On the shelf in a week — the unglamorous paperwork of shipping a second app

So far I've written about the inside of STIL.TOON. The last piece is about actually getting it out into the world. This second app went from kickoff to the App Store in a single week. Here's what was happening outside the code during that week.

A map of the week

Roughly, it went like this.

I started the project on May 7, built the face detection and the illustration step, added the character, and filed the first submission on May 11. After a few stumbles, it was approved on May 14. One week. Because I'd walked this road once already with the first app, STIL., the second one went much faster.

But at the end of that week, I was stopped in my tracks somewhere unexpected.

The stumble was outside the code

One submission came back rejected. Reading the reason, it wasn't a problem with the app's features. "The Paid Apps Agreement is not signed."

To offer in-app purchases, you need this agreement in place with Apple. Until it's active, no matter how perfect the code, an app with purchases can't pass review. What I tripped on wasn't a function or a screen — it was a single contract, a sheet of paper.

Preparation that isn't digital

That night, I cleared everything that had been stuck, all at once. Signing the Paid Apps Agreement, the W-8BEN (a tax form for the treaty with the US), a bank account for payouts, and a trader registration for the EU. None of it involves writing a line of code.

To put one app into the world, you need forms from a bank and a tax office — obvious in hindsight, but before building, I hadn't understood it this concretely. A product doesn't end when the code is done. The unglamorous, clerical paperwork of getting it onto the shelf waits at the very end.

Worth remembering

I wrote this one down as a lesson on the spot. When Apple revises the Paid Apps Agreement, purchases can stop across the whole account until you sign it again. So if you ever spot the words "Paid Apps Agreement" in a rejection email, before suspecting the code, check the contract, tax, and bank details first. Trip on it once, and you'll catch it instantly the next time.

A second one on the shelf, in a week

That same night, after clearing the paperwork, I resubmitted. The next day, May 14, approved. Exactly one week from kickoff, a second app sat on the shelf.

Don't wait for perfect — ship something that works first, then rebuild while it's still light. The second app took that rhythm, learned on the first, and turned it straight into speed. One app now has a second. At the end of Season 1 I wrote about going "from one app to a family" — this is how the second member was born.

In closing — Darkroom Notes, Season 2

The little darkroom in my pocket had quietly come to hold a second tool. STIL., which pulls one frame out of a video, and STIL.TOON, which turns faces into drawings to share. Both run entirely inside the iPhone.

Darkroom Notes closes Season 2 here. What I'll take out next, I haven't decided yet. The family, though, is set to grow a little more.

STIL.TOON is out on the App Store. If you like, go back and open that one photo you'd been keeping to yourself.