Archive for barnes and noble
Top Publishers Donate eBooks to Get London Reading Campaign
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Hachette UK, HarperCollins, Penguin, and Random House have donated a selection of top children’s titles to support the Get London Reading literacy campaign. This is a big event with Barnes and Noble and the London Evening Standard aiming to make reading more accessible and affordable across the UK and includes a donation of 1,000 NOOK Simple Touch e-Readers to Beanstalk, a national literacy charity that recruits and supports reading volunteers in schools.
NOOK has worked with Hachette UK, HarperCollins, Penguin, and Random House to contribute the books, which will be loaded onto the 1,000 Nook e-Readers that B&N is donating to reading volunteers from Beanstalk. The titles donated are some of the UK’s most popular children’s books. The Beanstalk literacy volunteers will use the NOOKs at key schools with high levels of illiteracy across the UK.
Victoria Barnsley, CEO and Publisher, HarperCollins UK and International said: “At HarperCollins, we are passionate about extending the joy of reading and have long supported Beanstalk’s amazing work promoting literacy in schools. We are delighted to be in partnership with NOOK on this fantastic project to Get Reading.”
Gail Rebuck, Chair and CEO, The Random House Group said: “Random House has supported Beanstalk for nine years and the Get Reading campaign since its launch in 2011. Today marks a key milestone for the campaign and we have donated 10 fantastic ebooks from authors who are supporting the NOOK partnership including Jacqueline Wilson, James Patterson and Bear Grylls that will capture the imaginations of young people and support Beanstalk volunteers who are working to improve literacy levels in schools across the UK.”
George Walkley, Head of Digital, Hachette UK said: “We are absolutely delighted to be involved in the Get Reading campaign. We believe that reading is the foundation for a happy and healthy life. Books in every format enhance the lives of children and, as more and more children now read on e-readers, this initiative with NOOK is a very valuable addition to this great campaign.”
Pinterest Now Being Pre-Loaded on Barnes and Noble Tablets
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Pinterest and Barnes and Noble have signed a new agreement to have the app pre-loaded on any future Nook HD and HD+ tablets that are sold. Any tablets in the stores will be temporarily pulled to load a new firmware update that will give you Pinterest has a native application.
Pinterest joins Facebook and Twitter as one of the handful of apps pre-loaded on NOOK devices. Claudia Romanini, who is the vice president of NOOK apps at Barnes & Noble, says that Pinterest has “long been one of” the company’s most requested apps, so we’re positive that most NOOK users will benefit greatly from the addition of Pinterest.
So what exactly is Pinterest? It is basically a cool photo sharing app, and a recent PEW Report said 15% of online adults use it. Kobo has also integrated it into its platform, alongside many other companies.
Barnes and Noble is trying to revitalize the company’s digital division during the last few weeks. The company recently launched its revised self-publishing program, Nook Press. UltraViolet is also a growing segment within B&N’s new television and movie ecosystem.
Barnes and Noble Introduces eBook Publishing Platform – Nook Press
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The world of self-publishing is rife with unfriendly, non-intuitive platforms that demand a strong technical knowledge to be able to produce compelling ebooks. Barnes and Noble is hoping to solve this problem with the unveiling of its Nook Press platform. Announced today, it is a direct follow-up to the company’s first generation PUBIT initiative that was launched in 2010.
Theresa Horner, the VP of Digital content at Barnes and Noble, explained the company’s process in an exclusive interview with Good e-Reader. “When we launched PUBIT, we had no idea how big the community would be,” she said, and went on to describe how difficult it would have been forming direct relationships with authors without PUBIT. “If we did not start PUBIT, we wouldn’t have been able to get content from all of these great indie authors. We are investing two times into the new platform than we originally did PUBIT.”
Nook Press provides an all in one solution that allows authors to upload existing Microsoft Word documents and instantly see how they look in EPUB, or create EPUB documents from scratch using the online tools. One of the barriers to ebook creation is being able to constantly refine your work; many self-publishing platforms do not allow you to make changes in the web-interface and demand you make the changes locally and then re-upload the finished result. Nook Press allows authors to make any changes on the fly and even create an interactive table of contents, something that makes everyone’s life a little bit easier.
