# Publishing directly through iBooks/iTunes -- think twice if you have a pen name



## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

** Update **
Please look at my last post if you want to see the stunning conclusion to the the iTunes Saga.

--- Original Post ---
So I decided to quit draft-2-digital and go directly to iTunes using their annoying system (they make you download software to submit your books with). Everything after that is handled through their "iTunes Connect" website, and everything is tied to the name you used when you first set up your iTunes account. In my case, it was my wife's name.  Weirdly, when you sell your books, they list the full name of the "seller" -- in this case, my wife's name. So any anonymity I'd hoped for by creating a pen name is completely undone. Using a pen name is easily handled by Amazon and Kobo and Smashwords and D2D (an aggregator, I know).

So I'm going back and forth with them right now, trying to link "john l. monk" to my wife through 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon and it's getting sort of ridiculous.  I've since taken my books down, but they still exist "in the system" as it were (like being in "draft" on KDP). If they still refuse to change the seller name, I have to hope I can publish again through D2D without an error saying "there's already a book called Kick on Apple by John L. Monk."

I've waited 24 hrs to cool down before posting this cautionary tale  If anyone has any other tips on getting Apple to join us in the 21st century, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Cheers


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## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

I do remember hearing something about that, if you went direct. Sorry to hear Apple is being a git and hopefully it will all get sorted soon.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

I seem to recall you can get in touch with them and register a DBA with them. It all seemed too much hassle to me, which is why I continued with D2D.


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

Lydniz said:


> I seem to recall you can get in touch with them and register a DBA with them. It all seemed too much hassle to me, which is why I continued with D2D.


Yeah that's what I'm doing right now -- but they require that you upload documents proving you're doing business as (dba). So I provided copyright stuff...which is in my name  So I'm trying to link my name to my wife, but they are kind of being pigheaded in wanting the pen name directly linked to her. You made the right decision: it's way too much of a hassle.


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## Tasha Black (May 28, 2014)

I made a new Apple ID, tied to my publishing account, when I decided to go direct last month. 
I didn't have any problem getting them to list my publisher name as the seller. 
I have since filed for a DBA, but I didn't have one then, and there was no hassle. 
You may just want to start from scratch. 

They can be difficult. It's like they don't really want anyone to publish books on there!

As far as the interface, I was a little miffed at having to DL an extra piece of software, but once I started using it, I found it much more usable than most. Maybe because it is a native app, and not web based?

Also, I have heard rumors (very unsubstantiated) that some stores (maybe Apple?) put less weight behind titles that go through an aggregator. Not sure if anyone has ever been able to back that up.

Anyway...
GOOD LUCK with getting it all straightened out!


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

Tasha Black said:


> I made a new Apple ID, tied to my publishing account, when I decided to go direct last month.
> I didn't have any problem getting them to list my publisher name as the seller.
> I have since filed for a DBA, but I didn't have one then, and there was no hassle.
> You may just want to start from scratch.
> ...


Thanks for all the tips -- I may try that if it comes to it


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

MeganBryce said:


> ...what's the limit for acronyms in one post?


IDK ...


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

MeganBryce said:


> I got an EIN from the IRS with my pen name as the DBA and sent that in to Apple. No problems listing my pen name as the seller.
> 
> ...what's the limit for acronyms in one post?


Very cool -- TYVM!


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

johnlmonk said:


> So I decided to quit draft-2-digital and go directly to iTunes using their annoying system (they make you download software to submit your books with). Everything after that is handled through their "iTunes Connect" website, and everything is tied to the name you used when you first set up your iTunes account. In my case, it was my wife's name. Weirdly, when you sell your books, they list the full name of the "seller" -- in this case, my wife's name. So any anonymity I'd hoped for by creating a pen name is completely undone. Using a pen name is easily handled by Amazon and Kobo and Smashwords and D2D (an aggregator, I know).
> 
> So I'm going back and forth with them right now, trying to link "john l. monk" to my wife through 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon and it's getting sort of ridiculous. I've since taken my books down, but they still exist "in the system" as it were (like being in "draft" on KDP). If they still refuse to change the seller name, I have to hope I can publish again through D2D without an error saying "there's already a book called Kick on Apple by John L. Monk."
> 
> ...


Im sticking to D2D. I spent a year going back and forth with ibooks


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

MeganBryce said:


> I got an EIN from the IRS with my pen name as the DBA and sent that in to Apple. No problems listing my pen name as the seller.
> 
> ...what's the limit for acronyms in one post?


