After weeks of anticipation — and months of speculation — the iPad is finally here.
We know many of our authors are excited by the possibilities of this new device. And we’re excited to offer you access.
Apple has selected Lulu as a certified aggregator to provide content for the iBookstore. We have been hard at work pushing hundreds of titles to the store as part of a pilot program to ensure all of our processes are ready for the volume of content that we expect. I’m sure you have many questions, so let me get right to it.
Here are five points to understand:
- ISBNs. Apple requires ISBNs on eBooks. Lulu can assign one for free.
- ePub. An ePub file is required for submission to the iBookstore. You can create your own, or have Lulu create one for you through our conversion service . See the next point for an important note about the ePub file.
- Validation. Apple has a strict file validation process. All files submitted must pass ePubCheck 1.0.5. If you create your own ePub file, you must verify that it will pass. Lulu can only guarantee validation for ePub files created through our conversion service . From now through April 15, we are offering a 50 percent discount on that service. To take advantage, enter code: SVCEPUBBLOG.
- Pricing. All eBooks planned for iBookstore distribution must have retail pricing that complies with Apple’s guidelines. We will automatically price Lulu eBooks submitted to the iBookstore to meet these guidelines. The creator revenue that you receive per sale will be 80 percent of the profit after deducting Apple’s share. On a $9.99 book, for example, you will receive $5.60 .
- Content. Apple could decline to list an eBook in the iBookstore if it determines the book violates the company’s policies on inappropriate content. We have submitted hundreds of titles and, so far, have had only one rejected.
For a limited time, Lulu will provide free distribution to the iBookstore.
We can help you get any project into the iBookstore, even if you’ve published only a printed copy of your work on Lulu so far. The key is that you must already have a project on Lulu — or publish a project now.
The simplest way to reach the iBookstore is to have us convert your file into an ePub. As mentioned earlier, we guarantee that it will pass Apple’s validation process and we include distribution to the iBookstore as part of this service for no extra charge.
The other approach is a manual one. You’ll need to make your own ePub file and make any necessary improvements until is passes ePubCheck 1.0.5. Once you have that file on Lulu, add iBookstore distribution to your cart as if you were buying any other service. (Again, it is free for a limited time.) We’ll submit the file to Apple for the iBookstore.
In the coming weeks, we will automate more of this process and will incorporate it into our eBook publishing wizard.
We’re committed to open publishing — to helping as many creators as possible reach as many consumers as possible, no matter the platform. Publishing at Lulu means you can have your work in hardcover and paperback and as an eBook accessible on many popular devices, including the iPad. In addition, you can create CDs, DVDs, photo books, cookbooks, calendars and many other products.
We’re excited to add iBookstore distribution to our catalog of products and services. Please let us know if you have any questions about this exciting new service.
46 Comments
If we have a book published on Lulu and the same book on Amazon’s Kindle, will publishing as a e-book through Lulu for the Apple I-bookstore cause any problems?
Hi Bill,
No. The iBookstore is simply another retail distribution channel. Any author or publisher who owns the copyright to their work can sell in multiple channels (Lulu, Amazon, Apple). The only catch is pricing–while Lulu lets you set your own price, most of the eBook retailers enforce some pricing restrictions (i.e. a set maximum price) which Lulu must adhere to. That said, we’d love to help you get an ePub edition of your work submitted to Apple!
so All ePub books will be pushed or do I need to do something to push my book to iBooks?
The creator revenue that you receive per sale will be 80 percent of the profit after deducting Apple’s share
so what’s the % of Apple share?
(Price -AppleShare)*0.8
Hi Gummy,
Yes, you’ll need to manually opt your Lulu ePub project into the iBookstore. This choice and process will be automated in our eBook wizard soon, but as a temporary workaround to enable authors to get their Lulu ePub eBooks submitted to Apple ASAP, we’ve created a free iBookstore Submission Service: http://www.lulu.com/content/service/epub-ibookstore-distribution-submission-service/8590219.
Just add this to your cart and check out (you won’t be charged). You’ll then receive an email asking you to supply the content ID of the ePub project. This can be found in your My Projects list in My Lulu. Reply to the email with the content ID, and we take it from there.
We’ll add a unique ISBN, set the price to the maximum allowed under Apple’s pricing tiers, and submit your eBook to Apple. It will show up in the iBookstore automatically, there’s nothing more you need to do.
