I make my own iBooks with iBooks Author. Cannot transfer them to iPad iBooks. Have iBooks on Mavericks OS. Know how to use it. It seems only purchased book$ are relevant to Apple.

Many many times have I tried the drag/drop/select the iBook created in iBooks Author (filename.ibooks) within the app on my iMac to selected iPad in iTunes! I can drag/drop > iBook to iMac app iBooks, but NOT from iBooks (iMac) > iPad. Does not work, no matter how I configure the interface of iTunes. The list that comes up from the sidebar>Devices>Books is pretty worthless. The overhead bar dialog suggests you wipe out your iPad just to enter a new PDF or iBook or ePub. But Apple says the iBooks app on Mavericks is supposed to work separately from iTunes.

Have tried the library and device menus wherever they can be found. No transfer from iMac to iPad.

No, even with the iBook from iBooks Author selected and the overhead Books tab selected on my connected iPad, only the lower right button either offers to wipe out my books or sync/apply. Have tried all combinations of selected, deselected menus. The iBook plays just fine on my iMac in iBooks.

Actually did that the first time I tried. But when I check "All Books" under "Sync Books" the lower right tab says "Apply" and offers to wipe out my books for the library on my iMac (which is in an encrypted file so I cannot read the titles).

Clicking "Apply" un-checks the "Sync Books" and goes to "Sync" which does nothing. I have an earlier version on my iPad grandmothered in from when iBooks actually was useful. This is my digital tech file and cannot afford to lose the materials as books and PDFs. iBook too big for email but OK for size otherwise. Will have to post it on one of my web sites and download it to iBooks on iPad from there.

Used to email myself stuff, but this particular iBook is 41 MB and will not go email (restricted to 25 MB). Could chop it up into 9 chapters (yuck). Will just put it on one of my web sites and download it from there. Maybe Apple has a size restriction, but they allow the freebie Wilson text to be on iPad iBooks. It does come from the Apple site, however.

Thank you! I think the problem is that I have an iPad Air and an iPad Mini (max GB for both, etc.). Use them for teaching.

I may be unable to get the proper library to sync because of the way Apple stores the backups on my Computer. I can dig up the backup files but do not know which iPad the backup belongs with. Computer also seems not to know??? My bandwidth is so wretched that my iCloud account or even updating an OS can take 10 hours to do anything (Adobe CC apps included).

Easy to get my home cooking iBook into the app on the iMac. Looks nifty, plays the videos and galleries with nice resolution. But even small PDFs will not transfer directly, even when I connect only one iPad at a time to my iMac. Probably the WiFi interferes and it will be just easier for me to do the transfer off of one of my web sites. The Wilson book is larger than my home baked iBook. PDFs email just fine as long as they are less than 25 MB.

At least you all helped me to check out different strategies.