Eolake Stobblehouse has interviewed publisher Adam Engst on the iPad and ereaders. Here is a snippet:
Apple’s iBooks store still has many fewer titles than Amazon’s Kindle store. I think you also said that the process of getting books into iBooks is a hassle… can you explain?
Not in a family publication.
Seriously, I can’t say that working with Amazon has ever been easy for publishers (and we haven’t done much with it), but working with the iBookstore has been the most amazingly horrible, opaque, and frustrating experience I’ve had. Apple’s software is terrible, the iTunes Connect Web site is lousy, and support questions often aren’t answered for – and I’m not kidding here – months. It’s gotten a little better over time, but mostly it makes my stomach hurt.
Here is an Apple email address to share! This article is so right on! The iBookstore has rejected titles with no explanation and no way to contact anyone to find out what the problem is with months of delays.
We acquired this email address at one time and would like to share with anyone who might need to get in touch with a LIVE person . . .
itunesmarketing@apple.com
Good Luck!
Signe Nichols
http://www.Firebirdebooks.com
When I heard publishers whinge this much – I think …. maybe Apple is actually doing something right LOL
Thanks for your contribution Howard.
The author might consider working with one of the several authorized Apple Aggregators, of which Smashwords is one. We distributors make it quick and easy to reach the iBookstore.
Here’s the current list from Apple’s site:
North America
Ingram
INscribe Digital (delivers globally)
LibreDigital (delivers globally)
Smashwords (delivers globally)
Europe
Eyrolles (delivers globally)
Hey Alan … I always aim to please 🙂
So, Adam Engst, a small publisher who’s added value to the Apple ecosphere for a long time (decades) in a number of ways, is having iBookstore problems. Not encouraging.
Do we have any information on how the big publishers are being treated/working with Apple to get THEIR books into the iBookstore? Same problems? Different problems? No problems?
More evidence that the iBookstore isn’t a huge priority at Apple?
But it must be working for someone. More books and publishers are continually being added. It’s not like the number of ebooks on the iBookstore is decreasing.
Publishers put their faith in Steve Jobs to be their savior a year ago and as with everything else they do, they are unwilling to recognize a mistake was made. So they are compounding their error.
We’ve completed integrations with multiple retailers, and without a doubt Apple’s system is the most transparent, best-documented system out there for publishers who are doing bulk uploads and metadata updates. True, it’s more complex and demanding than most, though the tools are there to do it right. All the retailers have their strengths and weaknesses on the ingestion front, but for the most part they’re all doing stellar jobs and all continually iterate. Apple’s success as a hardware company is the #1 reason every publisher should be in the iBookstore, because at the end of the day ebook stores tethered to devices offer a compelling customer experience for many customers, as well as a captive audience for the publisher. This is why Apple, Amazon, B&N, Sony and Kobo are musts for every publisher’s distribution strategy.