2026-07-21 · all guides

How to Publish on Apple Books: A Beginner's Signup Guide

The short answer

Apple Books is a good direct alternative to Amazon for ebooks, but its signup process uses several Apple systems and unfamiliar terms. The public-facing service is Apple Books; the business dashboard is iTunes Connect; and the browser uploader is the Apple Books Publishing Portal. They are all parts of the same publishing workflow.

If you are signing up right now, these are the most likely answers for an independent publisher building a commercial catalog:

• Choose Individual if you are publishing as yourself or as a sole proprietor
• Choose Organization only if you represent a registered company or another formal organization
• Choose Offer Books for Free and Sell Your Books if you intend to charge for any ebook
• Choose I'm a trader under the DSA if you publish commercially and want your books available in the European Union

The last answer means Apple will verify and display your trader address, phone number, and email address on your Apple Books product pages in the EU. A documented P.O. Box and dedicated business contact details can help protect your personal privacy.

This guide explains the full process. It is based on Apple's current publisher instructions, but your tax and DSA answers are legal self-assessments rather than personalized legal advice.

Before you begin

Prepare the information below before starting. It is easier to avoid verification problems than to correct a legal-entity mismatch later.

• An Apple Account with two-factor authentication
• Your legal name or registered business name
• A physical address, email address, and phone number
• Authority to accept contracts for yourself or your company
• A US taxpayer identification number, such as an SSN, ITIN, or EIN, or the tax information applicable to your country
• A bank account that can receive electronic payments
• A documented business P.O. Box, business phone, and business email if you want separate public DSA contact details
• The digital rights to every book you plan to upload

Use your legal identity during account registration. Your author name or pen name is book metadata; it does not replace the legal name Apple needs for agreements, tax verification, and payments.

Step 1: Create or choose your Apple Account

You need an Apple Account before you can create an Apple Books publishing account. You may use an existing account or create a new Apple Account.

For a publishing business, a dedicated account can make ownership and recordkeeping clearer. Whichever account you use, turn on two-factor authentication and make sure you will retain long-term access to its email address and trusted phone number.

Then open Apple's official Apple Books account signup instructions and follow the link to iTunes Connect.

Step 2: Choose Individual or Organization

Apple considers an independent author to be a publisher. The Publisher Type question is asking about the legal party entering the agreement, not whether you personally wrote the book.

Choose Individual when you are representing yourself or operating as a sole proprietor. Choose Organization when you are signing up for a registered company or another formal organization.

Enter the legal entity name accurately. Apple says you must use the legal name during signup. If you later want a DBA or fictitious seller name displayed, first finish the tax and banking setup and then submit documentation to Apple through its contact form.

After submitting the registration, open Apple's verification email and sign back in to iTunes Connect.

Step 3: Choose the paid-books option

In iTunes Connect, open Business and select View and Agree to Terms. If you intend to sell ebooks, choose the option to Offer Books for Free and Sell Your Books and complete the Paid Books agreement.

Do not choose a free-books-only agreement merely because you have not selected a price yet. A paid agreement is required before you can sell books and receive royalties. Apple may take a few days to verify a US tax ID and legal name.

The legal name and taxpayer ID must match the relevant tax records exactly. Apple specifically warns US publishers to choose the correct ID type—SSN, ITIN, or EIN—and enter the number without dashes. A newly issued tax ID can also take time to appear in IRS records.

See Apple's official agreements, tax, banking, and compliance guide if the agreement remains pending.

Step 4: Complete your tax information

Paid publishers must submit the tax forms shown in the Business module. Apple requires a US tax form even when the publisher is located outside the United States, and some countries or regions require additional forms.

The appropriate form depends on who is publishing and where that person or entity is based. US individuals and businesses are generally directed to a W-9. Non-US publishers may see a W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, or another applicable form.

Follow Apple's current tax-form requirements. Do not guess which legal classification applies to you; consult a tax professional if the form or entity classification is unclear.

Step 5: Answer the DSA trader question

Apple asks whether you are a trader under the European Union's Digital Services Act because the EU requires online marketplaces to verify and display contact information for traders.

In the signup flow, this compliance step comes after Apple verifies your tax information and before you add your banking information. Apple makes the DSA fields available after your US tax ID has been verified and you have accepted the agreement.

If you publish books repeatedly to earn revenue, advertise or promote them, and operate the catalog as a business or professional activity, you will very likely choose I'm a trader under the DSA if you plan to sell in the EU. An individual or sole proprietor can still be a trader; forming an LLC is not what determines the answer.

Apple lists several indicators of trader status:

• You earn revenue from your books, especially through a larger number of transactions or titles
• You advertise or promote books or other products to consumers
• You sell books in connection with a trade, business, craft, or profession
• You have a legal status associated with business activity or are registered for VAT

A person publishing an occasional book strictly as a private hobby may qualify as a non-trader. Apple cannot determine the status for you, so consult a legal adviser if your facts genuinely fall near the boundary.