What the hell is a DBA. Spell things out folks for us thick people.


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

DBA = Doing Business As = basically an alias you can use to link yourself to any arbitrary name.

I just created a new business iTunes account for our business, which i have registered as a LLC.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Lydniz said:


> I seem to recall you can get in touch with them and register a DBA with them. It all seemed too much hassle to me, which is why I continued with D2D.


This. I don't use Apple products. My DD has an iPod though.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

I've never understood why people have this problem and I'm now wondering if it is a geographic difference. My ten year old iTunes account was set up under another name and my books always have my correct author name and published by MMMporium, because that is who I tell them it is published by in iTunes Producer. There is no DBA equivalent in England, indeed you can't register a business name if you try (despite what some websites claim Companies House do not register business names for unincorporated sole proprietors). So maybe I am not seeing the problem because Apple do not apply this to UK based accounts. Or maybe because I use ISBNs and the ISBN tells Apple that MMMporium published the book.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Mercia McMahon said:


> I've never understood why people have this problem and I'm now wondering if it is a geographic difference. My ten year old iTunes account was set up under another name and my books always have my correct author name and published by MMMporium, because that is who I tell them it is published by in iTunes Producer. There is no DBA equivalent in England, indeed you can't register a business name if you try (despite what some websites claim Companies House do not register business names for unincorporated sole proprietors). So maybe I am not seeing the problem because Apple do not apply this to UK based accounts. Or maybe because I use ISBNs and the ISBN tells Apple that MMMporium published the book.


Maybe it's because you did it ten years ago. I looked into publishing with iTunes a few weeks ago and they were very clear that you had to use your real name but could if you liked contact them afterwards and ask them politely to grant you the favour of letting you use a different name if you provided them with some documentation that I can't remember because by that time I'd given up.


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## Leanne King (Oct 2, 2012)

Mercia McMahon said:


> I've never understood why people have this problem and I'm now wondering if it is a geographic difference. My ten year old iTunes account was set up under another name and my books always have my correct author name and published by MMMporium, because that is who I tell them it is published by in iTunes Producer. There is no DBA equivalent in England, indeed you can't register a business name if you try (despite what some websites claim Companies House do not register business names for unincorporated sole proprietors). So maybe I am not seeing the problem because Apple do not apply this to UK based accounts. Or maybe because I use ISBNs and the ISBN tells Apple that MMMporium published the book.


Your Publisher name shows up as MMMporium on iTunes, and your Seller name says Mercia McMahon (on one of your books, the other says D2D). I think it's the Seller name some people get upset about, because it will show a legal name and not a pen name. Personally I use a company name for the seller.


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

Well they've gotten to the point where they aren't replying to emails they've previously replied to (ie., as we were working out the issue). So I opened another ticket. That'll show them...


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Pelagios said:


> Your Publisher name shows up as MMMporium on iTunes, and your Seller name says Mercia McMahon (on one of your books, the other says D2D). I think it's the Seller name some people get upset about, because it will show a legal name and not a pen name. Personally I use a company name for the seller.


Thanks I was reading the details on Apple.com without going into iTunes. Now I need to either sort out the iTunes account into the business name or stop going direct. Thanks all for finally clearly up this issue that Toyah-like was a mystery to me.


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

Just a quick follow-up for anyone who cared about this issue I had.  I'm finally selling over on Apple under the seller name "John L. Monk."

It took:
1) the copyright application I used with the Federal Government of these United States...
2) 8x emails back and forth and 2x phone calls.
3) they had to change the account from my wife's name to my name, because my name was listed in the copyright. 

So there you go. Easy. Now if I could just figure out how to get traction over there. 

My marketing plan:

1) cross my fingers
2) hope to die
3) blurb/cover/write-more-books.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Woah. I think I'll stick with D2D.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2015)

Apple are very difficult about this stuff. But they're very good in other areas. And remember that this sort of thing keeps out a lot of the people who just want to spam book stores with hastily cobbled together 'get rich quick' books.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

John,

I use a FEIN to publish direct when I'm not using D2D. A FEIN is basically a DBA without the LLC papers.


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

ireaderreview said:


> Apple are very difficult about this stuff. But they're very good in other areas. And remember that this sort of thing keeps out a lot of the people who just want to spam book stores with hastily cobbled together 'get rich quick' books.


