forever. We have had the ability to manage prices individually as long as we went direct to the retailer. As an example, on Apple’s iBooks I price differently for many of the 51 countries they offer. So I sell for $5.99 in the US, $3.99 in the UK, and 99c in many countries like India, Japan, Mexico, etc. (You can also set prices according to local currency which makes it nicer, too.)

lobal Reach G With Amazon you can sell your book in 12 different territories. Apple has 51 countries.

ales Reporting S Amazon is updated every few hours. Apple is updated daily.

cheduling Promotions S Amazon allows you to schedule Countdown promotions if you’re in Select. Apple allows you to schedule promotions any time for various countries.

ploading U Amazon is very easy. You can upload your file in minutes. Apple is much more time consuming, and, you need access to a Mac. This is a big drawback for Apple, and a feature I wish they would change.

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ottom Line B It’s time for the final analysis—who is the best retailer for ebooks?

orget that you make more sales on Amazon, which I’m sure most F of you do. Forget everything anyone ever told you and put a blindfold on your emotions. Look at the cold hard facts. Apple treats authors fairly. All authors. There’s no question in my mind who the best retailer is. I may not sell as many books with Apple—yet—but it’s a whole lot more fun working with them. And I’d much rather work with a true partner…so I’ll be rooting for Apple to continue to gain market share and provide more competition.

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PRODUCING AND PUBLISHING YOUR BOOKS APPLE IAUTHOR AND PAGES

Produce and Publish with Pages

ublish your book directly to Apple Books from Pages on your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, or online at iCloud.com. P With pages, you can create a book, then publish it directly to the store in Apple Books. You can customize your book during the publishing process: add a cover, set your price or offer it for free, add tags to specify age groups or subjects, set up a pre-order, customize availability by date and country or region, and more. You can also update an already submitted book. Find out more here

Set Up For Sale on iTunes Connect iTunes Connect is different than an iTunes ID and it’s crucial to being able to sell your books through Apple.

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Set up an iTunes Connect account for Apple Books, here: https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/ iTunesConnect.woa/wa/bookSignup. This link will give you the option of what type of product you want to sell through iTunes Connect: Choose books.

Tunes Connect will proceed to ask you a series of questions, from “Publisher Information” to the name of the book you’ll be uploading to tax information. Follow along with the process and continue through all of the steps.

After having signed up for an account, you’ll need to download iTunes Producer. This app will enable you to upload book files, set your price, and complete all the information needed for iBooks. You can find a link for downloading the app here: https://itunespartner.apple.com/ en/books/tools

Once iTunes Producer has downloaded to your computer, open the application. You’ll walk through the book details, price, and file upload until you’re able to successfully send your book off for publication.

Please note that submitting your book to iBooks can take several minutes.

After your book is submitted and authenticated by Apple’s internal review team, it should immediately appear on the iTunes website under “books”. This process can take up to three business days and at busy holiday times such as Christmas or the New Year, longer than that.

Submit to Apple at least two weeks before launch date to be safe.

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MARKETING YOUR BOOKS ON APPLE BOOKS

ongratulations! You have just been through the first four stages of the publishing process: editorial, design, production C and distribution on Apple Books. Now comes the next two stages: marketing and promotion. Letting a readership know about your book is crucial to making it a success. Building a readership calls for planning and effort. The following tools and tips will make your book marketing on Apple Books effective and engaging.

ink to Your Book on Apple Books L Linking to your book is the most important asset you have to drive sales. Here’s how to get the link to your book:

On iPhone and iPad: Open the Apple Books app. Visit the book’s product page. Tap the Action Menu button with the ellipsis below and to the right of the book cover. The Action Sheet will display. Now tap Share Book. The Share Sheet

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will display. Tap Copy. Now you can paste this link wherever you need.

On the Web: Visit the Apple Books Marketing Toolbox. Search for a book with title or author name. Click on the book’s cover (or audiobook) for which you are creating the link. Click on Text Link (or if you prefer another linked asset, you can also select Badge, Text Lockup, Small Badge, or Preview Player). Copy the Embed Code provided in the box. Now you can paste this link wherever you need.

et up Pre-orders S Pre-orders are a crucial part of building sales and Apple Books makes it easy to implement them. Publishers can make pre-orders available up to 12 months in advance of your publication date and you don’t need to supply a book cover or completed book file to set up a new pre-order. If you publish your book with an aggregator such as D2D or Smashwords, you should contact the aggregator directly for instructions on setting up pre-orders on Apple Books. If you sell directly on Apple Books, please visit our Resources and Help page for full instructions.

