There are a great of elements involved in making your application ready for the Mac App Store. Edit: I use the term “Us” a lot throughout, I mean Us as in the members of this forum.
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Start by reading the App Store Rules here https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
if there’s anything you don’t understand, or not sure if your application doesn’t comply, ask us on the this forum. Hopefully there will be someone who’s had experience with that certain rule and now understands what to do to prevent a rejection from it. -
Pay close attention to “Business” section of the above rules, and see if how you intend to sell your application is allowed. Maybe even take some time and discuss with us on how you should approach this as Apple is very particular.
a) You cannot sell upgrades when you do a new version.
b) Apple is pushing developers to adopt In-App-Purchase, the general rule of thumb is that you are not allowed to use Auto-Renewing subscriptions unless your app sells subscriptions to streaming content.
c) If you want to provide a FREE trial, you must make your application FREE and usable in it’s FREE state. You can then use In-App-Purchase to offer a time limited FREE trial of “Unlocked” features.
d) In-App-Purchase is a complex beast and under Catalina has many issues, if you choose to go this route, prepare to spend some serious time in fine-tuning it. You can store meta-data about the items on Apple’s servers, but under some circumstance this meta-data may fail to reach the users computer, so always make sure your application contains meta data for when IAP item don’t. -
App Sandbox rules and regulations.
The App Sandbox is a security mechanism which is designed to protect the user in case your application becomes infected with a virus. This means that its capabilities are limited. I urge you to test your application (or develop it with this security mechanism engaged). There are a range of entitlements that can add to re-enable functionality (such as being able to show open or save dialogs, access the internet, print and so on). This may mean that you have to sacrifice functionality to get your app to meet the App Sandbox. -
Once you believe that your application meets Apple’s technical requirements, you can start filling out the marketing sections for the App Store, these are fairly simply, such as description, screenshots and so on. Make sure you read the App Store documentation on accepted screenshot resolutions. Don’t be surprised if it rejects screenshots claiming to be incorrect resolution. I’ve had this happen, and Apple normally fix issues like this in a week or two.
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Devise a marketing plan.
This one is very important. Once Apple approve your application for sale in their store and it goes live. No-one will see it, unless Apple decides to promote it. It will simply be added to the bottom of a list somewhere and die on it’s own. In the past Apple used to list new or updated apps, but they don’t anymore (and still charge the same 30%). I absolutely suck at marketing, so hopefully someone who’s more adapt at it can offer you some advice. I have a list on my wall of 12 things that don’t work, and so far zero that I’ve confirmed do work. -
You’ve made it this far.
Wrap your application and submit it to Apple. Expect your application to be rejected. That way when it gets accepted, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. If you don’t understand the reason for rejection, search online or ask here. Don’t bother wasting your time with the reviewer, they’re only allowed to say a limited number of things. If you’re at a complete loss of what to do and no-one can help you (outside of the App Store), then you can request the reviewer to get a human being from the “Resolution Team” to call you. It takes about a week for someone to call, and they’re not technical people, but at the very least you can talk to a human and they can help you to understand your rejection. Some of them are kind enough to even contact people in Apple with technical knowledge and request information for you, but not all of the “Resolution Team”.
If you have any questions, ask us.
Edit: When reading the rules, you may see existing apps or new apps on the Mac App Store that clearly do not adhere to the rules. Do not take this as an understanding that you are allowed to do what they do. The same can be said for App Sandbox entitlements. I have questioned members of the Resolution Team over this, but the response I get is that “we’re not discussing App X”.