Great point


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

Gennita Low said:


> John,
> 
> I use a FEIN to publish direct when I'm not using D2D. A FEIN is basically a DBA without the LLC papers.


I'd seen another post about that, and yeah it is intriguing. I was 'lucky' enough to have a way to wrap this up in a few days though, with the copyright stuff I had and the phone calls. I may do it to give me more flexibility.


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## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

kalel said:


> What the hell is a DBA. Spell things out folks for us thick people.


Yes, I find the ubiquitous use of abbreviations frustrating and annoying. Since we are all writers, why not stick to the accepted guidelines for using acronyms and abbreviations? ( The name, term or expression is given in full at first mention, followed by the shortened form in parentheses. The shortened form may be used in the text thereafter.)


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Thanks for this thread. It has led me to decide to withdraw my remaining book that was loaded directly to Apple and just go via D2D. Although I wish Draft2Digital had a less obvious name I would rather have them named in iTunes as the seller than lil ole me. I could go back to Smashwords, but I prefer the D2D payment options.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

johnlmonk said:


> Just a quick follow-up for anyone who cared about this issue I had. I'm finally selling over on Apple under the seller name "John L. Monk."
> 
> It took:
> 1) the copyright application I used with the Federal Government of these United States...
> ...


My process was much simpler, maybe because I am in the UK and we have no Do Business As law.
I sent a message via the dashboard requesting the DBA name stating:

"I am based in the UK where this is no DBA legislation - a sole trader may trade under any name that is not trademarked or excluded under law. I attach the invoice from the ISBN providers, but it does not mention my name of Mercia McMahon. However the ISBNs on the two books currently on iBooks belong to MMMporium."

Not having received a reply I switched to D2D for Apple, but then today I got this reply from the iTunes legal team:

"I made the seller name change to MMMporium. Please look for the name change on the store within 24 hours."

Now I need to reload a book to test this.


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## Tony_A20 (Dec 8, 2011)

Publishers dealing directly with vendors use a system called ONIX to transfer book metadata such as author, title, price, etc to the vendor. Vendors have different metadata information requirements, but all expect information in ONIX tagged metadata.

If you are an expert in ONIX, it is possible to code the metadata files by hand using any text editor. This is a long, error prone process. Of course there is software which makes entering the necessary information easier, but it costs money.

Anyone wanting to deal directly with book retailers, must have the ability to use ONIX. Everything a publisher needs to know is on the Internet.

Aggregators such as D2D, communicate with retail vendors using ONIX tagged metadata. D2D considers its ONIX metadata proprietary information and will not share what is sent to vendors with authors.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Tony_A20 said:


> Publishers dealing directly with vendors use a system called ONIX to transfer book metadata such as author, title, price, etc to the vendor. Vendors have different metadata information requirements, but all expect information in ONIX tagged metadata.
> 
> If you are an expert in ONIX, it is possible to code the metadata files by hand using any text editor. This is a long, error prone process. Of course there is software which makes entering the necessary information easier, but it costs money.
> 
> ...


That does sound rather error prone...
One of the greatest things when I published my book with D2D was that _they_ were listed as the seller on B&N, not my real name! I don't recall having this kind of trouble with Google Play...
I do hope you can get your issue resolved with Apple.


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## A.E. Williams (Jul 13, 2014)

IDK, but FWIW, and IMHO, I end up ROFL at LLC's using EINs instead of DBA your pen name.
IANAL, but IIRC, YMMV.

A.E.W.

SNAFU
FUBAR


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

DBA is a pretty widely used abbreviation in the US. It is ubiquitous enough (here) to assume that it's easily understood! 
Today, I LEARNT that SPELT is not not used by most Americans, even though I've lived here for over a decade. This is just after I learned that Americans also don't usually use the term LEARNT


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

nico said:


> DBA = Doing Business As = basically an alias you can use to link yourself to any arbitrary name.
> 
> I just created a new business iTunes account for our business, which i have registered as a LLC.


This is how its done here in the UK too, except it's LTD not LLC.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Tony_A20 said:


> Anyone wanting to deal directly with book retailers, must have the ability to use ONIX. Everything a publisher needs to know is on the Internet.


Not quite sure what your comment is in response to, but for Apple this is no longer correct. I can no longer go direct to Apple because I get the error "ONIX embedded data is no longer allowed in files imported to iTunes."