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se Social Media Effectively U Give fans and readers something that fans will want to share. Grab their attention! Social media users are scrolling fast and you only have a second to catch their interest—post something that will make them stop and look at your post. Wherever appropriate, use images and video. Make posts visually attractive, intriguing, and fun to experience. Try using compelling quotes from your book or quotes from your customers’ positive reviews of your books. In every post, include a single, direct link to your book's product page on Apple Books. Don’t confuse followers by using multiple links in a single post. Where social media channels allow for device or platform targeting, make sure to target iPhone and iPad devices. Remove desktop and Android from your targeting options to reduce inefficiency and reach your audience more effectively.

U se the Apple Books Marketing Tools Apple Books Badge: Use one of the variations of the Apple Books badge to show your customers where they can buy your book or audiobook. Apple Books Icon: Use the Apple Books app icon asset wherever you display all of the channels where your fans can reach you, whether it’s a row of social media icons or other retailers. Banner Builder: Quickly create effective digital banners to feature on your website, marketing emails, or app—no design expertise required. Audiobook Preview Widget: Just search for any audiobook and then easily create a sample widget you can embed on your own web site, blog, or app. It makes your own platform interactive and immersive for customers.

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ross-Sell to Your Other Books C Add a cross-sell page to your book’s front and back matter to make it easy for readers to find the other books in your series. Make sure the links to the books include your affiliate token so you can track the performance of these links and earn commissions on all your readers’ purchases. You can also cross-sell to other Apple media services, including Apple Music, iTunes Movies, and the App Store, so consider including links to relevant songs, playlists, movies, or apps that readers might be interested in.

se Promo Codes U All providers have access to 250 free digital promo codes for every book you distribute on Apple Books. Promo codes can be distributed to provide free copies of your book for promotional, publicity, or testing purposes. You can distribute to reviewers, bloggers, and other media contacts in order to build ratings, reviews, and buzz.

nce you distribute a promo code, the recipient can redeem it on O Apple Books for a free copy of your book in any territory where the book is available for sale. The book file must first be submitted before customers are able to redeem the promo code. Promo codes can be distributed before a books’ publication date during the pre-order timeframe, so once the book has been submitted and approved in our system, you can use promo codes as Advance Reader Copies (ARCs).

f you publish through an aggregator like Smashwords or D2D, I contact the aggregator directly for access to Apple Books promo codes. If you sell directly on Apple Books, visit Resources and Help for complete instructions.

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etting Reviews G You need to have a minimum of five reviews for that book’s reviews to appear on the Apple website.Let your readers know that it’s easy to leave reviews in the Apple Books store by clicking on “Write a Review” underneath the “Ratings and Reviews” section of the website.

oin the Affiliate Program J When you join the affiliate program and your fans click on your affiliated links, you can earn commissions on the books and audiobooks they buy, as well on any additional qualified purchases they make of songs, albums, movies, TV shows, and more. The Affiliate Program is quick to join and easy to use.

se your affiliate links everywhere you communicate with U customers: on your website, in social media, in email, and even on cross-sell pages you’ve included within your book content. Affiliate links work everywhere: in all 50 states and around the world. The Affiliate Program offers real-time tracking and reporting so you can gauge performance and optimize all your marketing efforts.

Apple Books Marketing Support

Keep up to date with Apple’s changes and marketing advice on the Apple Books Marketing website. O ther Useful Links The Affiliate Program: iTunes.com/affiliates

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Apple Books Marketing Toolbox: apple.co/bookstools

Apple Books Badges: apple.co/booksbadge

Apple Books Icon: apple.co/booksicon

Audiobook Preview Widgets: apple.co/bookstools

Banner Builder: banners.itunes.apple.com

Widget Builder: widgets.itunes.apple.com

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GETTING PAID

pple Books Royalties Once you’ve successfully uploaded your book on the A Apple Store, you’ll need to know what type of royalty rates you’ll receive for your title. Compared to other platforms, Apple has a fixed royalty rate of 70% regardless of your book cost or if it is sold internationally. Once you’ve made sales, Apple will pay you 32 days after the end of the month in which you sold books. Your payment will come through via the bank account that you’ve set up on iTunes Connect. You can access this through the “Agreements, Tax, and Banking” portion of the website. Also of note – unlike other self-publishing platforms, Apple has no price matching requirements. This means that you can sell your book at different prices across different sites.