When you have selected your cover art and added your metadata, it is time to list your book on the Barnes and Noble ecosystem. US publishers and authors can select whether they want the book for sale both in the US and the UK, and establish different prices accordingly. You also have the option to choose whether you want your finished product to have DRM or not. Having the option to avoid encryption and allow your ebook to be free and open will resonate with the segment of outspoken authors that love freedom of information. Another thing most people will love is the ability for all ebook titles to be included into LENDME—Barnes and Noble’s social sharing feature—that allows users to loan a title out only once to a friend for up to two weeks.
The entire ebook creation is done in EPUB2 and there is no functionality to include interactive content, videos, or animations with EPUB3. Also, there is no way to export your ebook as a PDF, so self-publishing comic books may not be the easiest thing in the world to smoothly accomplish. The Nook Press program is exclusively available for US residents only and will not accept submissions from any other market. The company may look at the United Kingdom at some point, but does not have immediate plans to make publishing available there.
Many authors love to know how their sales and metrics are doing for a title they have just released. Nook Press has new analytical functions that can give you an immediate report on every single purchase made. It is on a 3 hour delay for sales reports, as the company has to verify credit card data and other purchasing information. You can see the raw numbers, or juggle the graph data to show how it is performing over time.
First time authors have lots of questions when they are self-publishing for the first time. Barnes and Noble is making customer support for authors its top priority by introducing a new live chat feature. From 9 AM to 9 PM on weekdays, authors can talk directly to a Nook specialist to get help for anything that they need. Theresa told us that she recognized B&N’s support for self-publishing has been very weak in the past, and the company is remedying it with Nook Press.
Many first time authors want to share their books with their friends and family. Whether you have added a new chapter, or are just starting out, there are new tools to involve collaborators. You can invite people via email to get access to your book in the cloud. They can leave their impressions on specific sentences or chapters via the notes tool. Currently, the ability to edit an ebook as a collaborator is not included in the first release, but is on the company’s roadmap to introduce in the future.
Speaking of the future, introducing new features is something most people love when they are self-publishing on any given platform. Since PUBIT was first released in 2010, there has not been a single new enhancement added. The entire point of Nook Press is to create a scalable product in which new enhancements can easily be pushed out for everyone to enjoy. Speaking of PUBIT, the entire platform will be retired once Nook Press sees a broader rollout.
Considering where PUBIT left off, there is a night and day difference with the unveiling of Nook Press. The entire process of creating an ebook is actually very intuitive and easy. The platform eliminates anything that would be a barrier to you proudly launching your first title.
Barnes and Noble Offers Free eBooks and Magazines with Windows 8 App
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Barnes and Noble has announced that the company is offering a number of digital magazines and books via its Windows 8 app. Some of the free titles include Blue Bloods, Hello, Cupcake!, Life of Pi, and The Enemy, along with current issues of top selling magazines Food Network Magazine, GQ, HGTV Magazine, Real Simple and TIME. B&N is hoping by giving away a bunch of popular books and magazines it will hook customers into dealing with the company for the long term.
To find and download the free NOOK books and magazines, NOOK for Windows 8 users can simply scroll to the Popular Lists section in the app and find the “Welcome Offer” list. Customers will have to act fast to get their free copy of the modern classic, Life of Pi, which is only available to the first 100,000 customers who download the book on the NOOK app for Windows 8. To download the app, merely visit the Windows store and do a search for Nook to install it. One of the great aspects of this app in general is that it allows customers outside the UK and US to buy content. This is because all purchases are done from your Microsoft Account.
“NOOK is the highest-rated reading and digital bookstore app for Windows 8, and by providing bestselling books and top magazines for free, new NOOK customers can start their digital libraries with some of the best content in the expansive NOOK Store,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at NOOK Media LLC. “With the NOOK app for Windows 8, customers get an incredible reading experience and can choose from over 3 million NOOK Books, including 1 million free titles, as well as magazines, newspapers, and comics on any Windows 8 device.”
Tensions Between Barnes and Noble, Simon and Schuster Hurt Authors
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The publishing industry is full of surprises, and the latest conflict is certainly surprising. In an attempt to negotiate the terms of its relationship with a publisher, book retailer Barnes and Noble has reportedly slashed its order from Simon and Schuster in what some feel may be nothing more than retaliation.
