Not to sound like I'm complaining....

So,

I received emails from Apple yesterday (after the 13 days of my 10 day waiting period), telling me that all three of my books had incomplete or non-functioning tables of contents, and were therefore rejected from iBooks. Of course, I am rectifying the issue, but here's my problem(s).

Nowhere can I locate a copy of any sort of actual requirements for books to be included in the iBooks store, save for the need of a fresh ISBN, which I have. I can find all manner of 'suggested guidelines' documents, all of which tell you how to format a document to be converted into the best possible ePub file. These documents do include tips on formatting for a table of contents, but do not, ever, list any kind of requirements. And these files are ~from~ Apple~

Second, I currently have 26 books in my iBooks library (small, I know, but I work a lot), that I purchased, or acquired from the iBooks store. Of these 26 books, SIX (6) have tables of contents. Of those six, one of them is not "active", meaning you can't touch a chapter in the table of contents and be instantly whisked away to that chapter in the book. So, 20 books with no table's of contents, 6 with...

Lastly, two of my three novels were already included in the iBooks store without tables of contents! When I was published under Smashwords, with all their terrible formatting, and profit-stealing, Apple accepted the books without question and put them up for sale, sans tables of contents. But now, with me trying to raise the quality of my books on the store, and take a third party out of the system to further make the products I sell higher in quality and quicker to adjust if needed. NOW, suddenly, a table of contents is required?

Needless to say, I'm a little peeved about this. I've sent them an email asking for specific documentation that points out requirements, and where in that document it says a table of contents is required. Meanwhile, I am working to get a table of contents into each book (easy, already done) that will properly export to an ePub document (seemingly much less easy...)

I guess we'll see how it goes, but it looks as if there will be another couple of weeks before the books are available in iBooks. :(

Alright, I'm off to save the world folks...

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iBooks, pending...

Okay, so I emailed Bowker and asked them what the expected wait time was for an account approval, and they responded the next day with a message saying they essentially lost me and were very sorry but it was up and running now.

What's 10 days between friends I guess, eh?

Oh well. It's done, the new ISBNs are on record, and all three books have been submitted to Apple for placement in the iBooks store.

Additionally, I have unpublished the books with Smashwords, which means they may soon (but haven't yet) disappear from iBooks for a little while before Apple approves the new versions. (Yes, the first two books were already in iBooks, but the formatting was terrible, the royalties were awful, and I had zero control over any of it). The prices of all electronic books from Kalijor Press have been submitted at a significantly lower rate (excepting Jumah's World which is a charity book, so I can't really change the rate on that one), and I intend to keep them where they are, or lower, never higher.

Stay tuned for an announcement as soon as they go live!

I think that's about it for now. I hope you are all having a great day, and I look forward to seeing you the next time there is opportunity to do so!

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Some News

Okay, just a bit of news to drop real quickly before I hit the hay (odd term that.. hit the hay? Even granting the origin likely stems back to when it was much more common to sleep on, or in, hay, why hit it?).

Anyhow, The second editions of the first and second key are done. Whilst I await approval/activation from Bowker in order to buy more ISBN's so I can publish to iBooks directly through Apple, I went ahead and cleaned up and re-released the Kindle versions. If you have a kindle, and you'd like to check out the books, now is the time.

Also, I have lowered the prices from $6.99, to $2.99, indefinitely. I may go lower in the future, we'll see. I just want to throw it in the face of these big book companies who are behaving like the damn record labels. A bunch of dinosaurs who are afraid the world is about to leave them behind, so they have to squeeze every penny they can, before they can't squeeze any more.

Sorry, didn't mean to rant there. Still, take that! Ya dirty rats! The Third Key is processing through on the Kindle as well, and should be available, at the same $2.99 price, very soon. Apple versions are coming as soon as Bowker decides I'm okay. They're all ready to post to the Apple store, just need ISBN's.

Soon, the print versions will be in second edition as well, with all the new formatting, as many error fixes as we could find, and a little bit of tweaking here and there. But they are still very much the same stories, so no need to rush out and buy copies as soon as they're live. Unless you want to, I guess... I mean, I can't really stop you, but I'd really just prefer you convince between 1 and 50,000 other people to buy copies.

So, I'll post as more changes arise, but that's where we stand just now. Oh! The forums are still down, because some self-important @$$hat hacked the calendar and filled my SQL database to overflowing with stupid pr0n garbage. I'm working on rebuilding them, and getting them overhauled and updated to the newest software version, but there are other things on my plate as well and the forums, as much as I love them, are not so popular as to be a major priority just now. Soon though, so hang in there if you're jonesing.

I think that's about it for now, so I'll get back the hitting of the hay... whatever that means...

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