- I bet you wanna make more money selling your ebook, right?
Who doesn't?
Apple is the way to do it,
so long as you know how to do it.
If you're wondering the best way to sell your book on Apple,
then don't go anywhere.
This video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey, there I'm Julie, The Book Broad, with Book Launchers,
your fabulous professional self-publishing team.
Amazon might rule the ebook market,
but Apple might actually be your ticket
to selling more eBooks and possibly making more money.
Part of that comes from its readership.
If you use Apple Books,
it's probably because you own an Apple product,
be it an iPhone, an iPad,
or whatever else you use to read your books,
and Apple products come with a bit of a price tag.
That means that those who use Apple may be
a little more inclined to spend a bit more
for the book they wanna read.
So you could potentially price your book
a little higher on Apple and not see any price resistance
from your audience the way you would on Amazon.
A few other dollar and cents things about Apple
that are worth noting.
Apple is one of the few retailers out there
that does not price match.
So you don't have to worry
about that higher price getting slashed like that,
slashed like that, or slashed like that,
just because you're priced lower somewhere else.
They are less price sensitive,
because Apple customers are less price sensitive,
and that can pay off for you big time
when you consider what Apple pays in royalties.
Apple doesn't have that royalty cap that Amazon does
on books priced above 9.99.
You earn 70% of royalties through Apple,
regardless of whether you're priced at 10.99,
99.99, or 5.99.
So while you may get more sales on Amazon,
you really have the chance
to make more money per sale on Apple.
You're taking a bite of a smaller apple
in the ebook market, but the bite tastes sweeter.
Does that work? I think it does.
All right, my brilliant pun aside,
publishing your book on Apple can be more rewarding
than skipping it to go exclusive with Amazon.
And it's just as simple to publish your book on Apple
as it is on Amazon.
Apple is aggregator agnostic,
so you can either publish directly to Apple Books,
or you can use an aggregator that uploads your book
to a bunch of retailers and distributors simultaneously,
like Draft2Digital.
Keep in mind that going the aggregator route
does cost you a small percentage of your royalties
because the aggregators need to get paid
for the work and the service they provide.
If you want to avoid that, you can just uproad,
you can uproad.
You can.
If you want to avoid that,
you can upload right to Apple directly
through their publishing tool,
which is a pretty straightforward process.
Here, let me show you.
Step one, you wanna create an iTunes Connect account.
If you already have that, you can skip this part,
but if not, head this URL right here
and click create account.
Now log into your Apple account to connect it,
then Apple will ask you whether this is an individual
or an organization account.
Only select individual if you aren't registered as a company
or if you are a sole proprietor.
iTunes Connect is not what you're going to use to publish,
but it is what you have to use to get paid.
So it's an important part.
So you wanna head over to agreements, tax,
and banking to set up your information there.
Enter your IBAN and other account numbers without spacing
so you don't get hit with an error message,
and also make sure all your personal details match
with your tax records.
Apple will check that.
Approval from Apple can take a few days.
You'll get an email when everything goes through all right,
but you don't need to wait for that
to move forward with publishing.
So what you're gonna do
is you're gonna head to this URL next
and sign into your iTunes Connect account.
If you're setting up your pre-order,
make sure to select that option,
then upload your cover file
and your sample file in EPUB format,
which will be used as a preview for customers.
You can then upload the full EPUB file for your book
if you're not in pre-sale.
Next, enter some of your metadata,
you know, all that fun stuff like your title, subtitle,
name, and book description.
Oh, I'm seeing another opportunity to link you
to my metadata musical video.
If you don't know what metadata is,
I'll make sure you've got that.
Unlike Amazon, Apple lets you pick three categories
rather than two,
and the key is choosing three relevant,
distinct categories, and in particular,
at least two different primary subject categories.
If your book is in a subcategory,
it automatically shows up in the parent category.
So to maximize your visibility,
pick two subcategories
that have different parent categories.
That way, you'll actually end up
in four different categories, two sub and two pair.
Once you've picked those,
enter the rest of your metadata here,
like the publisher ISBN, and publication date,
then hit that Upload button.
Now, you're not done yet, you have pricing to set up,
and you'll have head back to iTunes Connect to do that.
You should see your book listed under
the My Books section now, then you're gonna click the book,
then rights and pricing, add new countries or regions
to set up your price and customize it for each country.
Apple takes their own data
and your suggested price and base currency
to auto generate potentially attractive prices
for all other countries and regions,
but you can tweak those suggested prices
in whatever country, if you'd like.
After you've decided on your prices,
your book is published or ready for presale on Apple.
So that's the simple way
to make your book available for sale,
but Apple doesn't sell your book for you,
so you need to leverage Apple books to actually get sales.
So here are a few tips to do that.
Leverage pre-orders to boost your ranking.
Apple Books has a secret weapon
that gives it a one up over Amazon,
and it's how pre-orders weigh into your rankings.
One pre-order sale does double the work.
It counts as a sale during pre-order period
and it counts as a sale again on launch day.
If you plan a stellar pre-sale period
and drive people to buy your book on Apple
and you managed to pull in a good number of pre-orders,
you're increasing the chances that your book ranks high
in popularity and on other lists,
most of which are curated by humans.
They use humans to do this, just like Kobo.
We talked about Kobo before as well
and they also have human curators for their list.
- Nothing to see here, just a human curating, curating,
curating, curating, curating lists.
(electronic buzzing)
- Yep, it's actually a real live human being
behind those bestsellers, hot new releases,
and coming soon lists.
It's not a robot or an algorithm.
High sale numbers, especially high presale orders,
is probably going to catch their eye.
Gaining a spot on one of their curated lists
can open up a positive Pandora's box full of opportunities
and lead to even more sales.
Another effective way to drive more sales to Apple,
where you can make more money per sale, remember,
is by signing up with the iTunes affiliate program.
This will allow you to place an affiliate code anywhere,
such as websites or ads.
Not only does this help you track your analytics
and conversions to adjust your marketing strategy,
but you'll earn 7% more on a sale made through that link.
Ka-ching.
You can also try running BookBub ads,
and you can even target readers based on the fact
that they are reading through Apple.
To target readers on a particular retailer,
simply enter a link to that retailer
in the click through link section,
which I believe that link can even be your affiliate link,
but double check the terms and conditions there,
because that might be a violation of BookBub's terms.
I haven't tested that yet and I don't wanna lead you astray,
but you can promote directly to Apple buyers
and Apple readers.
Now, I'm curious, have you focused on Apple Books at all?
What else should we know?
Please post that in the comments below.
And as you head down to post your comment,
make sure you smash that Like button on your way down,
because it's fun for you and for me.
Now, want some guidance when it comes to
the best book review sites for you?
I got you covered, right here.
If you're good there,
well, this is that metadata video I mentioned,
and there's this one on Kobo.
So there's lots to like, lots to see.
Go ahead, take your pick. I'll be there waiting.