My goodness this whole ebook world is an education! I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t need to learn how to navigate Apple’s specific and special way of dealing with its iBooks store in order to make The Naked Truth available to anyone who wants it. And that decision has taken a huge weight, about the size of a Mac computer, off my shoulders. In order to upload an ebook to sell on iBooks, the Apple book division of iTunes, you absolutely have to use a Mac computer. This is, of course, after you have the text and any photos, cover etc. converted into MOBI, the format that iBooks uses for ebooks. This cannot be done by most mortals and certainly not quickly. I have the proper file, created for me by a professional for a cost. But I don’t own a Mac. So trying to borrow one has been a task because not many people in my world own one. Our Free-FM News intern Elise happens to be one of them and she allowed me to use her Macbook and swear at it for an hour on Friday morning. Then I borrowed Free-FM’s iPad for the weekend thinking it would be a piece of cake. iPad is an Apple product so it’s a given that I would be able to do the work on it, right? Wrong. The iPad is made for light duty and not big program downloads and uploads. Fail!
Yesterday I decided to go through the steps I’d need before I got Elise’s Macbook again this week. I had already filled out the necessary forms and toggled back and forth between various email addresses to confirm that I am who I say I am. But in my research I found out that I would also need an IRS # in order to sell the book through iBooks in the US. It doesn’t matter where I live or even that I’m selling a product at $2.99, the IRS, of course, wants a piece of it. But here’s the catch. The online application requires a Social Security number and will not let you proceed without one all the while telling you that even though you’re Canadian, you still need to apply for this number.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s that chocolate cake goes right to the hips. But if there’s a second thing I’ve learned in life it’s that when something gets so incredibly frustrating, it’s time to stop and reevaluate. So that’s what I did. I called my friends Rob and Erin who own and love their iPad to see if it was really necessary for me to go through all of this hell to have my story sold via iBooks. And it’s not. Kobo and Kindle, where my book is already for sale, have free applications for the iPad which allow iPad users to read Kobo or Kindle books. Voila. Take THAT Steve Jobs! So I have abandoned all attempts to use iBooks and will continue to offer The Naked Truth for $2.99 through Kobo and Kindle for ereaders, tablets and smartphones and for $3.99 through the homepage on this website, for computers and laptops.
In other words, it’s available now and if you’re interested I hope you will read it. And if you read it, I hope you will go back to where you bought it and leave a review. And if you liked it, I hope you will recommend that your friends buy it. And I hope you’ll indulge me for the next little while as I document this adventure of self-publishing. It’s a whole new world!
How frustrating. But rewarding in the end.
I decided to format my second book for paperback sales. (On the first book, I paid someone a hideous amount of money to format for me.) It took time, and I certainly got frustrated, but once it was done, I felt an enormous amount of pride in my accomplishment. Still not sure I could do the conversion to mobi. or e-pub.
Allen at eB Format was totally reasonable and fast. I would recommend him wholeheartedly! He speaks EPUB, MOBI and everything Smashwords needs! 🙂