For each iBookstore sale, Apple takes a percentage (contractually, we can’t disclose the pricing tiers or percentage until Apple releases this information publicly), then Lulu splits the remainder according to our standard creator revenue model (80% to the author, 20% to Lulu).
One last note: we’re upgrading the eBook wizard to automate as much of this process as possible. In the coming weeks, we’ll add support for automatic ePub validation, getting a free ISBN (you can’t reuse an ISBN assigned to a print book, eBook ISBNs must be unique), and setting retail pricing for your eBook.
Will there be any alternative to ePub? My Lulu textbook is “heavily designed” and will not work in ePub. I’m currently having Lulu use Adobe DRM (Adobe Digital Editions) on the PDF. Unless Adobe does an iPad version of ADE, I don’t see a way around this.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
I’m confused about a few parts of this article.
1) Why *must* we use the ePUB format? Apple is pushing DRM down our throats and I don’t approve nor believe in it. The iPad can read PDFs perfectly and I’d rather distribute in its non-DRM format.
2) Why does EPUB conversion cost so much through Lulu when other competitors of yours offer it for free? It costs next to nothing to convert a .TXT file to .PDF ~ The same conversion happens here, just turning the digital file into a new format. It costs you nothing to convert it.
3) What are Apple’s pricing guidelines you speak of? You provide no link. Does Apple tell us how to set prices for our own books or what the price range is they will sell it in? Is the $0.99 price verboten now?
4) Content. This one gets me the most. Why is Apple so concerned about content? Also, what gives them the right to censor/reject books based upon their content. This wonderful country of ours wasn’t founded on the moralities of The Church of Steve Jobs.
What’s more is that I’m an Apple fan myself. I own two Macs that I use daily to write with, but the invention of the iPad is a very bad thing. The item is nothing but a large iPhone without the phone. Every application and piece of content MUST be purchased through Apple’s servers. Apple approves/disapproves everything it sells, controlling content and price. Which means to me that if you’re not on Steve’s side, he has the right to deny you the freedom of commerce. This sets a very bad example as to where the future of computing and content control lies.
Honestly, it scares the hell out of me.
@Robert – calm down just a bit. A couple of things that might help you out.
First, the ePub standard does not include DRM. The DRM comes from Apple or Amazon. ePub is simply a file standard that eReaders are made to interpret.
Second, the iPad can read ePub books that have no Apple DRM. You are free to publish an ePub book on your own, through any means you have available. I can buy it from you or you can give it to me, and I can put it into iBooks on my iPad by dropping it into the iTunes software on my computer. No DRM required.
Third, the only content that I *must* buy through Apple is Apps, and even that is not strictly true since the iPad has already been jailbroken, and I expect entire free marketplaces of apps will be springing up shortly. I can get music, video, PDFs, eBooks, photos – basically anything I want – onto my iPad from my own DRM-free collection. I don’t have to buy them from Apple. So, no, you are not denied any freedom of commerce. The only freedom you are denied (and it’s not really a freedom) is the ability sell your work through the iBooks bookstore. But, I’m pretty sure that you already believe that any store proprietor should be free to determine what products they stock and sell, and the iBook store is just that, a store. But there are other ways to get content onto the iPad, so no worries for you.
I have a question about conversion to ePub from a document with multiple complex tables. Have there been such books converted successfully and with full content?
Thanks
Hello,
I’ve got a simple question. If I’ve got an eBook that I give away for free on my website and I’d like to offer an ePub version of it on the iBookStore, can I do that through your service? – Or do you have to charge for ebooks on the iBookStore?
Thanks
One of my books has a table of contents, an index, and footnotes. It’s layout is precise as it goes back and forth between letters and diaries. It sounds like an epub version would would eliminate or invalidate all of this. True?
Suggestions on how to create an epub of tightly formatted books?
Thanks
Hi. I have jst started to publish several epub books for ipad distribution, but still request some more detailed informations!
So what are LuLu’s reporting times and payout time frames? (And why would it take Lulu 4-6 weeks to get our books into the iBookstore?)
