[MegHarris]

Right around Christmas, when my daughter was home from college and able to do all the formatting for me, I put up a whole bunch of erotic romances on Smashwords. A bunch went up on iTunes quite rapidly, within a week or so. And then suddenly... they stopped going up on iTunes. It's been over five weeks for some of them now. When I asked Smashwords about it, I got the standard "it can take up to eight weeks for iTunes to review erotica." I know that sometimes it takes a while-- but the books WERE going up very quickly, and the remaining books are no different in heat level or content. I did minor updates on a few and reuploaded them to SW, but they're still not showing any signs of appearing on iTunes. (A "regular" romance I put up under my other name went up quickly enough, though that was a different account.) The books seem to be up on all other retailers-- but iTunes is the one I really care about, as it's where I make most of my money through SW.

Is everyone having this problem with iTunes and erotic romance? Is it a problem with other distributors, or when uploading directly? I'm trying to figure out if it's an iTunes problem (in which case I'll sit quietly and wait), or if it's a Smashwords problem (in which case there are other options).

 

[Hildred]

I was waiting anywhere up to 3 weeks when I was going through Smashwords. (For erotic romances and erotica.) Since switching to D2D for my itunes shipping, though, I'm seeing about 1 week although the last one took a week and a half. However, updating my files already published go through in a day! Actually, two hours this last time. Yes, two hour turn around.

 

[MegHarris]

Since switching to D2D for my itunes shipping, though, I'm seeing about 1 week although the last one took a week and a half.

That's what I was wondering. Sounds like I should check out D2D instead, though I think they're in beta, and maybe aren't taking everyone yet? I hate to quit using Smashwords, but iTunes constitutes a good deal of my income, and I feel like I'm losing income every day those books don't go up.

 

[Hildred]

You can still sign up for beta afaik. you just sign up to receive an invitation and they'll send you one in the next batch. I didn't have a problem signing up.

If I were you I'd probably start with one title to see how it goes and if there's any change in sales. I found that my visibility on the iTunes site actually improved greatly through D2D than through SW. I have no idea why though.

 

[TexasGirl]

Meg, are you uploading to AllRomance? You should be, and they can also send to iTunes, if that's the only other distributor you have trouble with. Otherwise D2D is a good option.

My erotica took about two weeks via Smash. They can get hung up if someone flags something.

 

[MegHarris]

Meg, are you uploading to AllRomance? You should be, and they can also send to iTunes, if that's the only other distributor you have trouble with.

I am, and I'm thinking of that as an option. It requires an ISBN, though. I've never bought an ISBN on my own and don't know how to go about it. Also, all my books are already listed on ARe without an ISBN. Will it mess up anything if I add an ISBN?

 

[ashleyrose]

I upload to iTunes directly and you don't need an ISBN, and my first group of books (erotica) took about five days.  My next round of books (erotic romance) took nearly two weeks, so it can take a while with them.