Apple I-Whatever Is Tough To Work With

[maidu]

I'm endeavoring to enter some ebooks (which I've written and self-published) to online sites which sell such things. It's interesting how the sites differ. Amazon.com is relatively easy to work with, though every time you attempt to update your account, they try directing you to sign up, even though you've already signed up. It's tricky to get to one's own account, but it's do-able. and it's the better of the bunch. I grade them B+.

Barnes and Noble (one of the largest book selling sites) used to do their submissions by formal parameters sent by Email, but now they appear to have subcontracted everything out to another website, which tries to get you in to a different (subsiderary) type online program. Confusing. It's almost like 'bait and switch' They get a C from me.

There's a large online ebook selling site which I'm just starting to become familiar with, but the verdict is still out. Thus far, I grade them B.

Ebay pretends it's an auction site, but it's mostly a direct sales site. It's section resembling an auction (which is how it started its biz), has digressed to a secret bidding process. I rate it D

Apple's i-whatever is also new for me, and is what prompted me to write this note. Thus far, they're difficult to interact with. It's like they invent 'modern' words to represent common words. If they had a restaurant, they would call it a 'food dispensary nexus' If they made a sandwich, they would call it a

'nutritional layered unit' Thus far, their site is too convoluted and formal to be useful for me. I haven't yet figured out how to make it work. I rate it a D-

Comments appreciated.

[ianwuk]

First of all you complete the application form here - https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wa/bookSignup

Second read the rest of the information here - http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-providers/book-faq.html

Hopefully that will help you take a step in the right direction.

[Crossy]

I fell at the first hurdle "A Mac computer with OS X v10.6 or later"

[mahtin]

Yeah, this is i-land.

[ianwuk]

My understanding is that if you have an Apple ID you can sign up through iTunes on either a Mac or a PC.

For creating the ebook itself (in order to submit to Apple) you can try Jutoh (if you have a PC) here - http://jutoh.com/

Or use iBook Author if you have a Mac.

Good luck!

[ManOnTheRoad]

Amazon should play more role in South East Asia , ive got thousands of used books

[maidu]

Hi, I'm downloading Jutoh now. Thanks for the tip. Won't know until I try it out, how good it is.

As for i-whatever. I was able to sign up as a publisher, which included c.card info which I'm reluctutant to give online (but did so).

The glitch now, is they're supposed to call me with a code #. I gave them my mobile tel# in Thailand, with 66 area code and deleted 1st zero, but no call back. They're very rigid at I-stuff. If you don't comply 100% with each step along the way, you can't get where you want to go. In other words, because of the no call-back from them, I'm stuck and can't even enter my account to see/ask what's going on. They should rename their empire to i-rigid or i-inflexible.

Incidentally, I've had computerized call backs before with other online sites, so I know it's possible with my phone.

[h90]

I think the last 20 ebooks this year I downloaded from smashword, which is a great side for me (I am only buying not selling)

[maidu]

I think the last 20 ebooks this year I downloaded from smashword, which is a great side for me (I am only buying not selling)

Smashwords is interesting. I had my books loaded with them for awhile. They're gaining in popularity, and the big sites are looking to Smashwords for selections. They're like an education site, as they're strict about formatting, but they'll assist in helping the author/publisher get the format just right. They also insist that each book they carry adjust their publishing to revert to Smashwords. So they probably have publishing rights for thousands or maybe tens of thousands of new books. 99.9% of those won't amount to any royalties, but they may get lucky and have one or two books hit the big time, and it will pay dividends for them.

I quit using them, but can't recall exactly why. Probably because I didn't want to give the publishing rights to them.

I looked at their selection, around that time, and it didn't look impressive. A lot of weird fringe books. Maybe they've got a better selection now. I got the impression they would take any ebook at all, as long as it got formatted to their parameters, and they could get the publishing rights.