In The News – Indie Authors to Finally See their Books on B&N Shelves

In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

This should be filed under about effing time, if it works out. I have been rooting for B&N to become competitive with Amazon and Apple. The more choices authors and readers have, the better. But B&N continually steps on their own feet.  There are quality based caveats on an indie author having their titles in the store,  which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But will B&N manage to make good this time? Head on over to Good eReader for the full story.

~ * ~

Indie Authors to Finally See their Books on B&N Shelves

June 28, 2016 By Mercy Pilkington

About three years ago, then-VP, Digital Content and GM of Barnes and Noble’s Nook Press division Theresa Horner sat down with GoodEReader at the Frankfurt Book Fair to discuss the state of the company, namely its self-publishing option and its ebook self-publishing platform. She posed the question as to what it would take to effectively compete with Amazon. Our response–which was not at all tongue in cheek–was for the retailer to stop banning indie authors’ books from brick-and-mortar stores. If Nook Press had developed a viable print-on-demand option and then told authors there was even a possibility of seeing their titles in their local bookstore on the condition that they pulled their books from Amazon’s exclusive KDP Select program, authors would have jumped at the chance.

Unfortunately, that didn’t come to pass and Theresa Horner is no longer with the company. The concept of opening the doors–and the shelves–to great self-published titles fell by the wayside.

Since that time, B&N has announced two print-on-demand options, both of which fell far short of meeting indie authors’ and small press publishers’ needs. One was to simply allow the upload and creation of print editions for what basically amounted to collectors’ editions and gift giving. The books were not listed for sale through B&N, and there was a significant upfront charge to produce them–unlike CreateSpace, just to name one example, that charges nothing to produce a print book then takes a portion of the sales price after it distributes the book to Amazon. Even though the Nook Press print option also included the choice to create a hardcover edition, there was no help in selling the print titles.