Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

Has anyone been able to get their books up on iTunes / iBooks while using a PC rather than a Mac? I jumped through all the hoops needed to get an iTunes account and an iTunes Connect account without installing iTunes (yaaaaay). But now it seems that I can't upload the book without their iTunes Publisher program, and they don't make that program available for people with Windows.

The best answer I can find is to install a Mac OS virtual machine and do it that way. But now I'm to the point where I don't even know if I care enough because, I mean, c'mon, Apple. This is why I don't have any of your products.

Yea that's why I hate propietary closed source systems. Android is starting to become robust enough to take over as my main operating system of choice. Especially now that open office has been ported over. Anyway back on topic. From everything I have read on the topic the only way to get an ebook on the istore without having a mac is to employ a 3rd party seller like smashwords. Lucky for me I have a friend with a mac who said I can come over and use it whenever needed.

Draft2Digital is another good place to get your book onto iTunes without all the extra steps.

I just use Smashwords for iTunes. And I don't worry about it too much because they've only produced 6 sales in two years of publishing. And all of those were over a year ago.

Even the most ardent Apple disciples of my acquaintance use the Kindle app for e-books. I don't know anyone who seriously reads anything in iTunes.

Though I suspect in about 23 minutes someone will post below and indignantly assure me that they read nothing but iBooks.

(Spoiler: I won't care)

Ditto, I published mine to iBooks through Smashwords. And Smashwords announced recently that Apple has sped up the process, some books are appearing the same day they are submitted (instead of weeks later!)

Apple claims that they have up to 20% of the ebook market, but I find that highly unlikely. I do have a lot of friends that read with their iphones and ipads so I still feel like it's a neccessary inconvenience.

If I could afford a kindle with the shipping right now, I'd get one. But as I have an iPhone and iBooks is a built in app, I read books on there. But I really would love a bigger screen at times.

I read with my phone all the time, but Kindle, not iBooks.

@Andrew - LOL.

I had dismissed Smashwords because they take a royalty on top of the royalty iTunes takes, yes? But if the sales aren't that high, and I'm not actually targeting marketing at iTunes, maybe I don't care. I could just use Smashwords for iTunes upload, yes? And I don't have to publicize that the book is on Smashwords?

I don't know what I have against Smashwords, exactly, except I just haven't wanted to use it.

Edit: In other "infuriating to use book distribution sites" news, I finally got my book up on Google Play. Less hoops than iTunes, but more than were necessary. Geez. And for no good reason at all, my book blurb and author profile have line breaks at nonsensical spots. I tried to fix them and exactly one of the line breaks got fixed. >.> And you have to wait several hours to see if the changes took. Very non-exciting.

I like smashwords. I wished they were more popular. They may take their cut out of iTunes yet even with that, they pay more than amazon. Of course it's because I only charge 99 cents. I get 80 cents normally but 66 cents when from Kobo or iTunes, iwhile only 35 cents from amazon (or 30cents when not the main store.)

You can choose which channels Smashwords distributes your book to.

Maybe I will do that, then. Easiest.

Draft2Digital also distributes to ibooks and they do everything faster - the price can change the same day. I sell some books through ibooks, but most of my sales are via Amazon.

@P.D I also have the kindle app for iPhone, but the same holds true - sometimes the screen is just too small for me. I was just trying to point out why people might use iTunes to @Andrew. Nothing indignant LOL! Just, I have it so I use it.

@Claire I was responding to Brian. Your and my posts went up at about the same time. I agree—changing reading apps doesn't change the screen size, whatever we might wish!