According to an article by Leslie Kaufman for the New York Times, the negotiations amount to wanting more money for titles that the retailer stocks in prominent–and historically sought after–display space. The amount, size, and even inch-by-inch proximity of display space in physical stores has always been a hotly contested bargaining chip in contract negotiations between agents, publishers, and booksellers.
While the involved parties interviewed in Kaufman’s piece had to speak on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing negotiations, executives from both Barnes and Noble and Simon & Schuster were quoted about their standard policies for this type of contract issue. However, more vocal opponents of the tensions included two literary agents who spoke about the impact this can have on authors, especially lesser known authors who rely on every possible avenue for book discovery, including physical bookstores’ display space.
According to Kaufman’s article, “Laura Gross, the literary agent for the best-selling author Jodi Picoult, said the dispute had certainly hurt sales of her client’s latest book, The Storyteller. Barnes & Noble has ‘taken limited orders, limited placement, and did not do the normal outreach to their customers online, which really hurt,’ Ms. Gross said.”
An author with the branding and readership that Jodi Picoult has can probably come away from a situation like these negotiations with her sales intact, as evidenced by her #1 NYT spot for her latest print release, but as Gross pointed out in the article, debut and newer authors stand to lose a lot in sales and fan growth, which will only perpetuate the cycle of bookstore and publisher demise. With dire predictions for the state of major publishers and with reports that physical bookstores are continuing to make cuts to floor space and retail locations, it doesn’t seem like a good time to alienate one’s allies.
Barnes and Noble Partners with Fortumo for In-App Purchases
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Barnes and Noble has announced by April 2013 that the company will introduce a new in-app payment system for Android apps housed in its app store. The company plans on introducing new developer tools that will allow customers to purchase in-app currency, boosts, and anything else that tickles their fancy. B&N only has 10,000 apps currently in its ecosystem, which is blown away by our very own Good e-Reader App Store with over 16,000.
When Barnes and Noble introduces the new in-app payment system in April, customers will simply attach a credit card to their main account and will automatically reap the benefits with purchasing content within the app. There is no need to always enter your user details and password, you merely click PAY.
Barnes and Noble should attract more developers with this new system, that could see their locked down ecosystem as a viable way to earn some extra money. Currently, users are unable to install their own apps, as B&N has disabled the ability to sideload in your own games. If you decide to buy a Nook Android device, this is important to note.
Barnes and Noble Nook Video gets an Influx of New Content
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Barnes and Noble has announced today that they have signed new agreements with Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Relativity Media, National Geographic, Little Pim, and Film Buff. This will add hundreds of new movies and television shows to their Nook Video system for the Nook HD and HD+.
One of the big hyping factors about these new deals is that any customer that buys the Ultraviolet version will be able to incorporate the digital edition into the Nook account. Barnes and Noble is one of only tablet companies to really integrate cloud delivery of movies and television shows onto your tablet. Although B&N has many tablets in their portfolio, Nook Video currently only works with their latest generation Nook HD and HD+ tablets.
“NOOK is one of a growing spectrum of new digital buyers for our film and TV content and illustrates the breadth and depth of opportunities for monetizing our content across a broad array of platforms,” said Thomas Hughes, Lionsgate Senior VP Digital/On Demand. “We look forward to an exciting and productive partnership with NOOK.”
Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have been working very hard the last year securing new partnerships with major studios. The two companies both deliver television shows and movies with their established ecosystem and offer various incentives to their base of customers to make them more appealing. Currently both Nook Video and Amazon Instant Video only work in the USA and fail to appeal to international users.
Barnes and Noble Names Book Award Winners
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Barnes and Noble hosted a ceremony today in New York where they announced the winners of this year’s Discover Great New Writers Award. The award, first presented in 1990 and now in its 22nd year, is bestowed on new and undiscovered authors whose work has great literary merit.
This year’s fiction category winner is Amanda Coplin for The Orchardist, while the non-fiction winner was Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, published by HarperCollins and Alfred A. Knopf, respectively. Second and third place honorees in the fiction category were Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles and The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey; the non-fiction second and third place winners were Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Full Body Burden by Kristen Iversen.
In addition to the monetary awards presented to each of the top three honorees in both fiction and non-fiction, these titles, along with other mentionable works, will be featured in promotions from Barnes and Noble. The goal of the award and the inclusion in the honor is to enable readers to more readily find these works that may otherwise have been lost among the many titles sold by the online retailer, especially as more entities are working to address the obstacles to book discovery.
