Q: I can't find an already purchased book in search

Perhaps you could try searching for the title of the book that you already know. When it comes up there should be a line on the page saying something like "More James Joyce" (or whoever). When I just tried that there was a link underneath that said 'Collection" and when I clicked on it I was taken to a page with a selection of books by the same author.

Alternatively, sometimes completely quitting a program and rebooting it can give different results.  

Good luck.

Another thing that might be worth trying is to put the author's name in quote marks - like this "James Joyce".  Sometimes that will get a search engine to look for both words together rather than as the separate names Joyce and James.

How strange. That must be frustrating.

Are you sure that you're entering your  search words in the right place?  When you first open iBooks it goes to your library and the search box you see in the top right corner doesn't search the whole store. For that you have to click in the box at the top left hand side that says iBooks Store.  Once it goes to the store, the search box at the top right corner should then search the whole store. Doesn't it work that way for you?

Alternatively,  just go to Google and enter the word iBooks and the name of the author you want. It should find you a link  to a page with all the books on offer from that author. Assuming of course that they actually have written a few and that iBooks sell them!

All of the methods that I've suggested above work perfectly for me  - also using Yosemite - so I'm now out of ideas.  Good luck finding a solution.

Ah....

The store may be laid out differently, depending on what device you're using (I'm using an iMac). But you still need to make sure that you're in the store section.  I guess that you also need to be sure that you've got the right spelling for the author and that they do have more than one book in the iBook store. As mentioned above, Google will help you check all that if you're unsure.

I agree with your comments.  I currently have an unusual billing problem whenever my wife or I buy a book through iBooks,  but we can't even get Apple to respond to our requests for assistance.  They issue an automated case number, promise to reply within 48 hours, and then - absolutely nothing! Not even a polite "Sorry, we can't trace the problem". We are good customers, the problem is genuine, and the request are politely worded. Yet we get zero support. Disappointing and really quite odd in a way.  Like you, we've switched totally to Kindle and will stay that way unless Apple are willing to assist us.

Could you perhaps post the name of the author that you're searching for?  Other people could then try searching and post a link if they have any success.  We have several types of Apple devices here (iMac, iPad, a laptop, iPhone and even an old iPod)  so it might be interesting to see if they give different results with their versions of iBooks.  We're also the other side of the world from you, so we may see regional variations in availability.

Cheers,  Chris