I have been submitting ebooks to Apple for several years and, since recently upgrading to Big Sur, iBook Author no longer works. Both Pages and the Web Publishing Portal have proven slow and cumbersome even when they do work. Accordingly I have dug out my old Mac Book Pro which runs OSX El Capitan Version 10.11.6 and am seeking a comptible copy of iTunes Producer.
Mac Pro
I attach an image of a frozen screen which is far as you can progress when you click 'Publish' in iBook Author when you have upgraded to Big Sur.
However after direct assistance from Apple Support the problem can be solved. Save onto the desktop your inserted iBook file (.iba) from iBook Author and a second file (also as .iba) as a small sample with a minimally different title. Open iTunes Producer and drag the 2 files from the desktop into the windows in the central area of iTunes Producer and follow the hints thereafter. If you dont believe that this approach will work you will find my book has appeared in iBooks today.
Apples's Web Publishing Portal only allows ePUB in landscape if you have lots of images. The book will also appear with a slightly different formatting in iBooks and the system is slow.
I am able to insert the book from Pages into iBook Author but when you press submit the computer freezes on the first page of submission to Apple. Furthermore no details appear at all on the frozen page.
I promise to try your method with my next book to see whether it is simpler than my method but that will not be for a few weeks. The important thing is that either method will work since the alternative is not an easy prospect e.g.
Many thanks for your opinion and will be in contact.
Very useful info, thanks!
I don't see how this would work, since iTunes Producer will not accept .iba format, only .ibooks and .epub.
Why not just do File > Export and export your book with version number (use the Apple Book Options disclosure triangle) and do the same for a custom sample (from a scaled down book), but select "this book will be exported as" and select sample. This will give you two .ibooks files. One for the sample (required) and one for the full book.
Open iTunes Producer and create your package like you normally would as if you were uploading a book created outside of iBooks Author, dragging in your .ibook files for both full book and sample. Publish, done.
You're basically just bypassing the Publish function and doing it manually.
I found the solution! Don't publish to Book store from Pages on your computer. First of all make sure you save your Pages version to iCloud. Then access Pages from iCloud on the web. You'll find Publish under the Tools icon top right. It worked!
Yorick1624 wrote:
iBook Author no longer works
What happens when you try? I moved my iBA from Catalina to Big Sur and it seems to open ok (but I have not tried to create anything yet).
copy itunes poroducer for OSX El Capitan
