Apple Discontinues Direct Publishing from Pages to Apple Books: A New Era for eBook Authors

Summary

Apple has removed the ability to publish books directly from Pages to the Apple Books store. This change was communicated via an email sent to publishers on April 3, 2025, and implemented with a Pages update released at 11:55 PM Eastern time on the same day. The update, which brought Pages to version 14.4, primarily focused on improving Apple Intelligence writing tools but also removed the direct publishing feature.

Key Points:

• Removal of Direct Publishing: Authors and publishers now need to export their books in ePub format and upload them to the Apple Books for Authors portal, similar to how books are uploaded to Amazon Kindle.
• Menu Option on Mac: The Mac version of Pages still shows a Publish to Apple Books option in its menus, but it no longer functions as intended. The iPad version does not have this option at all.
• Timing and Impact: The update was released just before the end of the business day for many publishers outside the US, which may have caused some inconvenience.

Background:

• iBooks Author App: Apple initially introduced iBooks Author in 2012 to allow users to create richly formatted books and publish them directly. However, the app had bugs and was retired in June 2020, with its features integrated into Pages.
• Silence from Apple: There was a lack of communication from Apple regarding Book Store or publishing apps until this recent update.

This change marks another step away from the direct integration that previously existed between Pages and the Apple Books store.