This award parallels the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, which are open to a decidedly more self-published pool of authors. The ABNA awards have finished the first-round cuts and will continue through different stages until the final presentation in late spring.
Barnes and Noble Experiences a 26% Decrease in Nook Profit
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Barnes and Noble officially announced its third quarter earnings today that basically encompasses November, December, and January. This time frame is critical to any business to capture holiday sales, but more important to companies that sell ebooks. For the most part, the hardware sees the most activity in November and December and then ebook sales normally increase just after Christmas, leading until the end of January. Most people are buying the hardware and then purchasing new digital content. B&N has reported a 26% decrease in Nook Sales, but ebook sales had a 6.8% increase over the same period last year.
NOOK EBITDA losses were $190 million for the third quarter, as compared to $83 million a year ago, primarily resulting from the previously noted sales shortfall, inventory charges, and higher operating expenses. The company recorded $59 million of additional inventory charges during the third quarter, as the holiday sales shortfall resulted in higher than anticipated levels of finished and unfinished goods. Operating expenses increased over the prior year on higher advertising costs.
Barnes and Noble has experienced declining revenues for hardware and ebooks for the last full calender year and the company is looking to shake things up. The company is to re-calibrate its business model and has implemented a cost reduction program that the company projects will significantly reduce NOOK’s expenses. This includes cutting staff and scaling back on advertising costs.
“In terms of the NOOK Media business, we’ve taken significant actions to begin to right size our cost structure in the NOOK segment, while also taking a large markdown on NOOK devices in order to enhance our ability to achieve our estimated sales plans in subsequent quarters,” said William Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble. “NOOK Media has been financing itself since October of 2012 due to the strong investment partners we’ve been able to attract in Microsoft and Pearson. Coming off the holiday shortfall, we’re in the process of making some adjustments to our strategy as we continue to pursue the exciting growth opportunities ahead for us in the consumer and digital education content markets.” Mr. Lynch also said that going forward NOOK Media still remains committed to its Tablet and e-Reader business. And, he reiterated that NOOK and Barnes & Noble bookstores will continue to have a close relationship. “Without question, our bookstores have made a significant contribution to NOOK’s success over the past three years. And, in turn, our award-winning line of NOOK products have proven to be a strong driver of traffic to our stores.”
A company can only lose so much money consistently before they have to shake up their business model. I think one of Barnes and Noble’s biggest failings is that they limit themselves to only the USA and UK. These two countries have the MOST competition when it comes to the digital reader and ebook space. Amazon and Kobo have been expanding like crazy over the last year, with new markets in Europe, Japan, South America, China, and South Africa. It is critical that Barnes and Noble expands into other markets in order to facilitate growth. Unlike cell phones, people tend to buy an e-reader and stick with it for a number of years before upgrading. It is becoming increasingly difficult for any company to rely on the sale of hardware to be profitable, unless you are entering a new market for the first time.
Barnes and Noble Nook HD and HD+ Bluetooth Speaker Out Soon
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Barnes and Noble has not really developed many accessories for its line of tablets, but we should see a new wireless speaker very soon. The largest bookstore chain the USA has just had its first wireless Bluetooth speaker pass the FCC. This will allow you to take advantage of better audio capabilities when listening to music, audiobooks, or a myriad of other things with your Nook HD and Nook HD+.
There is no word on cost yet, but we should see a commercial release within the next two months. This is going to be a great addition for people who are not totally content with the built in speakers in their tablets. You may pay a premium for this, but if you listen to lots of audio, it may be worth it.
Founder of Barnes and Noble Files SEC Paperwork to Buy ALL Assets
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Earlier today we broke the news that Barnes and Noble was thinking of getting out of the hardware business and was going to start licensing out its apps and ebooks to Samsung and Microsoft. Today, the founder of Barnes and Noble and the companies largest shareholder, Leonard Riggio, filed SEC paperwork to buy all 689 retail stores and BN.com.
Barnes and Noble was not going to let something like this fly under the radar and issued a press release today confirming the SEC filing. All of this information comes a few days before B&N is poised to announce its third quarter financial reports, which are reported to be underwhelming.
