You publish directly to Apple Books through Apple's free publishing portal for authors and smaller publishers: create an Apple ID, sign in to the web-based upload tool, deliver an EPUB, set price and territories, and your book goes live usually within one to a few days — and per Apple's terms for authors, every sale pays a flat 70 percent royalty at any price point, with no exclusivity demanded.
Why Publish Direct Instead of Through an Aggregator?
Two reasons: money and control. Aggregators take a percentage of your net for distribution — commonly around 10 percent — so direct keeps it. And Apple's portal gives you day-of price changes, preorder controls, and promo pricing tools that an aggregator upload sometimes reaches late. The counter-argument: an aggregator's single upload feeds dozens of stores at once, and Apple is only one of them. Direct-to-Apple plus an aggregator for the long tail is the common hybrid.
What Do You Need Before You Start?
- An EPUB file that passes validation — Apple rejects files that fail EPUB 3 checks, so run a validator before upload.
- A cover, JPG, at least 1400 px on the short side per Apple's cover requirements.
- An Apple ID with two-factor authentication enabled.
- Tax information: a US W-9 or the W-8 form for non-US authors, plus banking details for royalty deposits.
- Your metadata ready: title, subtitle, description, keywords, categories, publication date.
What Is the Actual Step-by-Step Process?
- Sign in to Apple's publishing portal for books (books.apple.com's author side, reached via Apple's Books for Authors resources) with your Apple ID.
- Accept the distribution agreement and complete tax and banking setup — payouts only start once this is done.
- Click to add a new book and upload your EPUB; the portal runs validation and shows errors inline if the file fails.
- Upload the cover JPG and fill in metadata: description, keywords, categories, age rating, and language.
- Set territories — you can publish to all Apple Books storefronts or select specific countries.
- Set pricing per currency: Apple shows its price tiers; you can set different prices per territory.
- Choose immediate publication or a preorder date.
- Submit; most books go live within a few days, and the portal emails you when storefronts update.
Post-publication changes — price, metadata, even the file itself — go through the same portal with the same validation pass.
How Does Pricing Work on Apple?
Apple uses currency-denominated price tiers rather than a single global price: you set a US dollar price and assign prices in other currencies, or let Apple's tier suggestions map them. The 70 percent flat royalty applies everywhere regardless of price, which differs from Amazon's tiered system — a $14.99 nonfiction title or a premium box set earns more per sale on Apple than on Amazon's 35 percent tier above $9.99. Per Apple's pricing terms, price changes take effect within about a day, and scheduled promotions are available, including the preorder pricing behavior that has made Apple a favorite for coordinated indie launches.
What Should Non-US Authors Know Before Signing Up?
The portal accepts publishers worldwide, but the paperwork differs: non-US authors complete the W-8 series so US withholding applies correctly to royalties, and many countries' tax treaties reduce that withholding — the form flow on Apple's side asks for your treaty country. Banking accepts international accounts, and Apple reports and pays in the currency set during setup. One practical habit: complete tax and banking before your first upload rather than after, because royalties accrue from day one of sales, and payouts only flow once the paperwork clears. Authors who discover an unpaid royalty balance six months after launch almost always skipped this step.
What Trips Up First-Time Apple Publishers?
Three things, in order of frequency. EPUB validation failures — files exported from some word processors fail Apple's checks; export clean EPUB 3 from your formatting tool or validate and fix first. Missing tax forms, which freeze payouts while sales still accrue. And territory oversights — authors publish to the US storefront only, then wonder why European readers cannot buy the book; select all territories unless rights restrict you.
One more quirk worth knowing: Apple's storefront presence on iPhones, iPads, and Macs means your book is pre-installed on hundreds of millions of devices — the store ships with the hardware, per Apple's own platform documentation, which is why even modest Apple sales run steady for years without promotion. It is the quietest major storefront in indie publishing, and often the most loyal.
For more context, read How to Price an Ebook Without Leaving Money on the Table.
For more context, read How Do Indie Ebook Royalties Actually Work?.
For more context, read How Do Preorders Work for Indie Ebooks on the Major Stores?.