Why Publish with Barnes & Noble Press? Pros and Cons for Ebook Authors

Why publish on Barnes & Noble Press?

These days, ebook authors have many options when it comes to self-publishing (indie publishing). While Amazon KDP is the major player in the US, it is not the only option, and, as you’ll soon learn, Amazon is not the biggest name everywhere in the world. Far from it.

For some authors looking to “go wide”—that is, to reach a wider audience by publishing and selling books on more than just Amazon, self-publishing an ebook to Barnes & Noble—either directly through Barnes & Noble Press or through a distributor (aka an aggregator), may be worth considering.

On “going wide,” there’s a great book, Wide for the Win, that I highly recommend.

(Here’s a direct link to Barnes & Noble Press for authors.)

What this post is about and who it’s for

In this post we look at the pros and cons of Barnes & Noble Press and the pros and cons of self-publishing an ebook on Barnes & Noble directly vs. self-publishing that same ebook using an aggregator or distributor that will then “push” the ebook to, or list it on, B&N.com for you.

I hope this will help indie ebook authors and others interested in Barnes & Noble wondering “Is Barnes & Noble Press worth it?” and that it will help people weigh how to publish and sell books on Barnes & Noble—whether directly or through, say, Draft2Digital, for example.

I use “aggregator” and “distributor” interchangeably to refer to a company that is an author’s intermediary, making an ebook available for download from an online retailer on behalf of the author, in exchange for a portion of the author’s sales or a monthly fee.

Self-Publishing to Barnes & Noble Press: Pros and Cons

Pros of Barnes & Noble Press

You’ll reach readers on NOOK ereading devices and a variety of other devices, including Android, iPad, iPhone, Windows 8 and later, PC computers and tablets, and Mac computers, via NOOK’s free NOOK ereading software.
Barnes & Noble pays high royalties (70 percent). It’s a flat rate. There are no hidden fees. Unlike Amazon KDP (which requires $2.99 to 9.99 ebook pricing for the 70 percent royalty), you only need to price your book $0.99 or greater, and it just needs to be less than your print book (if you have one on B&N).
It’s relatively quick and easy to publish. Once your account is approved, you can have an ebook published and for sale within 72 hours.
Pre-orders are easy too. “You can make a title available for pre-order up to 12 months in advance of your publication date for eBooks. You have the option to skip uploading your interior file until your final files are ready.”
Pre-orders are factored into sales rank as they happen, similar to Apple and unlike Amazon.
Quick royalty payments: “approximately thirty (30) days following the end of the calendar month during which it is sold and once you have accrued a minimum of Ten U.S. Dollars $10. All payments will be made via electronic transfer payments”—by direct deposit into US bank accounts or transfers via SWIFT or IBAN for international authors. (You can see the Barnes & Noble Press membership agreement here.) So, by the end of May, your earnings for the books you sold in April would be transferred into your account.
Marketing opportunities: “We highlight both emerging and established B&N Press authors in our exclusive marketing opportunities. Reach half a million readers with our weekly genre and deals newsletters or see your book in our special collections that are cross-promoted on our blog and Facebook page. Receive help from trusted 3rd party self-publishing services to bring your manuscript to life. Explore these preferred author resources for editing, book cover design, book marketing, author website creation, and more.”

Barnes & Noble Press ebook royalty rate for authors

If you’re a US author looking to self-publish smart and need guidance (hint: it’s kind of daunting, so that would be a great idea!), help is just a few clicks away.

Have questions on what to do and how to do it? Need help with book metadata, which platforms to publish to and how, and stuff like that?

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Cons of publishing an ebook with Barnes & Noble Press

Barnes & Noble has a small market share in the US and worldwide—under 10 percent. It might feel like a waste of time and energy to do all this extra work and to maintain an account here.
Barnes & Noble Press has a limited reach. Barnes & Noble isn’t a worldwide company and isn’t widely known outside the US. And publishing with Barnes & Noble Press does not get your book into libraries. It only gets you on barnesandnoble.com.
Barnes & Noble Press is only available to authors in select countries. These 12 countries are the US (where the company is based), the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. Authors from other countries will have to use an aggregator.
You cannot publish a free ebook. (Not an option, then, for authors with “free first in series” books.)
Some of the materials on the Barnes & Noble Press website are outdated.

How to publish on Barnes & Noble and pros and cons

You can publish directly to Barnes & Noble through a relatively simple process. This link takes you to the sign-in page (sign in with your Barnes & Noble account information or create a new account.)

Publishing directly to Barnes & Noble gives you more control over your metadata (you can view and choose the exact categories used by Barnes & Noble for your listing), access to more detailed reporting, access to exclusive promotions and tips, and more, should you be interested.

Using an aggregator / distributor to publish to Barnes & Noble and the pros and cons of it

You can also use an ebook aggregator or distributor to publish to barnesandnoble.com. Barnes & Noble doesn’t give preferential treatment or increased visibility to books published directly through them vs. with an aggregator. Note that many of these will curate books to feature in promotions on barnesandnoble.com.

As of the time of writing, here are the aggregators and distributors that publish to barnesandnoble.com’s ebook storefront: Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, StreetLib, XinXii, the assisted publishing services company Blurb (through Ingram), and IngramSpark.

Pros of using aggregators / distributors to publish on Barnes & Noble

With an aggregator, you can publish to multiple ebook retailers and wholesalers and have all the information in one centralized account and a more simplified accounting and payout process.

Let’s say you have already published with one of the above. Chances are you’ve probably checked a box (or unchecked a box) to say, in effect, “Yeah, put my book up on Barnes & Noble.”

Note: If you publish a book directly to Barnes & Noble first, and then you go to publish an ebook on IngramSpark, you’ll have to de-list your Barnes & Noble listing for that book, and you’ll lose all your reviews on Barnes & Noble for that particular book. Ingram will then re-list that ebook for you on Apple. Ugh! For that reason, I recommend following the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLI) Recommendations for Publishing Wide, and not distribute your ebook through IngramSpark.

If you use an aggregator, you may also be nominated (by the aggregator staff) for special promotions.

And you may find that an aggregator could help you more quickly with a Barnes & Noble-related question or concern than Barnes & Noble could. (Anecdotally, I’ve never heard anything negative about Barnes & Noble, just that they’re slower and a little more anonymous).

Cons of using aggregators / distributors to publish on Barnes & Noble

While it may save you time and make it more convenient, you’ll have to surrender 10 percent or more of your royalties to an aggregator.
And you won’t have the degree of control that you would have if publishing directly through Barnes & Noble. For example, if you wanted to change keywords only for your book’s listing only for B&N, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to do that through an aggregator.