A company restructuring program will likely be accelerated with 20 bookstores closing this year and no new ones opening. Last year the company hoped to expand into 11 new markets, but since the expansion into the UK, no new online bookstores have opened. Sources close to the situation are saying that B&N will not abandon the e-reader business altogether, but will start licensing out its apps and content to companies like Microsoft and Samsung.
So just who is Leo Riggio? Well, he originally started a college bookstore chain in the 1970′s. He then bought the Barnes and Noble name and their flagship bookstore in Manhattan. Over the years he built the largest bookstore chain in the US and also the company’s digital division.
Want to learn more about the history of Barnes and Noble’s Nook division? A few months ago we wrote the most definitive guide, check it out.
Book Review: Gia & Lincoln’s Aggravating Allergies by Rowena Cala
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Verdict: 4 Stars
It might seem easy to review a children’s a book. After all, it’s only twenty pages and it’s mostly pictures, right? Wrong. In some ways, a children’s author has a more difficult task in the writing due to that limited space. Unless the author is also the illustrator, there is another creative professional with a hand in the story whose effort is equally important.
In Rowena Cala’s children’s title, Gia & Lincoln’s Aggravating Allergies (Strategic Book Publishing), illustrated by Gabriel Vega, the author was faced with writing an amusing children’s book about playful jungle animals becoming friends, but it really goes so much farther than that. Just like any full-length novel, there are key plot elements and character developments, only Cala’s story was confined to picture book length.
In her book, Lincoln is an outcast from the other lions because of his meat allergy. Gia, a monkey, spies him from up in her tree and cautiously wants to know why he’s crying. No sooner do they talk through Lincoln’s allergy and the resulting loss of friends and bullying, than they agree that Gia will be his new friend, playing and laughing with him while sharing the bananas he secretly enjoys so much but cannot reach from the ground. Just when it seems that the story has resolved, a new crisis arises: Gia is allergic to lions.
The storyline is original and creative while incorporating important themes that parents and educators will appreciate the opportunity to share, such as prejudices, medical conditions, bullying, friendship, and embracing our differences. The illustrations were a little chunky and basic, but fit with the story nicely. Overall, it will be a fun read for per- or emerging readers.
Gia & Lincoln’s Aggravating Allergies is available now in print at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Is Barnes and Noble Leaving the e-Reader Business?
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Barnes and Noble has reported losses in its Nook Media division, which comprises of e-readers and ebooks. The company is going to be announcing its 3rd quarter financials within the next few days, and suffice it to say the company is not going to meet the projected revenue of three billion. A person close to Barnes and Noble has said the company might be gravitating away from hardware sales and instead license out its technology to other companies.
“They are not completely getting out of the hardware business, but they are going to lean a lot more on the comprehensive digital catalog of content,” said this person, who asked not to be identified discussing corporate strategy.
It seems that Barnes and Noble will begin licensing out the Nook Media platform to Samsung and Microsoft to give them a competitive advantage. Pearson and Microsoft were both early investors in Barnes and Noble’s digital strategy. The shift from Nook e-readers and ebooks from being a singular part of Barnes and Nobles bookstore chain and spinning off into its autonomous entity was a strong precursor to licensing its ecosystem to other companies.
Barnes and Noble has seen dwindling interest in its line of hardware. The Nook HD and HD+ were very solid pieces of hardware, but saw diminished market share due to the iPad, Kindle Fire, and Samsung tablets. Why is Nook no longer catching on with the public? One of the big reasons is international customers and support. Barnes and Noble does not let people living outside the UK and USA to buy its products or access its online bookstore. Both of these countries have tons of variety with hardware and most end up going with an Apple product or a Kindle. Competing with hardware does not make fiscal sense and the margins are too low to see any sort of growth.
Tablets right now are starting to mirror the smartphone industry in the last 12 months. You basically have Samsung and Apple controlling 75% of the entire market and the similar thing is occurring with Apple, Amazon, and Samsung. This leaves Barnes and Noble as the odd man out.
Update: Len Riggio, the CEO of B&N has said that he has filed SEC Paperwork to buy all of Barnes and Nobles 689 retail stores and also BN.com. It looks like something major is going to happen with the retail chain and the digital division.
Update 2: Mary Ellen Keating reached out to us to say “To be clear, we have no plans to discontinue our award-winning line of NOOK products.”
