Self Publishing with Barnes & Noble's PubIt and Nook

On October 4, 2010 Barnes & Noble announced that Publt, its self publishing ebook platform. Now available to any American bank account holder—author or publisher—interested in uploading their ebook for publication. Previously, this service was only available to select authors and publishers.

This is great news for U.S. authors and/or publishers who are now given more freedom to get their book out into the hands of more readers, through B&N’s existing reputation.

Pricing Ebooks With The Publt Tool

Authors / publishers receive 65% royalties on any book priced between $2.98 and $10 but for anything priced either above or below; royalties are reduced to 40%. Barnes & Noble’s Publt tool allows authors to register, upload their ebook and book cover, and set their price (anything from $0.99 and $199) all within moments.

The pricing strategy is designed to help improve the market position of Barnes & Noble’s ebook reader (the Nook),  since with cheaper books, it serves as better competition to Amazon’s Kindle. However, Barnes & Noble’s royalty figures aren’t as healthy as the 70/30 split offered by both Amazon and Apple.

How To Sell Ebooks With Barnes & Noble

Publt allows for its users to easily upload their book in Microsoft’s Word format—by far the most common formats for ebooks nowadays—as well as in RTF, TXT or HTML formats. It then converts any of the above formats into formats used by Barnes & Noble’s Nook. Uploads take anywhere from between 24 and 72 hours to be listed on their website and when that happens, users can log in to track their sales.

Although Barnes & Noble states that the platform is solely for the publication and distribution of e-books, it forces the question: Is this the first step in building a platform for the self-publication of paperback and hardback books as well? If the bookseller does move on this, it will be in more direct competition with Amazon who offers a platform for self-publication with its CreateSpace service.

There is no doubt that the publishing world is changing and this recent move by Barnes & Noble gives writers, readers and publishers increased flexibility and freedom in how books are being sold and read.

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