Another “certified aggregator” for small publishing companies is LibreDigital. They split say apple takes 30%, and from the 70% they are taking 10%. They have announced that apple will report sales within 45 days from the time an ibook was sold, and LibreDigital will pay within 30 days afterwards. LuLu hasn’t announced anything yet, besides the fact that they split 80/20
I am looking to publish “Poem Packages” on the iBookstore – 6-9 poems/song lyrics that all center on a genre/specific content/style, ex: “Love at a Distance” or “Friendship during Turmoil” – so it’s not a full book, but as a result I don’t expect to receive more than a dollar (closer to $0.25-$0.50) per sale of each “package.”
Do you know if this is an option for me, or that the concept will be rejected outright due to not being a full “book”? I thought that this would be the best way for me to sell my poetry – in small clusters at a cheap rate – because it would be something that people might actually buy, rather than a whole book of poetry.
Can I include media (animations, video, audio, etc) in an EPUB file and sell on iBooks/iTunes Bookstore?
Also, what (if any) page layout tool on the Mac can I use to create a book.
Does Lulu have to be listed as the Publisher of record, or can I use an ISBN registered to my own self-publishing entity?
I think this is a great service. I’m curious as to whether or not the books my independent poetry publication will “meet the standards” to be distributed through iBookstore. Also, why not offer a deal for indie publishers? 5 books for X amount. Or maybe you already do that?
Thanks,
Haggard and Halloo.com
@Daniel.
Sorry. But are you reallyserious about all this?
I spent 3 days uploading epub files, and added the iPad distri to my shopping card, with the result of getting automated responses 2 days afterwards, asking me for a “link”, telling me that I would NOT get info if the files would not get submitted “on my behalf” to the ibookstore if they not pass the epub file, and that it could take 4-6 weeks, and that I would basically will not get any notification anyway.
NO word at all about
1) who will be listed as the publisher-of-record, or as the seller.
2) metadata requiries/recommendations within the epub files
3) how and when the sales and royalties would be reported
I will fo forward to talk with SW straight away. Will then decide if I go ahead with Lulu, or simply delete all my titles.
What a lack of service, customer support and information. Horrible!
You can find information on converting your file to ePub yourself here… https://support.lulu.com/View.jsp?id=2218eeddc6a4a0cb-7d829287-1266497a20e–7df7&fromProcRevs=2166611d3a0172c54d11b9677ff3681e
@David.
Yes, but I WANT to receive a notification once a file got accepted from apple, and what the metadata requirements/recommendations are to get sorted in the correct categories etc. Without this medatada informations your title will get “lost” within the ibookstore.
Still no information about reporting times and payment time either…
@Soho et. al:
Please see http://www.lulu.com/apple-ipad-publishing, specifically the author and publisher FAQs. I’m working on addressing all the comments in this blog post–stay tuned!
@Daniel.
This is more helpful. Thanks. Will delete the titles in my dashboard, and sign-up through the Publisher’s form instead…
@Soho
Don’t delete your titles yet! You must apply and be accepted into the publisher channel, which is reserved for publishers pushing large catalogs (multiple authors, hundreds or thousands of titles per year) . If you’re just looking to get several of your own books into the iBookstore, you’ll need to follow the process described in this blog and on the Author tab of the aggregator page.
My main concern is the ISBN. My ePubs already have an ISBN. I don’t need or want Lulu to add their own ISBN to my ePub file.
Is there a way to submit to the iBookStore through Lulu while retaining my own ISBN?
I am having trouble figuring out your pricing for this service.
Your website makes it fairly opaque.
The graphic on your ebooks page makes it appear that you charge a base fee of $1.49 for each ebook sold.
So is the “real” math Apple takes 30%, then you charge a fee of $1.49 against what’s left, and then of whatever dollar amount is left over, the author gets 80%?
Thanks.
Daniel, can you please clarify two things?
1. Will it ever be possible to enter your own ISBN?
2. Will it ever be possible to use the same ISBN as a print edition?
Thanks,
Christian
@tbrookside
We don’t deduct the $1.49 transaction/delivery fee for eBooks sold on the iBookstore, only for books fulfilled by Lulu. Since Apple handles fulfillment, Lulu doesn’t incur that cost. The “real” math is pretty simple:
Price on Apple= $9.99
deduct Apple’s 30% = $7.00 net proceeds
$7.00 * 80% = $5.60 (Author share)
$7.00 * 20% = $1.40 (Lulu share)
@Christian, @Paul, @Scott
1) Yes, you will be able to use your own ISBNs when we release the new version of the eBook wizard. Today, there is no functionality in the wizard to assign an ISBN, so Lulu provides one of ours for free as part of generating your eBook and submitting to Apple.
