According to a recent Press Release Barnes and Noble is joining the DIY club that will allow independent Authors to now publish books via the Barnes and Noble E-Book website. The New Service is called PubIt and will be available this summer.
Barnes and Noble the world’s largest Bookseller is joining the ranks of Amazon, who runs the Digital Text Platform or DTP. Authors for the last few years have been able to make a living from distributing their books via Amazons online bookstore and are able to be read via their Kindle line of E-Readers, as well as Kindle applications for Android Devices, Blackberries, Iphones, and the PC.
Apple riding on the success of their iPad Slate PC and the runway hit of their new iBookstore is also now allowing self-publishers to distribute their e-books. Apple recently made a deal with Smashwords, who claims to have over 566,647,506 words published! Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers and readers. They offer multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device. They also help market the writer’s works and allows affiliates to also promote their service, for a percentage of each book sold.
Barnes & Noble new software PubIt has not officially given details on what the royalty rate will be on the new service, but we believe it will fall in line with the industry standard. The currently industry standard is which is around 70% of the sale.
Amazon whom is one of the leading online book sellers has been offering authors a woeful 25% of each books sales. They have since announced due to the success of Sony, and Apples iBookstore to increase the amount it offers authors to 75% of each sale, starting this June.
When you publish with Barnes and Noble new Independent system, they have a conversion program that they will implement in house to in-case each book in DRM or Digital Rights Management encryption. This will make independent authors and authors dealing with a publishing company have the same kind of encryption on all of their books.
The PubIt software will allow ebooks to be read on the Barnes and Noble Nook, the upcoming Nook-Lite and Nook 2, iPad’s, iPhones, Computers, Blackberries and Android driven devices.
We believe that the PubIt software is a firm digital step forward in Barnes and Noble’s mentality. This new software will allow them to stay competitive in the new digital stratosphere.
People more than ever are harnessing an audience via Blogs, Social Working and being able to self-publish empowers authors to reap more reward selling their published works. Gone are the days, where if you did not have a publisher you were wallowing as a starving artist. In the new digital realm, independent authors and companies are making good money via content distribution systems, such as iTunes and the Apple App Store.
Many authors as well, do not deal with just one company, such as Amazon to distribute their works; they submit their e-books to various industry partners for wider exposure and more sales. Barnes and Noble is the latest company to offer this new service this summer and we are excited about another partner for independents.
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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.
