Manage book rights and pricing
You should use iTunes Connect to make updates to the price of your book or the countries and regions where it’s available. You can set up promotional pricing — also known as interval pricing — and manage Digital Rights Management (DRM) settings.
If you submitted your book through Pages, you need to add rights and pricing information in iTunes Connect so your book can be available on Apple Books.
Update Rights and Pricing in iTunes Connect
You can add and update the following in iTunes Connect:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Pre-order Start Date | The date your book should be available for pre-order on Apple Books. The pre-order start date must be at least two days before the release date. |
| 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. |
| Cleared for Sale | When set to Yes, this field indicates that your book can be made available on Apple Books in the designated country or region on or after the release date. When set to No, your book is not available on Apple Books in the designated country or region. |
| Apply DRM | DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which refers to various access control mechanisms that prevent unauthorized distribution of digital content. When set to Yes, DRM is applied to your book. |
| VCS-Enabled | Apple offers a Volume Content Service (VCS) to make it easy for educational organizations and businesses to purchase large volumes of books or apps. Your books are opted in to this program by default, so organizations have the opportunity to purchase your book. When set to No, your books are not available on the Business or Education VCS stores. |
| Release Type | Choose between Digital Only, New Release, or Other. If you select New Release or Other, you must provide a physical list price on the next screen. Additional details about new releases are available in your Paid Books agreement in iTunes Connect. |
| Base Currency | The base currency used to calculate all other prices. |
| Suggested Apple Books Price | The price of your book on Apple Books. |
| Price Start Date | The date you want to begin offering your books at this price. |
| Price End Date | The date you want to stop offering your book at this price. Select No End Date if you are setting a permanent price for your book. You can add promotional price intervals later. |
| Countries and Regions | 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 countries or regions from the menu. |
| Physical List Price | The price of any physical copies of your book in the currency you selected. |
Currencies
iTunes Connect uses the information you provide to determine the closest available price tier in the currencies for the countries or regions selected. Apple uses existing foreign exchange rates and applies a customer-inclusive tax for any territory where Apple collects tax for book sales.
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.
How to add countries and regions where your book is available
- Find your book in iTunes Connect.
- On the book detail page, click Rights and Pricing.
- Click Add New Countries/Regions.
- Include the applicable information to the Rights and Pricing section.
- Select the countries and regions where you’d like your book to be available or click Select All.
- Click Continue.
- Review your changes and click Confirm.
How to remove sales clearances or remove your book from Apple Books
- Find your book in iTunes Connect.
- On the book detail page, click Rights and Pricing.
- Click Edit Countries/Regions and Pricing.
- Update the Cleared for Sale field to No.
- Select all the countries and regions where you’d like to remove your book from sale or click Select All.
- Click Continue.
- Review your changes and click Confirm.
To confirm that the change is in our system, verify that the green check is no longer in the Cleared For Sale column.
Although the book is no longer visible on Apple Books, it will still be visible within My Books. For auditing reasons, books cannot be deleted from iTunes Connect.
How to update pricing
You can permanently change the price of your book in iTunes Connect or set promotional pricing for a specific time period.
- Find your book in iTunes Connect.
- On the book detail page, click Rights and Pricing.
- Click Edit Countries/Regions and Pricing.
- On the Edit Existing Countries or Regions page, select the appropriate currency from the Base Currency menu.
- In the Suggested Apple Books Price field, enter the updated price.
- Select the date in the Price Start Date field, or select Effective Now.
- Select the date in the Price End Date field, or select No End Date.*
- Under Apply to Existing Countries or Regions, select where the updated pricing should be available, or click Select All.
- Click Continue.
- Review your changes and click Confirm.
To confirm that the update was successful, verify the current and future prices on the Rights and Pricing page.
*If you note a Price End Date, the price reverts back to the original price on that date. For example, if your promotion runs May 2 through May 8, set the Price Start Date for May 2 and the Price End Date for May 9. On May 9, the price of the book reverts to its original price.