Mark E. Cooper said:


> This is how its done here in the UK too, except it's LTD not LLC.


As I noted above this is not necessary. iTunes legal will change the name for a sole proprietor because their rules on Doing Business As are aimed at US-based businesses. Unfortunately, I cannot currently test without reactivating the out of date file that was uploaded to Apple before they changed their stance on ONIX.


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## a_g (Aug 9, 2013)

A.E. Williams said:


> IDK, but FWIW, and IMHO, I end up ROFL at LLC's using EINs instead of DBA your pen name.
> IANAL, but IIRC, YMMV.
> 
> A.E.W.
> ...


Oh, but for the want of a Like button!


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## Tony_A20 (Dec 8, 2011)

Mercia McMahon said:


> Not quite sure what your comment is in response to, but for Apple this is no longer correct. I can no longer go direct to Apple because I get the error "ONIX embedded data is no longer allowed in files imported to iTunes."


I believe the error you have received is because the EPUB3 specification allows more than a container.xml in the META-INF folder enclosed in an EPUB, and could contain a manifest.xml file listing an accompanying ONIX file so that all retail book information could be enclosed within the EPUB.

What the iTunes error message is saying, I believe, is that Apple will no longer allow an ONIX file to be included in this manner.

Nevertheless, I feel sure that ONIX data is still required from a publisher to Apple to describe a book's metadata. Please check and let me know.

Tony


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Tony_A20 said:


> I believe the error you have received is because the EPUB3 specification allows more than a container.xml in the META-INF folder enclosed in an EPUB, and could contain a manifest.xml file listing an accompanying ONIX file so that all retail book information could be enclosed within the EPUB.


My problem is with an EPUB2 produced in Jutoh and altering it in Sigil does not good. I'll use you hints here and try again and if no luck contact Apple, especially as I have confirmed that my publisher name is now being used as a seller:


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Pelagios said:


> Your Publisher name shows up as MMMporium on iTunes, and your Seller name says Mercia McMahon (on one of your books, the other says D2D). I think it's the Seller name some people get upset about, because it will show a legal name and not a pen name. Personally I use a company name for the seller.


To muddy the waters further, and excuse my prior confusion, the seller details do not show if I am signed into iTunes and therefore shown the UK store. If I am not signed in iTunes defaults to the US store where the seller is shown. Note that my seller is now MMMporium (see image on my previous post).


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

DBA = Doing Business As
FEIN = Federal ID #
LLC = Limited Liability Corporation

These are terms you should know if you are doing business for yourself. I know some of you are frustrated with the use of these terms but we've talked about the business end of writing for years now and so I assumed those three terms are understood here. Your tax forms will have these terms and they explain to every sole proprietor, LLC--be it partnership or corporation, and taxpayer the different ways you can file your taxes as a small business.
I think every writer should read up the tax codes and explanation for those terms because understanding them can save you $$$ and liability.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Gennita Low said:


> DBA = Doing Business As
> FEIN = Federal ID #
> LLC = Limited Liability Corporation
> 
> These are terms you should know if you are doing business for yourself.


Not everyone on kboards is based in the US.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

I know that, but the US ones know I was referring them . I apologize if I confused any non-US based writers. I know Monk, so I knew he'd understand me.


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## Diane Patterson (Jun 17, 2012)

Do you have to get a separate FEIN for every pseudonym? (I can think of a couple of pseuds I wouldn't want people to tie together...)


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## jackconnerbooks (Nov 18, 2014)

Good stuff to know. I've just recently taken some of my titles out of Select and have put them up on Googeplay and D2D. D2D handles my iBooks, but I've been thinking it might make more sense to do it direct -- or at least I was. Now I'm a bit more cautious.


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## MajesticMonkey (Sep 3, 2013)

Mercia McMahon said:


> My process was much simpler, maybe because I am in the UK and we have no Do Business As law.
> I sent a message via the dashboard requesting the DBA name stating:
> 
> "I am based in the UK where this is no DBA legislation - a sole trader may trade under any name that is not trademarked or excluded under law. I attach the invoice from the ISBN providers, but it does not mention my name of Mercia McMahon. However the ISBNs on the two books currently on iBooks belong to MMMporium."
> ...


I had my seller name changed to a 'DBA' name in under 48 hours using this method. I send in an invoice as proof that I owned the name and they made the change.

Thanks so much for posting this. : ) : )


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