2) No. ISBNs must always be unique, so you cannot reuse an ISBN assigned to another edition. This is not an Apple restriction, but a universal requirement. Just like a hardcover and paperback edition of the same book have separate ISBNs, so too must the eBook edition.
Hi Daniel.
I’m an independent publisher who contracts overseas printing for my illustrated children’s books. They are all formatted in Adobe InDesign. Some of them are “non-standard” sizes–5×12, for example.
1. Will your conversion services take my InDesign files and, if so, how do I submit them? They are super huge files that I send to my printer on a dvd.
2. I have all my own ISBN numbers. I want to remain the official publisher of record. Is this possible using Lulu as my Apple liaison?
Hey, I’m a pianist, composer and will like to see the same offer to be able to release a sheet music App. for iPad with page turns, optimized pdf pages to see
real A4 staves and play-along mp3s
Is-it a dream or will you come into this market into the near futur?
I published an ePub anthology through Lulu tonight, with the primary purpose of it getting in the iBooks store. Though the submission went through, I saw no dialog stating that it had been submitted to the iBooks store. Where would I get clarification on this? Is there an extra step I need to take or are all ePubs submitted automatically submitted to the iBooks store?
Hello Daniel,
My question is: can I price my own book, or you do this?
How do you know what would be the best price for that book?
Thanks
S
Sounds like a great opportunity for self-publishing authors!
Not sure why some commenters are so openly hostile-try calming down a bit before clicking the post comment button, geez.
Stephane, you probably need to find an enterprising iPhone/ iPad developer for something like that- it sounds beyond the scope of iBooks. There are several sheet music apps in the App Store already.
“Content. Apple could decline to list an eBook in the iBookstore if it determines the book violates the company’s policies on inappropriate content. We have submitted hundreds of titles and, so far, have had only one rejected.”
If you can, please clarify the nature of the title and reason for rejection for the one rejected title.
If I have sold the domestic US rights to a book, can I only offer that book via LuLu on the iBook store Internationally?
Dear Daniel, are there any restrictions about the language?
E.g. can I publish a book in italian in the iBookstore through Lulu or the language of publication is country-specific (English and maybe spanish only for the U.S. iBookstore, Italian only for the Italian iBookstore – when it’ll be launched, and so on)?
Daniel,
If we provide a book in different languages, is that considered one book or several?
Thanks,
Deon
Which book did Apple reject? And what reasons did they give? Are there any guidelines from Apple on what they determine inappropriate content for us to look check prior to submission?
Susan,
I’ve looked into the ePub format, and it’s *very* simple. Like a web page in 1994. It will not support complex tables and footnotes and stuff like that.
Can you provide me with Lulu titles that are only available for eReaders and not in print? Or direct me to a Web site that lists them?
Dear Daniel,
the April 3, 2010 did you say “in the coming weeks, we will automate more of this process and will incorporate it into our eBook Publishing Wizard”
Is now available the new Wizard to convert the Word in our files and-pub in a new project, getting the ISBN?
It is already possible, or when it will be for us authors can do so from Italy?
Thank you for your attention
Kind regards
Giuseppe Furnari
Is it possible to convert a graphic novel ( which has illustrated panels) into ePub format or is ePub suitable for text only?
Daniel,
your previous comment says that you take 20% of books sold through ibookstore. Do you take this amount as payment for creating an epub file or for giving an ISBNS number? Basically what I’m asking is if I publish an ebook with you will you be owed 20% of all future profits regardless if I sell the book through lulu.com or another online retailer? Cheers
Regards
Stephen Willis
I came across a company on elance whos say” We do all types of ePub conversion for Apple iPad’s iBook application.” and they did a good job for me
http://www.elance.com/s/ibookspublication/
or just email the ebook to yourself then from ipad open your email open the ebook, then the ipad gives you the option of opening it in ibooks
I already have a project in Lulu. It is written in Chinese. Can the contents written in Chinese be converted to an ePUB file?
Ching-Fuh Lin,
You would need to properly embed your characters as images in a PDF and either convert that yourself or use a conversion service. Check out this blog post for the instructions on how to create an ePub or use Lulu’s new ePub wizard here.
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