What becomes public if you select trader?

When a trader distributes ebooks in any of the EU's 27 territories, Apple displays the following contact information on those Apple Books product pages:

• A physical address or P.O. Box
• A phone number
• An email address

Apple verifies this information. An individual may be asked for a current government-issued photo ID containing the physical address. If you provide an alternate address such as a P.O. Box, Apple says you must upload a receipt, bill, or other documentation connecting you to it.

A practical privacy-conscious setup is a documented business P.O. Box, a dedicated business phone number, and a dedicated business email address. The information must still be real, current, and verifiable.

In iTunes Connect, an Admin user can enter this information by opening Business, selecting Complete Compliance Requirements, choosing the trader option, and completing the email, phone, and address verification.

Read Apple's complete DSA trader guidance and verification steps.

What if you do not want your contact details displayed?

Apple's second choice says I'm not a trader under the DSA or I don't plan to distribute in the EU. It combines two different situations: you have determined that your activity is not commercial, or you will keep the books out of EU storefronts.

For a commercial publisher, the straightforward privacy alternative is to exclude EU countries from the book's sales territories. Do not select non-trader merely to hide contact information while continuing to sell commercially in the EU.

Apple also says EU customers viewing a non-trader's product will be informed that consumer rights arising from applicable consumer-protection laws do not apply to their contract with that seller.

Step 6: Add your banking information

After completing the DSA compliance step, add a bank account in the Business module that can receive electronic payments. The account holder's name and banking details should match the bank's records.

Apple provides country-specific fields and verification instructions in its banking setup guide. The Paid Books agreement, tax information, DSA compliance, and banking information all need to reach the appropriate status before the account is fully ready for paid sales and payments.

Step 7: Prepare the ebook and metadata

Once the account setup is moving through verification, prepare the publication package:

• A finished EPUB file
• A portrait cover image
• A title, subtitle if applicable, and book description
• The author or contributor name
• Publisher name and original publication date
• Language, subject categories, and interest age when applicable
• An ISBN if you use one
• A price and the countries or regions where you control the rights

Apple requires submitted books to pass the latest version of EPUBCheck. Review the Apple Books Formatting and Content Guidelines before uploading.

If a material portion of the book was generated by AI, Apple's current guidelines require the AI Generated by contributor role and a statement in the description explaining the AI-generated creation method. Apple distinguishes this from AI assistance used by a human author for idea generation, research, editing, refining text, or producing images for a human-composed book.

Disclosure is not automatic acceptance. You remain responsible for rights, accuracy, metadata, formatting, and the reader experience.

Step 8: Upload through the Apple Books Publishing Portal

Open the Apple Books Publishing Portal, sign in, and select Submit a New Book. Upload the EPUB, cover image, and optional custom sample, then provide the description, contributors, categories, language, publishing details, and other metadata.

The portal sends the book to iTunes Connect. Apple says it can take up to 24 hours for an imported title to appear there.

After it appears, open the book in iTunes Connect, select Rights and Pricing, add the countries or regions, and set the price. Uploading the files alone does not make the ebook available for purchase; it needs pricing and territory clearances.

One important Amazon check

Before offering the same ebook on Apple Books, check whether it is enrolled in KDP Select or Kindle Unlimited. KDP Select requires the digital edition to remain exclusive to Amazon during its current 90-day enrollment period.

If the ebook is enrolled, disable automatic renewal and wait until that term ends before publishing the digital book on Apple. A book that is merely sold through ordinary KDP without KDP Select enrollment is not subject to that digital-exclusivity rule.

A simple first-publish checklist

1. Create or choose an Apple Account and enable two-factor authentication.
2. Register for iTunes Connect using the correct Individual or Organization type.
3. Accept the Paid Books agreement.
4. Complete your tax information with exact legal details.
5. Select and verify the appropriate DSA status.
6. Add your banking information.
7. Confirm that the ebook is not currently exclusive to Amazon through KDP Select.
8. Validate the EPUB and prepare the cover and metadata.
9. Add the required AI disclosure if a material portion of the content is AI-generated.
10. Upload the publication package through the Apple Books Publishing Portal.
11. Set the book's price and sales territories in Rights and Pricing.
12. Watch iTunes Connect for tickets or requests from Apple's review team.

For a new account, start with one carefully checked ebook. That makes it easier to learn Apple's workflow and correct any packaging or metadata problems before submitting a large catalog.

Official Apple resources

• Create an iTunes Connect account for Apple Books
• Agreements, tax, banking, and compliance
• Required tax forms
• Provide banking information
• Manage DSA compliance information
• Apple Books Formatting and Content Guidelines
• Publish an ebook from the web
• Apple Books availability by country and region

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