Audit every retailer listing
Audit Apple Books listing
If you have an ebook or audiobook, check the Apple Books listing at launch for correct details, a linked audiobook, and a working buy link.
Why it matters
Readers on Apple devices often buy where the device points them, and a broken or missing Apple Books listing is a lost sale that never shows up in any report. The audiobook link matters too, since Apple sells audio and readers expect to find both formats together.
Your part
- What you do
- Do it. You normally do this yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Author and Publisher. Author audits; publisher, aggregator, or self-publisher controls the data
- When
- At launch, if a digital edition exists (Audit every retailer listing: three months before publication, in launch week, and at each later audit)Checked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Apple Books sells ebooks and audiobooks to readers on Apple devices, which is a meaningful share of digital readers. Its listings come from the publisher's or distributor's feed to Apple, or from an ebook aggregator for smaller publishers and self-publishers. Print books are not sold there, so this item applies only when a digital edition exists.
The audit is the same as for any retailer: title, subtitle, contributors, cover, description, price, publication date, series information, and whether the ebook and audiobook are linked on one page. Apple's store is browsed on devices as much as on the web, so check the listing in the Books app on an iPhone or iPad if you can, since layout and sample content show differently there. Also confirm that a sample is available; Apple generates one from the file, and a sample that cuts off in the front matter is a common and fixable problem.
Corrections go back through whatever route put the listing there: a publisher's feed, the aggregator a press uses, or Apple Books for Authors or an aggregator if you published the book yourself. Find out which route your book took before you report anything.
Check at launch, when the listing should be live and the price and date are final.
Apple Books has no public web address that searches by ISBN or title, so the link above is the storefront: search the title or the ISBN in the Apple Books app or in the search box at books.apple.com (opens in a new tab).
Common mistakes
- Never checking Apple because you do not use Apple devices.
- A sample that ends before the story starts.
- Ebook and audiobook listed as unrelated products.
- Reporting a feed error to Apple support instead of the publisher or aggregator.
What done looks like
- Ebook and audiobook listed with correct details and linked to each other.
- A sample available that starts at the actual beginning of the book.
- The listing checked in the Books app on a device as well as on the web.
- The Apple Books link included in your canonical buy links.
- Errors reported to the party that controls the feed and logged.
Ask your publisher
Copy this into an email. Replace the bracketed parts with your details.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- Official source (opens in a new tab)
- Other sources
- Last checked
- September 13, 2026
- How confident we are
- Partially verified
Rules and deadlines change. We last checked this information on September 13, 2026. If you see something that needs updating, please tell us.