Most authors put all their effort into Amazon and treat every other platform as an afterthought. That’s understandable since Amazon owns the largest share of ebook sales, but it leaves real money on the table. Apple Books publishing reaches a customer base of more than a billion Apple device users, many of whom never shop on Amazon and many of whom pay full price without flinching. If you’re publishing wide or thinking about it, Apple is the second platform worth taking seriously.
This guide walks through how to publish on Apple Books, what to format for, how pricing works, and what to do after launch to actually move copies.
Why Apple Books Deserves Your Attention
Apple Books is the default ebook reader on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac. That’s a built-in audience of hundreds of millions of devices, and Apple actively promotes books to its users through curated lists, daily deals, and editorial features.
The reader demographic skews higher income and more willing to pay full price than the Kindle Unlimited crowd. Apple readers tend to buy fewer books per month but pay more per book on average. That means you can list at $4.99 or $5.99 and convert at rates similar to what you’d see at $2.99 on Amazon.
Apple also pays 70% royalty on every book priced between $0.99 and $200, with no exceptions. There’s no royalty cliff at $9.99 like Amazon has. If you’re selling a longer nonfiction title at $14.99, Apple pays you more than Amazon does on the same sale.
Promotions are another reason to publish here. Apple’s editorial team actively curates featured books, and getting picked for a promotion can drive thousands of sales in a week. Authors who upload directly to Apple have more visibility with the curation team than those who upload through a third party.
Setting Up Your Account
You have two ways to publish on Apple Books. Direct through Apple Books Connect, or through an aggregator like Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, or Smashwords.
Apple Books for Authors (Direct)
The direct route gives you 100% of the platform’s available royalty and direct access to Apple’s editorial team and promotional opportunities. You need a Mac to use the Books Author tool, an Apple ID, US bank account or international equivalent, and a tax ID.
The setup process takes about an hour. You create an Apple ID specifically for publishing if you don’t already have one, link your bank account, fill in tax information, and you’re ready to upload. Apple verifies your account within a few business days.
If you don’t have a Mac, the direct route is closed to you unless you borrow one for setup. This is the biggest practical barrier for authors on Windows or Linux.
Aggregator Route
Aggregators handle the upload for you and distribute your book to Apple along with other retailers. Draft2Digital and Smashwords are free to use but take a small percentage (around 10% of royalty). PublishDrive charges a flat monthly fee. Aggregators require no Mac and no platform-specific setup, which is why most non-Mac authors use them.
The trade-off is that aggregated books have less direct visibility with Apple’s editorial team. For an author publishing one or two books a year, the convenience of aggregation usually outweighs the small royalty difference. For an author publishing frequently or chasing Apple promotions, direct publishing pays off.
Preparing Your Manuscript
Apple Books has specific format requirements that matter more than Amazon’s. Files that look fine in KDP can fail Apple’s validation, so prepare for Apple’s specs from the start.
EPUB Format
Apple Books accepts EPUB 3 files. EPUB is the open standard for ebooks and is what every retailer except Amazon uses natively. You can create EPUB files using Vellum (Mac only), Atticus (cross-platform), Calibre (free, more technical), or by hiring a formatter.
Vellum is the easiest option for Mac users. It produces clean EPUBs that pass Apple’s validation reliably. Atticus does the same on any platform and costs a flat one-time fee. Free options like Calibre work but require more setup knowledge.
Your EPUB needs proper metadata (title, author, language, ISBN if applicable), a working table of contents, properly formatted chapters, and no broken images or links. Validate your file using a tool like EPUBCheck before uploading to avoid rejection.
Cover Requirements
Apple’s cover specs are strict. Minimum 1400 pixels on the shortest side, RGB color, JPEG or PNG format. The cover should be high resolution and look good at thumbnail size. Apple displays covers prominently in its app, so this is one place where quality matters.
The cover is uploaded as a separate file, not embedded in the EPUB. Make sure your cover designer gives you a standalone version sized to spec.
