Diary of a submission

I'm on the road at the moment, and can't see it yet using iBooks on my iPhone. Will take a look when I get home tonight, thanks!

Michi.

MichiHenning wrote:

I'm on the road at the moment, and can't see it yet using iBooks on my iPhone.

Doh!

Of course I couldn't see it on my iPhone… 😊

Michi.

7 May 2012:

I figured out why my book "Djembe Construction" ended up getting published with an incorrect publication date: when you submit with iTunes Producer, the publication date is mandatory. But, for a book that is published for the first time and has its only edition in the iBookstore, there is no publication date yet.

So, I took a guess of 9 April, but the actual publication date was 4 May, when the book went live in the store. The net result is that the book is now in the store with the wrong publication date.

Sent a query to Apple:

When I upload a book, I must provide a publication date. (This field is not optional.)

However, for a book that exists only as an eBook and is submitted for first publication to the store, I do not know the publication date until after the book passes review and appears in the store.

For my book ("Djembe Construction"), I took a guess of 9 April 2012, but the actual first publication date was 4 May 2012.

The net result is that the book is now in the store with an incorrect publication date.

It would be good to allow this field to be left blank when submitting a book that is unpublished as yet, and have the publication date filled in automatically when the book goes live in the store.

It is not clear to me whether I can update this field with iTunes Producer without risk of having the book pulled from the store. (There have been reports of this happening in the Apple Support Forums.)

Can you advise whether I can update the publication date without risking that the book will disappear from the store?

Thanks,

Michi.

8 May 2012:

Received a reply from Apple less than 24 hours later. The reply is obviously pre-canned and did not answer my specific question about the publishing date field. (I removed irrelevant chatter from the answer below.)

Once a title had been successfully uploaded to us and is live in the iBookstore, certain changes to the metadata (i.e. book title, subtitle, author name, category and/or book description) need to be requested and made through us. Please provide us with the Apple ID(s) and/or ISBN(s) of the book(s) in question along with the requested metadata changes so we can file a ticket to make the changes for you.

Seeing that I was asked to supply details of the change, I did so:

Thank you!

Can you please update the publication date of the following book:

ISBN: 9780987279101

Apple ID: 514845750

Title: Djembe Construction (Enhanced Edition)

Can you please change the publication date from "09 April 2012" (incorrect setting) to "04 May 2012" (correct setting).

Thanks,

Michi.

Shortly after sending this request, I received the standard pre-canned answer (as I did for the previous request):

Thank you for contacting iBookstore Publisher Support with the requested update to the metadata for your book, "Djembe Construction (Enhanced Edition)".

Please note we are currently reviewing your request and will get back to you as soon as possible.

We appreciate your patience.

This is actually a good thing: I know that the email was received and entered into the process and will eventually be looked at, which is much better than hearing nothing.

Michi.

12 May 2012: Received a reply:

Hello Michi,

I believe there is a misunderstanding. To clarify, there are certain fields that you can make directly through iTunes Connect, while there are other changes that can only be made through the Contact Us form in iTunes Connect.

Changes you control through iTunes connect: updates to pricing, territory rights, Cleared For Sale/Not Cleared For Sale, sales start date, and DRM settings.

Please refer to the Publisher User Guide in iTunes Connect for more information.

Hmmm… I do wonder whether these people actually read the questions they are getting. Seeing that I asked about publication date, I would have appreciated getting information about changing the publication date, not about changing fields that I do not want to change…

After I checked, I found that it is not possible to update the publication date with iTunes Connect. The only thing that can be changed there is the sales start date, and trying that resulted in an error telling me that the sales start date cannot be in the past. Fair enough. It begs the question though why I was directed at iTunes Connect.

Then I tried with iTunes Producer. Things look more promising there. I followed the recommendations here:

iBooks Author: How to update your published book in the iBookstore

I searched for my book by ISBN, rather than opening the previously delivered package. That worked fine. In the metadata for the book, the publication date is editable, so I changed it to 4 May 2012.

While I was at it, I also updated the cover. Contrary to what Apple have said previously (namely, that the cover can only be updated by Apple), the KB article I linked to provides instructions for how to update the cover.

I left all other parts alone: no other metadata or content changes. The update went through and was accepted in a few seconds.

One glitch: the instructions for updating a cover require you to edit the .iba file and publish the updated cover by clicking File > Publish. I didn't do that and instead updated directly in iTunes Producer. This is somewhat strange, seeing that the first part of the article, which explains how to update metadate and book assets suggests to use iTunes Producer, but the second part suggests to use IBA. I expect that the two approaches should be equivalent, but one never knows…

Here is me with my fingers crossed, hoping that I haven't shot myself in the foot, having to watch my book disappear from the store…

Michi.

Wow!

Less than twenty minutes after pushing the update, the new cover is live in the store! Now that's what I call a well-working process!

Unfortunately, the publication date change does not seem to have made it. It's still the original incorrect one. I'll wait another day or so before contacting Apple again, just in case the cover update and metadata update mechanism are different, and the change may still be waiting to be pushed out.

Michi.

14 May 2012: No change of the publication date in the store after having submitted the metadata update with iTunes Producer. (iTunes Connect cannot be used to do this.)

Sent the following reply to Apple:

thank you for getting back to me.

Your explanation does not address my request (see below). I cannot change the date of publication with iTunes Connect. I did try to change it with iTunes Producer, but the metadata update appears not to have had any effect. (Nearly three days after submitting the update, the publication date is still incorrect.)

As you say, there are certain changes that only you can make, and it appears that this is such a change. I would be much obliged if you could update the publication date of my book as follows:

ISBN: 9780987279101

Apple ID: 514845750

Title: Djembe Construction (Enhanced Edition)

Can you please change the publication date from "09 April 2012" (incorrect setting) to "04 May 2012" (correct setting).

Thank you,

Michi.

21 May (one week after last contact): No response from Apple.

Michi.

28 May (two weeks after last contact): No response from Apple.

Michi.

1 June (two weeks and four days after last contact): Just received this email from Apple:

Hello Michi,

Thank you for contacting the iBookstore Team and for your patience as we processed this request.

I wanted to let you that we have completed the requested publication date change for "Djembe Construction (Enhanced Edition)".

If you have any further questions, please contact us with a reply to this email or through the Contact Us form in iTunes Connect.

The updated publication date is in the store now.

Michi.