pple Books Payments A Payments are made no later than 30 days following the end of each month. To receive payment, you must have provided all

19 APPLE BOOKS required banking and tax information and documentation, as well as meet the minimum payment threshold, ranging from 10 USD to 150 USD, depending on your country or region.

ayment dates and methods P The payment date is the date the payment leaves Apple's bank.

ow payments are made H Where possible, payments are made by Electronic Funds Transfer. Apple's bank will consolidate payments for different financial reports when possible, generally resulting in a single payment for all earnings each month the requirements for being paid have been met.

eturned payments R When a payment made to you is returned to us, you will see the return at the top of the page, highlighted in red as an amount added to the cumulative balance of what you are owed. We will attempt to repay this amount, along with all other amounts owed, during the next monthly payment processing period. F or more on payments, click here.

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FAQS & SUPPORT

an I make Changes? C Manage your account and books through https:// itunesconnect.apple.com/. The main screen will lead you to one of seven options: “My Books”, “Tickets”, “Sales and Trends”, “Payments and Financial Reports”, “Users and Roles”, “Agreements, Tax, and Banking”, and “Resources and Help”.

ant to change your book price or update your book W description? Select “My Books” and then click on the title that you need to manage. Edit pricing by clicking on the “Rights and Pricing” button, followed by “Edit Territories and Pricing”. This page will be where you update your book price by putting the new cost next to “Suggested Apple Books Price”. This change can be applied to all territories that your book is being sold in simply by pressing “Select All” further down the page. Simply submit by pressing “Continue”. This is also how you would schedule book promotions, using the “Price Start Date” and “Price End Date” to control how long the promotion will last.

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All changes made to your eBook, from book title to description to pricing, will appear on iBooks within 24 hours.

o I Need a Mac to Publish with Apple Books? D Yes. You need a Mac computer to publish with Apple Books. iTunes Producer is only available for download on Macs. However, if you use Windows and are still interested in uploading your book with Apple Books, you have the option of using an eBook distributor. You could also use an “Apple aggregator” — paid experts who will submit your content to Apple Books. Apple has a list of approved aggregators broken down here: https://itunespartner.apple.com/en/books/partnersearch

ow are Apple aggregators different from eBook distributors? H In the world of self-publishing, there isn’t too much of a difference between these terms. Aggregators and distributors both distribute and sell your book. However, aggregators sell to online retailers only. Some distributors, such as IngramSpark, give you the option of selling your book to a brick-and-mortar store. Aside from aggregators and distributors, you also need an Apple ID to log in to iTunes Connect, the service that allows providers to upload and manage their content on Apple. Note that this Apple ID can be the same one that you regularly use on iTunes to buy music or download movies. However, if you’re already an app developer that sells through iTunes, you’ll need to create a new ID for uploading your book to iTunes Connect.

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’ve been Plagiarised on Apple I If you believe that content available through Apple Books is in violation of your rights, Apple Books Legal Team has a form you can fill.

To submit a claim for music, podcasts, movies, tv, or other video content, use the iTunes claims form. To submit a claim for an app available on the App Store, visit the Apps claims form.

Content available through Apple Books is provided to Apple by third party content providers. Once you have submitted your dispute, they contact the provider of the disputed content regarding your claim. In most cases, they ask the provider to work with you directly to resolve the issue.

ow Does Apple Books Offer Partner Support? H Resources for authors and publishers working with Apple Books: https://itunespartner.apple.com/books/ A newly upgraded an article page which is a great place to start: https://itunespartner.apple.com/books/articles/how-to-use-itunes- connect-2700. The nav bar on the left takes users through the entire process, from getting set up in iTunes Connect to writing and publishing with our various tools. Help videos that cover iTunes Connect, iTunes Producer, and Sales and Trends: https://itunespartner.apple.com/books/videos/ Telephone support where authors can chat directly with an expert: 001.877.206.2092. (M-F, 7am-5pm PST).

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