Uploading Your Book
Once your account is set up and your files are ready, the upload process takes about 30 minutes per book.
In Apple Books Connect, you start a new book listing, fill in metadata (title, subtitle, author, description, categories, keywords), set pricing for each territory, upload your EPUB and cover, and submit for review. Apple reviews each submission, usually within 24 to 72 hours, and either approves the book or flags issues.
Common rejection reasons include missing or incorrect metadata, broken EPUB files, inappropriate content flagged by automated review, or trademark issues in titles or covers. Fix the flagged issue and resubmit, no penalty.
If you’re using an aggregator, you submit through their interface instead. The aggregator handles the Apple-side validation and notifies you if Apple rejects the book.
Setting Pricing & Territories
Apple Books lets you set prices per territory if you want, or apply a single price across all markets. Most authors start with a single price and adjust later based on sales data.
Apple’s pricing tiers run in $1 increments, with some specific allowed prices in between. You can set $2.99, $3.99, $4.99, and so on. The 70% royalty applies on all prices from $0.99 to $200, which is a big difference from Amazon.
For ebook fiction, $4.99 to $6.99 is the common range for full-length novels. Short fiction or novellas often sit at $2.99 or $3.99. Nonfiction can go higher, with reference books and how-to titles often priced at $9.99 to $14.99.
Pre-order pricing matters here too. Apple allows pre-orders up to a year in advance, and books on pre-order count toward sales rank when they release. A strong pre-order period can give you a launch-day chart push that helps Apple’s algorithm notice your book.
Promoting After Launch
Getting the book live is step one. Getting it noticed is the longer game.
Apple’s editorial team curates featured books and themed promotions. They look at sales velocity, cover quality, and category fit when picking titles. You can submit your book for editorial consideration through the Apple Books Connect dashboard, especially for new releases. Books picked for features often see 5x to 10x their normal sales for the duration of the promotion.
Run a launch sale at $0.99 or $1.99 in the first week to drive velocity. Apple’s sales charts move faster than Amazon’s, so a strong week can land you in a top-100 category list. Once you’re charting, sales tend to attract more sales.
Use your email list to drive Apple-specific traffic. Most authors send all their launch traffic to Amazon by default, which leaves the Apple page underexposed. Send half your list to Apple links during launch to balance the platforms. Tools like Books2Read make platform-specific links easy.
Pay attention to your Apple sales reports separately from your other platforms. Apple’s sales patterns differ from Amazon’s, and a book that’s flat on Amazon might be growing on Apple if you give it the attention it needs.
The Apple Books Connect reporting dashboard gives you sales by territory, format, and date. It’s less polished than KDP’s reporting but covers everything you need. Download monthly reports as CSV files and track them in a spreadsheet alongside your KDP data. You’ll start to see where Apple is strong for you. Many authors find that certain genres do disproportionately well on Apple compared to their KDP share. Literary fiction, queer romance, and certain self-help niches all tend to over-index on Apple, which means books in those genres can become Apple-first earners without the author realizing it for months.
Another thing to watch is Apple’s response to series. Once you have two or more books in a series live on Apple, the series page becomes a real driver of sales. Apple’s recommendation engine surfaces series prominently to readers who finished book one. Make sure book one is priced low enough to pull readers in (often $0.99 or $1.99) and that the series order is correctly tagged in your metadata.
Putting It Together
Apple Books publishing isn’t hard, but it requires a few extra steps that Amazon doesn’t. Format properly for EPUB. Set up your account directly if you have a Mac, or through an aggregator if you don’t. Price for the audience, which usually means slightly higher than Amazon. Submit for editorial consideration when you have a strong launch. Track your sales separately and adjust as you learn.
Authors who only publish on Amazon are leaving 10% to 30% of their possible income on the table. Apple Books is the easiest second platform to add to your distribution, and once you’ve set it up the first time, every future book takes minutes to publish there. That’s a small effort for a real income stream that grows on its own once you have a few books on the platform.
