How to publish an Apple iBook

It IS possible to self-publish directly 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 such as losing italics) - then uploading it through iTunes Connect is relatively straightforward. I can't remember which epub converter I ended up using. Just try the free ones you find with a search and go for the one that introduces the least errors.

Forgive my enthusiasm, but if you like thrillers or Fight Club, check out The Dare Ring by Titus Powell. Only $2.49 and already getting lots of acclaim.

Titus Powell
http://www.tituspowell.com/TheDareRing.htm

I found and use Sigil to edit files for my iBook Library. It is a WYSIWYG ebook editor hosted at Google. You can find it at http://code.google.com/p/sigil/.

This is a serious question. Does Apple have any "adult" novels on the iBookstore? I recall seeing some but I'm not sure.

I want to make an erotic novel but only if I can publish it there. I know Steve Jobs has said "freedom from porn" but I'm hoping text doesn't count.

Very helpful, thanks.
Although I'm in the UK, and one of my UK friends tell me that she tried to get a book in the iBooks store, but found out (late in the process, typically) that you have to be registered for tax in the USA to be able to do this. Do you have any data on this? Seems pretty pertinent for many people in the world.

A much easier way is to publish with Smashwords. For free they'll submit to iBooks, Amazon, Kobo, B&N, and others, provided you get premium status (which requires the book to be formatted properly). They provide the ISBN for free as well. Formatting my short story collection took under a day, and showed up in iBooks after a couple of weeks.

It's a cool service and worth checking out -- I think it's the only e-publisher of its kind at the moment that can submit to iBooks.

I would highly recommend Eluzabeth Castro's book EPUB Straight to the Point. ISBN. 9780321734686. She wrote the Peachpit classic HTML Visual QuickStart Guide. This just came out last week.

This is great especially for people who don't want to go through a normal publisher. The only downside is that you need a mac. My mother has a cookbook ready that she would love to publish through the iBook store and this is the only thing stopping her.