Apple Has Started Listening to Indie Publishers

I and other indie publishers received notice from Apple that the company has changed the way it deals with indie publishers.

To better serve your needs, English-language phone support is now available to iBookstore publishers. With this new option, we now offer four ways to get answers to your questions:

• The Book Forum is a community-based, collaborative environment to find solutions and share tips on creating, delivering, and marketing books in the iBookstore.
• The iTunes Connect FAQ is constantly updated to answer common questions. (You must be logged in to your iTunes Connect account to use)
• The iTunes Connect Contact Us module provides the option to send inquires directly to the support team, for email-based support. (You must be logged in to your iTunes Connect account to use)
• If you prefer to speak to one of our iBookstore Publisher Support advisors, you can also use phone support. To contact the phone support for publishers, call [PHONE NUMBER AVAILABLE TO APPLE INDIE PUBLISHERS]. Phone support is available in English only and provides the same support as our email support option. Calls are toll-free from the U.S. and Canada. International calling rates may apply elsewhere. An active iTunes Connect account is required to use this option.

The iBookstore support team is available to assist you via email and phone, Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Pacific). When requesting support, be sure to provide as much detail as possible, including:

• The book’s Apple ID, ISBN, or vendor ID and the title (for title-specific queries).
• The transfer log for delivery failures. Include the entire transfer log in your Contact Us inquiry. You can access the transfer log by clicking the magnifying glass in the iTunes Producer delivery window. You can also use the “Send to Apple” feature in iTunes Producer to submit the entire log for review.
• The device, browser, version number, and operating system for technical issues in the iBookstore or on iTunes Connect. You can get this information by choosing About This Mac from the Apple menu in OS X.
• Any other details that can help us replicate and resolve the issue.

Regards,

The iBookstore team

I don’t know how much my own recent run-in with Apple, and the surprising amount of fallout, had to do with this decision, but I’m delighted to note that Apple has decided to present a much more workable platform for indies not too long into the aftermath.