Apple’s iBooks service has become increasingly popular among Apple device owners due to its close integration with their devices. Unlike Amazon’s Kindle app, iBooks are supported in iTunes, so it is just as easy as dragging and dropping books to a connected device.
Amazon"s Kindle is still the biggest eBook reader on the market, holding more market share than any other device in this field. It comes as no surprise, then, that Amazon has established itself as the dominant company in the field of digital book distribution. This brings Amazon in direct competition with Apple and Apple is not fond of that. In fact, they could even stop your book appearing on the iBooks Store – and that’s exactly what they did.
Author Holly Lisle writes a series of books on the craft of writing, and these are available to purchase in digital format. Her most recent work, "How To Think Sideways Lesson 6: How To Discover (Or Create) Your Story’s Market", targets the actual marketing of a finished book. Thanks to services like Apple’s iBooks and Amazon’s CreateSpace, anyone can become an author.
Holly Lisle submitted her book to iBooks, and had it rejected by Apple. Their explanation was that it could not provide a live link to Amazon, for they are a competitor. Lisle understood this and removed the live links as per request, resubmitting the book. Again, she was rejected. She was rejected for mentioning Amazon; not for having links this time, but for mentioning the site. It is peculiar, since there are books available which mention Amazon regularly. Some people over on YCombinator are putting forth the argument that Apple’s review process, while it works, is not the most consistent in its application.
Source: BoingBoing.net