Creating iBooks Promo Codes for your Title

Posted on July 6, 2012 by brian

Did you know that as an Apple  iBooks author who has published directly through iTunes Connect you can request promo codes that’ll give you an option to offer a secure complementary copy of your ebook to reviewers?

I advise my clients to try and avoid ever sending out non-DRM (Digital Rights Management) versions of their epub, mobi, or unprotected PDF file to anyone.   Of course this presents a problem if you do want to give someone a copy of your ebook.  But if you’ve hired us to get your ebook up on iTunes, you now have the option to send out  up to 50 iBook review copies.

ePubConversions.com provides more options for authors and publishers than any other eBook conversion service (all of these are included in our one-time fee):

  • .mobi version for Amazon Kindle.
  • .ePub version for BN Nook, Google Books, etc..
  • .ePub version for Apple iBooks.
  • PDF version of your ebook suitable for print-on-demand (page #’s will be added to the table of contents).
  • Step by Step yutorials to walk you through the title setup process at Amazon, BN, and Apple.
  • Over 3 hours of  fresh marketing materials including our ’7 secrets’ marketing map a one hour webinar on how to optimize your book for maximum exposure on Amazon.
  • Optional: An ‘affiliate badge‘ so you can give your readers and fans a way to help promote your ebook.
We provide you the source files and tutorials so you will are in full control of your listing.  Why is this important? Because when you let another company act as your so-called ‘ebook distributor,’ they will charge you a fee ($50-75 per occurrence) anytime you need to make changes to your listing (price, category, keyword,  description, etc.), cover, or interior. Don’t make the same mistake other author have who have their hands tied! Or let us help you get ‘free’ from these companies who in my mind are exploiting the naive author.

 

How to create promo codes for your iBook edition through your Apple iTunes Connect account:

  1. Login into your iTunes Connect account
  2. Choose ‘Manage Your Books’
  3. Select ‘Promo Codes’
  4. Send your reviewer the promo code which they will be able to ‘redeem’ through the iTunes store.
Note: If the ‘Promo Codes’ button is not available for your title, you may need to first add the Promo agreement to your account. Personally, I don’t remember having to do this for my titles, but in the world of eBooks, things change everyday!

Here’s some screenshots:

Manage Your Books option in iTunes Connect

After you select your title, click the 'Promo Codes' button.

Here’s more about Apple’s iBooks promo codes (from Apple’s FAQ):

What are promo codes? 

Promo codes can be distributed to provide free copies of your book for promotional or publicity purposes. Once you have distributed a promo code, the recipient can redeem it in the iBookstore for a free copy of your book in any territory where the book has been marked Cleared For Sale or Not Cleared For Sale. 

How do I get promo codes for a book? 

You must enter into a separate Promo Code agreement to request promo codes for a book, and so the requestor must have the Legal role to request promo codes. You can request a maximum of 50 promo codes per title. Promo codes are valid for 4 weeks from the date they are requested.

To request promo codes, locate the book in the Manage Your Books module and click Promo Codes. Enter the number of codes you would like to request and click Continue. After reading the contract, check the box to agree to the terms and click Continue. After agreeing to the contract terms, click Download to download the promo codes. 

Why don’t I see the Promo Codes button? 

Only users with the Legal role can request promo codes. The Promo Codes button will only display for books with a status of On Store or Ready for Store in at least one territory. An admin user can assign the legal role to another user via the Manage Users module. 

This entry was posted in Apple, iBooks. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

To create code blocks or other preformatted text, indent by four spaces:

    This will be displayed in a monospaced font. The first four 
    spaces will be stripped off, but all other whitespace
    will be preserved.
    
    Markdown is turned off in code blocks:
     [This is not a link](http://example.com)

To create not a block, but an inline code span, use backticks: 

Here is some inline `code`.

For more help see http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>