I just finished Travelogue 1 and uploaded it to the iBookstore using iTunes producer.

The process was amazingly simple and fast.

In fact it is so simple and fast that it feels like an anti-climax. It’s amazing to realize that you can now commercialize a book with a few clicks of the mouse.

As I went through the publishing process I only encountered two issues:

  • It took me a while to understand that while your create your ibook as a .iba file with iBooks Author, it has to be submitted as a .ibooks file. While you may not see the conversion as iTunes Producer will handle it automatically for you, it does matter if you want to create and upload your own sample book. You will need to export your sample chapter as a .ibooks file to be able to upload it.
  • There is no obvious conclusion to the process -if you successfully upload your book there will not be any confirmation email or otherwise visible sign that you have now entered Apple’s approval process. You will need to sign into iTunes Conect to check the status of your book:
iTunes Connect status for Travelogue 1

iTunes Connect status for Travelogue 1

A week after submitting Travelogue 1, I received notification from Apple that the book had been approved and was now available in the iBookstore. Two days later, I was actually able to find it on the store and to download it directly on my iPad.

Overall, the process was incredibly easy and smooth – a revolution in publishing.