Uploading to iBookstore:

[twedigteam]

Anyone with experience uploading their ePubs to the iBookstore? We're a little perplexed with some the <guide> reference types. It seems standard that a book starts at the cover, title page, or even table of contents, however, Apple's requirements state otherwise.

When a customer first opens a book on the iPad or iPhone, it will display the first spine item for which there exists a <reference> element in the <guide> with any of the following types:

• text
• acknowledgements
• dedication
• epigraph
• foreword
• preface
• other.intro

To designate a start page with higher precedence over the types listed above, use the <reference> element of type “other.reader-start-page”.

Now, anyone have a clue if it is necessary to tag a title page, cover, or toc with <reference type="other.reader-start-page" ... /> for every single one of our files?

Furthermore, there's this caveat as well:

Within the <guide> block, there can be only one <reference> element of each type; for example, there cannot be multiple <reference> elements of type “text”

So is it assumed that all .xhtml docs after that initially tagged "text" element are in fact, text (that is, until tagged otherwise with say, backmatter of some sort)? This would leave many .xhtml docs within the ePub untagged, and thus not satsifying Apple's stated requirement of having "All book elements...identified in the <guide> block."

Seems like a bit of a paradox here, but it's certainly possible we are misconstruing what Apple wants. Anyone with some clarity or experience on this one?