Barnes and Noble Nook Press is a self-publishing system that allows authors to include their ebooks in the Nook Bookstore and BN.com. Today Canadian authors can now submit their ebooks directly to the platform. This is the first time the bookseller has ever allowed writers from outside the United States into their walled garden.
Although Canadians can sell their ebooks directly on Barnes and Noble and get access to a dashboard that tracks their sales, Canadians cannot actually buy ebooks or download free ones. Barnes and Noble does not allow anyone outside of the USA to buy any of their e-readers, tablets, digital books or print books.
If you are a Canadian writer and want to submit your ebook or build one online, you have to register a Nook Press account and submit all of your personal and financial details. Once your account is validated you can simply upload an existing book and it will live within a day or two. If you have never wrote a book, Nook Press has an online builder that helps you format, select cover art and generate a table of contents. There are a bunch of video tutorials that walk you through everything, and if you have any questions there is normally people around from B&N to help you out.
In the United States Barnes and Noble is the number two self-publishing platform next to Amazon. Authors can normally generate more revenue per sale if they make their own account and submit to them directly. Some people want ease of use and go through a company like Draft2digital or Smashwords, but this isn’t the best thing to do for a number of reasons. I encourage all Canadian indie authors and small presses to take a serious look at B&N Nook Press. All sales are in USD, so the conversion can really add up.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
