How to Publish a Book on Apple Books
The short answer
Apple Books lets authors sell eBooks directly through Apple Books for Authors, free of charge. You sign in with an Apple Account, upload an EPUB and cover, enter the book details and price, and submit the title for review.
Published October 2026 · By Harmony Publishing Editorial Team
What do you need before you start?
- A finished eBook in EPUB format. A Word or PDF file is not enough: the book has to be converted to a clean, reflowable EPUB.
- A front cover image at the size and quality the platform asks for.
- Your book details: title, author name, description, categories and keywords.
- An Apple Account, your tax details and a bank account for payment.
Platforms change their menus, formats and terms. Use this guide for the order of the work, and check the platform's own help pages for the current rules before you upload.
How to publish on Apple Books, step by step
- Sign in to Apple Books for Authors with an Apple Account and complete the account, tax and banking details.
- Create a new book and enter the title, author, description, language and categories.
- Decide on an ISBN. An ISBN is optional for Apple Books; if you have one for the eBook, enter it, and never reuse the paperback's ISBN for the eBook.
- Upload the EPUB and the cover image. The platform checks the file and reports errors, which you fix and upload again.
- Set the price and the countries where the book will be sold. You can offer a free sample, which readers can read before buying.
- Preview how the book looks, check the table of contents and the links, then submit it for review.
- After approval, the book appears in the store, and you can update the file or the price later without a new listing.
The mistakes that hold an Apple Books file up
- An EPUB with a broken table of contents, missing metadata or images that are too large.
- Fixed formatting that does not reflow on a phone: a good eBook adapts to the reader's font size.
- A cover with text too small to read as a thumbnail.
Apple Books or a wider eBook route?
Selling direct to Apple Books gives you control of the listing and the price on that store. Many authors also use a service that sends one file to several stores. Either way, one clean EPUB is the starting point.
Harmony converts manuscripts to clean EPUB files and can prepare the book for distribution, so you do not have to fix file errors yourself.
Want Harmony to do it for you?
Harmony Publishing is a full-service self-publishing and book printing company that has published 1,000+ books for 500+ authors in 20+ countries, and authors keep 100% of their royalties. We can edit, design and format your book, prepare the files to Apple Books's specifications, and print it, or you can do any of those steps yourself and use us only for printing. Harmony is an independent company and is not part of Apple Books.
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Frequently asked questions
Is it free to publish on Apple Books?
Apple Books for Authors does not charge to list an eBook. Apple takes its share of each sale, and you pay for any editing, design or conversion you buy elsewhere. Check the current terms before you publish.
Do I need an ISBN for Apple Books?
No. An ISBN is optional for an eBook on Apple Books. If you use one, give the eBook its own ISBN, separate from your paperback and hardcover.
Can I upload a Word document?
Apple Books expects an EPUB for a standard eBook, so a Word manuscript has to be converted first and checked on a reader or phone.
Can Harmony convert my book to EPUB?
Yes. See the eBook conversion service, or ask for a quote.