What You Need Before You Start
Apple Books is a clean platform to publish on, but it expects your files and your account details to be ready before you begin. Have these in place first.
A finished EPUB file
Apple Books is an EPUB-first store. You need a valid, well-formed EPUB of your manuscript, ideally with a clickable table of contents so readers can jump between chapters. A Word document or PDF will not work for the reflowable Apple Books format.
A cover image
You need a front-cover image, roughly 1400 pixels or more on the short side, in a portrait ratio close to 1.6 to 1. It should be sharp, readable at thumbnail size, and free of any text Apple has not approved, like fake award badges.
An Apple ID and account details
To publish directly you need an Apple ID, a free Apple Books Connect account, and your tax and banking information. Apple requires a US tax ID or the equivalent for your country before it will pay royalties. If you do not have these, the aggregator route skips most of it.
Your book metadata
Have your title, subtitle, author name, description or blurb, category, language, price, and publication date decided in advance. Apple supports pre-orders, so you can also set a future on-sale date if you want to build early momentum.
Publishing Directly Through Apple Books Connect
Apple Books Connect is fully web-based now, so you do not need a Mac or special software. Here is the step-by-step flow at authors.apple.com.
Create your Apple Books Connect account
Go to authors.apple.com and sign in with your Apple ID. Set up your free Apple Books Connect account and complete the tax and banking sections. This is the part most authors find slow, so do it first and let Apple verify your details while you prepare files.
Create a new title
From your Apple Books Connect dashboard, choose to create a new book. You will give it a working title and select the language and the territories you want it sold in. Apple defaults to a wide global release, which you can narrow later.
Upload your EPUB and cover
Upload the EPUB of your manuscript and your cover image. Apple Books Connect validates the EPUB on upload and will flag formatting problems, so fix any errors it reports before moving on.
Fill in your metadata
Enter the title, subtitle, author, description, category, and keywords. Write a description that hooks a reader in the first two lines, because that is what shows above the fold on the store page.
Set your price and publication date
Choose your price for each market, or pick free if you want maximum reach. Set the publication date to today for an immediate release, or a future date to open pre-orders and collect early sales before launch.
Submit for review
Review every field, then submit. Apple reviews new titles before they go live, and this typically takes 24 to 48 hours. Once approved, your book appears in Apple Books on every supported device.
The Easier Route: Free Aggregators
If you do not have an Apple ID, do not want to manage Apple's tools, or want to reach many stores at once, a free distribution aggregator is the simpler path.
Upload once, reach many stores
Services like Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, and Smashwords let you upload your EPUB a single time and then distribute it to Apple Books plus Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and many other retailers from one dashboard.
No Apple ID or Mac required
The aggregator handles the relationship with Apple for you, so you never touch Apple Books Connect. You manage everything, including tax forms and payments, through the aggregator's own account system.
A small cut of royalties
Aggregators are free to join, but they take a small percentage of each sale as their fee. For most authors the time saved and the multi-store reach are worth the slightly lower royalty per copy.
One place to manage updates
When you fix a typo or update your cover, you change it once in the aggregator dashboard and the update flows to every store. That is much easier than logging into separate retailer portals one by one.
Getting Your Files From AIWriteBook
AIWriteBook gives you everything Apple Books needs, but it does not upload the book for you. You stay in control of the publishing step on whichever platform you choose.
Finish the Publish step
Inside AIWriteBook, complete the Publish step for your book. This is where your cover is finalized and your metadata is gathered into one place.
Export your EPUB
Move to the Export step and download the EPUB. AIWriteBook's EPUB export includes a clickable table of contents that works correctly in Apple Books, so readers can navigate chapters from the start.
Download your cover
Grab your cover image from the Publish step. It is sized for ebook stores, so it meets the Apple Books cover requirements without extra editing.
Upload it yourself
Take the EPUB and cover to Apple Books Connect or your chosen aggregator and follow the steps above. AIWriteBook prepares the files; you handle the upload, which keeps your accounts and royalties entirely yours.
Royalties and Pricing
Apple Books keeps its royalty model simple, which is one of the reasons authors like the platform.
Apple pays roughly 70% royalty on paid ebook sales, with no separate higher or lower tier based on price. You earn the same 70% whether your book is priced at the low end or the high end.
You set your own list price in each market, and Apple converts pricing across currencies for the territories you sell in. You can also publish for free, which earns no royalty but maximizes downloads and reviews.
If you publish through an aggregator, the aggregator takes a small cut of that 70% as its fee, so your net per copy is slightly lower in exchange for multi-store distribution and a simpler dashboard.
Apple pays out monthly once you clear its payment threshold, sending royalties to the bank account you set up during onboarding. Keep your banking and tax details current to avoid held payments.
Good to Know: Why Authors Like Apple Books
Beyond the royalty rate, Apple Books has a few advantages worth knowing before you decide where to publish.
A massive built-in audience
Apple Books ships preinstalled on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so millions of readers already have the store on a device they use daily. You are not asking anyone to install anything.
Pre-orders that build momentum
Apple supports pre-orders, so you can list your book before launch day and let early sales accumulate. Pre-order sales can give your launch-day ranking a meaningful boost.
Fast, predictable review
Apple's review for new titles usually takes 24 to 48 hours, which is quick enough that you can plan a launch date with confidence.
A clean reading experience
The Apple Books app renders EPUBs well, including your clickable table of contents, so a properly formatted book looks polished to the reader with no extra work from you.
A Complementary Channel: NanoReads
Apple Books is a strong primary store, but it does not have to be your only one. NanoReads is AIWriteBook's own reading platform, and you can publish your finished book there as an extra channel alongside Apple Books.
- It is free to publish to, so adding it costs you nothing.
- It reaches a community of 100,000 or more registered readers across web, iOS, and Android.
- Publishing is one click from inside AIWriteBook, with no review wait before your book goes live.
- You keep your rights, so publishing to NanoReads does not affect what you do on Apple Books or anywhere else.
Think of NanoReads as a low-effort way to reach early readers and gather reviews while your Apple Books listing builds. It is a nice extra channel, not a replacement for the big stores.
Quick Myths to Drop
Myth: You need a Mac to publish on Apple Books
Not anymore. Apple Books Connect is fully web-based, so you can create titles, upload files, and manage sales from any browser on any operating system.
Myth: Going through an aggregator means lower quality on Apple
It does not. The book that lands on Apple Books from an aggregator is the same EPUB you uploaded. The aggregator just handles distribution; the reading experience is identical.
Myth: You have to pick one store and stay there
You are free to publish the same book on Apple Books, other retailers, and NanoReads at the same time unless you have opted into an exclusivity program. Wide distribution is the default.
The Bottom Line
Publishing on Apple Books is straightforward once your EPUB and cover are ready. If you are comfortable with account setup and tax forms, Apple Books Connect gives you direct control and the full 70% royalty.
If you would rather skip Apple's tools, a free aggregator gets you onto Apple Books plus a dozen other stores from one upload, for a small cut of the royalty. Neither route is wrong; it comes down to how hands-on you want to be.
Whichever you choose, the hard part is having a finished, well-formatted book in the first place. AIWriteBook drafts your book, designs the cover, and exports an Apple-ready EPUB, so all that is left is the upload.