Apple has iBooks stores in over 52 countries around the world. If you have worldwide rights to the books you publish, why not maximize your sales reach? Here’s a current list of countries where Apple is licensed to resell ebooks:
| Argentina | Denmark | Italy | Poland |
| Australia | Dominican Rep. | Japan | Portugal |
| Austria | Ecuador | Latvia | Venezuela |
| Belgium | El Salvador | Lithuania | Romania |
| Estonia | Luxembourg | Slovakia | |
| Bolivia | Finland | Rep. of Malta | Slovenia |
| Brazil | France | Mexico | Spain |
| Bulgaria | Germany | Netherlands | |
| Canada | Greece | New Zealand | Sweden |
| Chile | Guatemala | Nicaragua | Switzerland |
| Colombia | Norway | United Kingdom | |
| Costa Rica | Honduras | Panama | United States |
| Cyprus | Hungary | Paraguay | Uruguay |
| Czech Rep. | Ireland | Peru |
Pretty great, right? To reach these sales territories you need to set special agency pricing in your metadata. Agency pricing is tricky and has a few more restrictions than the regular retail price that you need to be aware of before you try and set prices for the countries listed above. This tutorial will show you how to set up prices so that your title appears in as many of the available territories as possible.
Two things to remember about agency pricing:
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Apple only accepts prices ending in specific cent amounts
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Agency prices cannot be automatically converted into other local currencies like wholesale prices can
To broaden your title’s exposure, you will have to manually set book prices to the local currency.
Agency Pricing Tips
Not all publishers will have the time or resources to be able to set agency prices in all the currencies for the countries listed above, so we have created a shorter list of currencies that if used, will put your title up for sale in all English and French speaking territories.
Some currencies have different restrictions, however, which are detailed in the table below:
| Currency | Prices Must End With… | Price Type Description |
| USD – United States Dollar | −.99 | 41 Excluding tax |
| CAD – Canadian Dollar | −.99 | 41 Excluding tax |
| EUR – Euro | 9.99 = −.99 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| GBP – Great Britain Pound (Pound Sterling) | 9.99 = −.99 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| AUD – Australian Dollar | −.99 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| DKK – Danish Krone | −.00 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| CHF – Swiss Franc | 7.50 = −.00 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| SEK – Swedish Krona | −.00 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| NOK – Norwegian Krone | −.00 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| CLP – Chilean Pesos | −.00 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| COP – Colombian Pesos | −.00 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| PEN – Peruvian Sol | −.90 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| BGN – Bulgarian Lev | −.99 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| CZK – Czech Koruna | −.00 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| HUF – Hungarian Forint | −.00 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| PLN – Polish Zloty | −.99 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
| RON – Romanian Leu | −.99 | 42 Including tax – must add 15% for VAT tax |
Prices across international markets don’t always convert accurately, as consumers in other markets have different expectations of what ebooks should cost. For example, setting a book to a competitive price in USD and then converting it to AUD may be the simplest approach, but it might not be the best. We encourage you to do country-specific research on what consumers are willing to pay for ebooks in the countries where you want to sell your titles.
CoreSource Metadata Template
The Apple Publication Release Type in the metadata template is a required element for agency pricing. The latest release of the template from April 9, 2014 places this field in column GT.
We also recommend indicating the book type (column GU) to ensure your title reaches the correct market.
There are only three options for the Apple Publication Release Type: New, Digital Only, or Other. If you leave this blank, Apple will either default the type to “New Release” based on your publishing date, or it will remain blank and the agency prices you set will not process correctly, barring your title from sale on iBooks. When a title is set to “New Release” it’s price is governed by Apple’s pricing restrictions for Canadian front list titles in English. Those restrictions are as follows:
| Publisher List Price (CAD$) | Maximum Customer Price (CAD$) |
| $0.01 – $24.00 $24.01 – $27.00 $27.01 – $30.00 $30.01 – $32.00 $32.01 – $33.50 $33.51 – $37.00 $37.01 – $42.00 |
$11.99 $13.99 $14.99 $15.99 $16.99 $17.99 $20.99 |
If your print title is priced in the ranges listed in the left column, you are only allowed to sell the ebook on iBooks for the maximum price listed in the right column.
CoreSource only includes agency prices when metadata distributions are sent to Apple. This means that there is no simple way to let Apple know what your original print price is, which results in the title being restricted to a maximum price of $11.99. To get around this, please set your Apple Release Type to “Digital Only”. This way you can set a list price over $11.99 and will not have to set the price to update at the end of the 12 month period, which is when Apple will stop considering a book as a new release.
The eBOUND sample CoreSource template with stock metadata has been updated to include agency prices in all applicable territories.
If you are looking to revise your Agency Price metadata in bulk, please refer to our Metadata Extract Tutorial which will show you how to pull metadata for all of your books at once and revise them in one spreadsheet. Once you have edited your metadata please remember to ingest it into CoreSource and distribute to Apple as soon as possible.
ONIX Metadata
To set agency prices in metadata, you will have to use code 41 as the <PriceTypeDescription> as in the example:
<price>
<j148>41</j148>
<j151>10.99</j151>
<j152>CAD</j152>
<b251>CA</b251>
<j161>20120520</j161>
</price>
Prices set in ONIX must follow the rules below:
| Publisher List Price (CAD$) | Maximum Customer Price (CAD$) |
| $0.01 – $24.00 $24.01 – $27.00 $27.01 – $30.00 $30.01 – $32.00 $32.01 – $33.50 $33.51 – $37.00 $37.01 – $42.00 |
$11.99 $13.99 $14.99 $15.99 $16.99 $17.99 $20.99 |
For questions about setting up agency prices for distribution to Apple, please contact our Digital Services Coordinator.