App Store Rejected: Apple asking to go into iBookStore

Roberto · January 2011

Hi All,

I am a new iOS developer + experienced programmer + this is my first time submission.

I created a story app and submitted it last week, after being In Review for more than a day, Apple have finally replied with the following email:

---
We've completed the review of your app, however, we cannot post this version to the App Store because the primary purpose of your app is to display content that is a book. Such content is more appropriate for iBookstore.

Therefore, we encourage you to submit your content to iBookstore. There are two options for developing iBookstore content: working with Apple and working with Apple-approved iBookstore Aggregators.

To work with Apple on iBookstore distribution, first verify that your content meets the following requirements:

- ISBNs for all titles you intend to distribute
- Is in EPUB format, passing EpubCheck 1.0.5

For more information, including additional requirements and how to apply for iBookstore, please visit .

For details on working with iBookstore Aggregators, visit .

Please feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions about this information or would like to discuss it further.
---

Since my app can not be a book, is not published anywhere, there is no ISBN and simply contains stories, publishing it as a book into the iBookStore is simply not appropriate.

Also, this doesn't make sense to me as I can see there is a Books category in the iTunes, where there are thousands of books already present, even those which are in public domain as well or replicas of those already there in iBookStore.

How should I pursue this with Apple now, i have yet to reply their email? Any help would be highly appreciated.

Many thanks
Rob

baja_yu · January 2011

Hmm... I'm not sure what your options are. If you state the case that the content is original and unpublished, they will probably argue that the app is then just a content aggregator, which will get it rejected too.

JasonR · January 2011

Apple usually seems willing to listen if you present your case. There have definitely been cases where apps have been approved after explaining why the rejection was not necessary. And as long as you are polite, they don't hold it against you if they keep rejecting it.

But if I was in your shoes, I would consider adding some kind of interactive feature, it will obviously be an app and not just a book.

MozyMac · January 2011

JasonR;285067 said:
Apple usually seems willing to listen if you present your case. There have definitely been cases where apps have been approved after explaining why the rejection was not necessary. And as long as you are polite, they don't hold it against you if they keep rejecting it.

But if I was in your shoes, I would consider adding some kind of interactive feature, it will obviously be an app and not just a book.

Go with what said above, the most important thing is to be as polite as possible.

Tambourin · January 2011

Most of the apps in the books category were approved before the books store opened.
Take a look at the book category apps approved recently and see how they differ from a simple book.

foany · January 2011

That's very unlucky, what is the books category for? Would be my question to them. Unfortunately the books category came first, then came iBooks. On the face of it what they are saying is sensible,but they should have informed developers when iBooks came out how that would affect book like app submissions aimed at the books category. Poor communication on apples part.

I'd look to comply, Is it hard to get an isbn? Failing that I'd reuse as much of the project as i could in another app, something less book like.

twerner · January 2011

hi, I'm in Apple app business for more than 20 months now, my advise:
add more functions to your app,ibook is no alternative for you !
tobi

Roberto · January 2011

twerner;285179 said:
hi, I'm in Apple app business for more than 20 months now, my advise:
add more functions to your app,ibook is no alternative for you !
tobi

Thanks for your advise, i have already added many story to story navigational features, font size, color, type, background color, favorites, etc features into my little app! what do you think now?

Roberto · January 2011

baja_yu;285047 said:
Hmm... I'm not sure what your options are. If you state the case that the content is original and unpublished, they will probably argue that the app is then just a content aggregator, which will get it rejected too.

I am guessing this is what I am going to do, but my only concern is that if we go into argument, they may find themselves in defensive position and I might find myself in offensive - i.e. general human behavior.. wont I be risking the approval of my app that way?

Roberto · January 2011

Tambourin;285084 said:
Most of the apps in the books category were approved before the books store opened.
Take a look at the book category apps approved recently and see how they differ from a simple book.

sorry but I wont agree with you here, I know a *lot* of devs who have got their spammy/cloning apps getting approved - as latest as last few days!

i have got absolutely original content + worked so hard to make it absolutely perfect in terms of features + performance, and it feels so bad when they ask you that the app you've worked on has to be a book instead

MichaelE · January 2011

Roberto;285021 said:
Since my app can not be a book [it] simply contains stories

I'm confused...isn't this the definition of a book?

Roberto;285021 said:
there is no ISBN

You can apply for an ISBN here: Application for an ISBN Publisher Prefix

twerner · January 2011

i don't know whats your app about but add animations, mapkit, favorite system, uiwebkit links....

TunaNugget · January 2011

Roberto;285201 said:
Thanks for your advise, i have already added many story to story navigational features, font size, color, type, background color, favorites, etc features into my little app! what do you think now?

I have no experience with this type of rejection, but I would think that the interactive features would have to be something other than what is provided by a standard e-book reader.

Unfortunately, you can't use what's already in the store to argue to Apple that your app should be accepted. Many times, an app slips through that might otherwise be rejected, or Apple changes its standards arbitrarily.

Roberto · January 2011

thanks for your help everybody...

i contacted apple and tried to be very politely, and in return, apple gave me really good suggestions.

they said that add some significant graphical things and the resubmit binary and then we'll have a look.

apple reviewers are not that horrible as there's a general perception?

i'll update this thread once the app is approved.

thanks everybody!

