Apple is all about consistency and the customer experience. Connect with your audience by following guidelines for the best experience. When your book is on iBooks (or music is on iTunes), use a button that quickly identifies the availability by following Apple’s Identity Guidelines as summarized below.

  • use a recognized badge that gives your audience a clear direction
  • do not use the iTunes or iBooks logo or likeness
  • the badge should be secondary and link to the product
  • make badge/button visually pleasing by observing spacing and position guidelines

Custom buttons are nice, but I’ve seen a few that borrow the iBooks likeness. The iBooks logo is for the app, which if used for a book, could increase confusion. Better to help your readers find your book download button as quickly as possible by taking advantage of recognized buttons.

Apple provides a few tools to help make widgets, banners, and links for your site. Widgets and banners come with layouts meeting Apple’s recommendations. Remember to test your links on other devices such as your phone.

The above widget was created using Apple’s Widget Builder. You’ll find links at the top of these page to the other tools.

Below is a banner created using Banner Builder. In Wordpress, switch to the Text tab to paste the code then go back to the Visual tab to see the position holder.

If you distribute your ebook to Apple through Smashwords, use the tools to find your ebooks and create recognizable buttons.