Have any brilliant manuscripts kicking about, just waiting for a readership? Well now you have another route to getting your work published. Barnes & Noble have launched the latest self-publishing effort. Though a little behind schedule — the service was slated for a summer release — the new PubIt! (as it is called) is a further attempt to weaken the strong grip that the traditional publishing houses have maintained over the distribution of literature, allowing for the middleman to be cut out, so to speak, in the writer-to-reader relationship.
Though the name does not seem to be a big hit throughout most of the tech blogosphere, the service itself does seem promising. It looks incredibly straight-forward to have your possible-book converted from pretty much any popular file format (RTF, DOC, TXT, etc) to the ePUB format (which is compatible with a wide selection of e-readers, not just the Nook), and from there, posted in the Barnes and Noble eBookstore, within only 24 to 72 hours later. You can check out the PubIt! website portal for yourself here.
“We’re delighted at the enthusiastic response we’ve received from thousands of independent writers and publishers who are eager to introduce their exciting works to a broader audience of readers,” Theresa Horner of Barnes & Noble was quoted saying. “The launch of our PubIt! platform further reinforces our long-standing commitment to authors and writers, and offers a significant opportunity to provide an even greater selection of reading material to our millions of customers.”
One of the much-toted selling points of the new PubIt! is Barnes & Noble’s promise of no hidden terms or fees. Writers can set any price between $0.99 and $199.99 for their work, and they’ll receive between 40% and 65% a cut of that sticker price.
Another neat feature is LendIt!, which allows anyone to lend one of their PubIt! ebooks to a friend for up to 14 days (but only once per book).
