How to Publish an Ebook with iTunes Producer

Use iTunes Producer to submit new and updated books as well as set up pre-orders on Apple Books. Add your book details, pricing, and assets such as cover art and book files to the app. iTunes Producer checks to see if your book file meets delivery requirements and then sends the book to Apple.

All EPUB books must pass the most recent version of EPUBCheck. Check your EPUB by using one of the available EPUB validation tools.

You can also use iTunes Producer to update the book’s metadata, pricing, or assets after a book has been submitted.

System Requirements

A Mac with OS X 10.10 or later
At least 20GB of available hard disk space
A broadband internet connection with an upload speed of 1 Mbps or faster

Submit your book

Sign in to iTunes Producer with the credentials you use for iTunes Connect. If your Apple ID is protected with two-step verification or two-factor authentication, an app-specific password is required. Learn more about app-specific passwords.
Choose a book type from the Template Chooser window.
Click Choose to create a new book package.
iTunes Producer contains up to three panes: Details, Price, and Files. Add the metadata, pricing, and book file.
Click Submit to send your book out for review.

This will create a book package with a .itmsp file extension. When you open this file, you will see the metadata (metadata.xml), cover art file, and book file if supplied. It’s saved to your Playlist folder by default.

Helpful tips for submitting your books are listed below, but detailed step-by-step instructions are available in iTunes Producer Help.

Details

Not every metadata field is required, but you should supply all information that applies to your book. You can also add cover art and screenshots to this pane. Learn more about creating metadata for Apple Books.

Price

If you have a Free Books agreement, you won’t see the Price pane. After it’s been submitted and reviewed, your book is automatically made available worldwide. You can make changes to the book’s availability in iTunes Connect. Learn how to make changes to a free book’s availability in iTunes Connect.

If you have a Paid Books agreement, you need to complete the Price pane to submit your book or pre-order to Apple. Learn how to add and edit book pricing.

Field	Description	Required
DRM Free	DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which refers to various access control mechanisms that prevent unauthorized distribution of digital content. Select the checkbox if you do not want to apply DRM to your book.
Release Date	The date your book should be available on Apple Books. If left blank, the book goes on the store as soon as it’s approved by our Book Review team.
Pre-Order Start Date	The date your book should be available for pre-order on Apple Books. The pre-order start date should be at least two days before the release date. Learn more about pre-orders.
Publication Type	Choose between Digital Only, New Release, or Other. If you select New Release or Other, you must provide a physical list price. Additional details about new releases are available in your Paid Books agreement in iTunes Connect.	✓
Currency	The base currency used to calculate all other prices.	✓
Physical List Price	The price of any physical copies of your book in the currency you selected.
iBooks Store Price	The price of your book on Apple Books.	✓
Region	Select All from the menu if you want to sell your book worldwide. If you only want to sell in specific countries or regions, select them individually. Or select additional regions from the menu.	✓

Currencies

iTunes Producer uses the information you provide to determine the closest available price tier in the currencies for the territories selected. Existing foreign exchange rates are used and, for any territory where Apple collects tax for the sale of books, any customer inclusive tax is applied.

You can edit the price in any country or region individually to ensure prices are consistent with how you’d like to price your book in that location.

Files

You can drag and drop your book and sample files to the Files pane.

If you’re setting up a pre-order, assets are not required, but they are required before your book is released for sale. You should submit all assets as early as possible and at least ten business days prior to the release date.

Select “Available during pre-order” if your sample is ready and you want customers to be able to download it during the pre-order period.

Get help with common issues

iTunes Producer checks to see if your book file meets delivery requirements. If it doesn’t, you may get an upload error. If you have questions about how to address the error, click the “Send to Apple” button. Our support team will follow up with you to troubleshoot the issue.

If you saw confirmation that your content submitted successfully, but you don’t see your book in My Books after 24 hours, contact us and our support team can assist you.

Submitting EPUB 2 books

The current version of Apple Books Asset Guide contains information about EPUB 3. However, if you still need access to the documentation to create EPUB 2 books, you can download Apple Books Asset Guide 5.0.

What is the difference between iTunes Producer and iTunes Connect?

iTunes Producer is a delivery tool available on Mac computers with OS X 10.10 or later. Use it to:

iTunes Connect is a web portal used to manage your account, banking information, users, and agreements. Use it to:

Publishing multiple books at once

You can only submit one book at a time using iTunes Producer, but you can enter metadata for multiple books in the Book File Import Template, available in the File menu in iTunes Producer. Doing this, however, still requires you to add the cover art and book file, and deliver the book package to Apple one at a time via iTunes Producer. Learn more about using the Book File Import Template.

Alternatively, you can contact an Apple-approved aggregator to submit multiple books for you.

Open the Book File Import Template

Sign in to iTunes Producer.
From the File menu, choose Open Book File Import Template.
Open the “BookFileImportTemplate.txt” with an application such as Microsoft Excel so that it’s easier to enter the information.
In the file, rows 2 and 3 show examples of how metadata and pricing information should be entered. Be sure to delete these two example rows when you’re done entering your book’s metadata and pricing information.

Tips for completing the Book File Import Template

To avoid overwhelming your computer screen, we suggest adding no more than 50 books at a time.
The identifiers in columns B, C, and X cannot contain decimal places. For example, “9786005000214” not “9.786E+12”. You can edit the decimal places in Microsoft Excel by clicking Cells in the Format menu and then clicking Number.
For every author listed in column T, specify that author’s information in columns U to W. Separate each with a semicolon (;) and no space. See row 3 for an example.
For every territory in column AA, specify that territory’s information in columns AB to AI. Separate each with a semicolon (;) and no space. See row 3 for an example.
Leave columns AJ to AZ blank if you do not want to specify audience information.

Import the Book File Import Template to iTunes Producer

Save the Book File Import Template in the tab-delimited text (.txt) format.
In iTunes Producer, click Import and select the file. iTunes Producer opens a new book package window for each book in the Book File Import Template.
Verify that the information is correct in the "Details and Price" panes. Add the cover art and screenshots (optional) in the Details pane. Add the book file in the Files pane. Repeat this step for each book.
Click Save from the File menu and click Submit.