Diegan · January 2011

I'm eager to know how will you comply with their wishes :)

Roberto;286811 said:
thanks for your help everybody...

i contacted apple and tried to be very politely, and in return, apple gave me really good suggestions.

they said that add some significant graphical things and the resubmit binary and then we'll have a look.

apple reviewers are not that horrible as there's a general perception?

i'll update this thread once the app is approved.

thanks everybody!

B · January 2011

I wanted to publish my eBook in iBooks, but they rejected it, because it is not in English.

It is now in the books category as an app.

They don't really know, what they want...

jasonlimj · January 2011

Hi Roberto, i am also facing the same problem.

May I know if you have has been approved and what were the changes you did?

Thanks,
Jason

Roberto;286811 said:
thanks for your help everybody...

i contacted apple and tried to be very politely, and in return, apple gave me really good suggestions.

they said that add some significant graphical things and the resubmit binary and then we'll have a look.

apple reviewers are not that horrible as there's a general perception?

i'll update this thread once the app is approved.

thanks everybody!

jaxjason · January 2011

A single ISBN is about $125US through the links already provided. If its a collection of stories, wouldnt ibooks be the best place to submit it as that is the location most people looking for ebooks are going on iPad? More exposure as well, as your not competing with tens of thousands of similar apps that are just story apps too?

MMS · February 2011

Anyone had any luck with Apple on this type of rejection?

I just got a similar iPad App rejection notice. I have no problem admitting that my App was/is primarily a book. It is a children's travel story intended as a compliment to my existing App which is a travel guide. I've also been laboring away at making the iPad version of my travel guide which is now primarily for iPhone.

Is it looking like Apple is going to push all Apps whose "primary purpose is to display content" into the iBookstore? Sales on the iBookstore don't look too promising for unknown authors... Particularly in the children's book section which only offers browsing by author! I can't afford either the time or expense of turning these into iBooks particularly when the prospects for iBook sales are so dismal!

I wrote to Apple and asked them to reconsider and said I felt I would be in a stronger marketing position on the App store, that I've been selling a travel guide app for over a year, and have been working on the iPad version of that App.

If Apple is going to push all Apps that "display content" into the iBookstore, I'm going to have to find a new medium altogether... :mad:

suculent · August 2011

Hi. I had very similar story with a book for children in Adobe Digital Publishing (Wired-like) format. Localized Czech version was approved for AppStore, however the English translation was not for the same reason (2.21 Review Guidelines) - App that is a book should be on iBookstore.

However, as I've tried to explain to Apple's review board, the same visual experience cannot be achieved using ever-changing ePub look. Book is carefully designed for both portrait and landscape view, and should stay so.

I have an ISBN code anyway, so I could run with an iBookstore ePub release, but as I've tried several ePub generators and InDesign export, none of them are usable when going through ePub standard conformation test.

And I'm not even speaking about adding custom cover and de-designing contents for ePub use.

tanukush · August 2011

I just read a review of an story book which is released in apps , they have added some hidden stickers in each page and there is some score to find them.You can also try some kind of interaction similar to this.

ema1972 · September 2011

Hi,
I have the same problem:

"We found that your app is primarily a book and is therefore not appropriate for the App Store" so... rejected.

So I have 3 routes:

1) add interactive feature to my ebook and try again or

2) ibooks (only in english)

3) translate the ebook in languages different from english so it could be published as an app (ibooks accept only english books, isn't it?)

If I have well understood..

BR

Emanuele

Zingali · September 2011

So what is the status now? Has it been approved? What did you add to freshen it up for the Apple powers-that-be? Curious to see how this progresses.

Shibbs · September 2012

Today, our 'prayer' app too got rejected.
However, we have appealed providing our rationale (mentioned below) why we think otherwise:

It's more than a Book. Here are the reasons why we think so:
1) Each day's prayer has a saints pic with it.
2) App auto selects the prayer for each day of the month for the user.
3) Unique Horizontal Carousel menu (inspired by Openflow) with saint pics for visual appeal.
4) Nice tween animation for content switching between each prayer.
5) Pinch to zoom in & out for font size, and the user settings gets persisted by the app.

Moreover, there's no equivalent of the app in the print media(book) format.

We await for their response.

Shibbs · September 2012

Apple guys replied, they don't buy our argument:

Sep 14, 2012 07:05 PM. From Apple.
Thank you for your response. It would be appropriate to provide additional functionality to differentiate your app further from an ebook-like experience to be suitable for the App Store.

Shibbs said:
Today, our 'prayer' app too got rejected.
However, we have appealed providing our rationale (mentioned below) why we think otherwise:

It's more than a Book. Here are the reasons why we think so:
1) Each day's prayer has a saints pic with it.
2) App auto selects the prayer for each day of the month for the user.
3) Unique Horizontal Carousel menu (inspired by Openflow) with saint pics for visual appeal.
4) Nice tween animation for content switching between each prayer.
5) Pinch to zoom in & out for font size, and the user settings gets persisted by the app.

Moreover, there's no equivalent of the app in the print media(book) format.

We await for their response.

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