Barnes & Noble announces PubIt! (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/pubit/), essentially a self-publishing platform on their own servers, ala Amazon's Digital Text Platform. It seems accepting ebooks from the likes of Smashwords doesn't satisfy them, they want to be a direct supplier. (It could also cause those who use the service to possibly bypass services like Smashwords, thereby possibly cutting down the amount of material processed by Smashwords and sent to competitors like Sony and Kobo... but I'm sure that's an accidental result of the move. ;))

This is an interesting development. I wonder if B&N will have a process in place to watch for self-pubbed books that rise to the top. If so, what kind of support will they offer those authors? I'm still trying to see how B&N will benefit from this.
L.J.
[Promotional link deleted - MODERATOR]

It appears to be a good time to be an indie author.

This is an interesting development. I wonder if B&N will have a process in place to watch for self-pubbed books that rise to the top. If so, what kind of support will they offer those authors? I'm still trying to see how B&N will benefit from this.


B&N already has a publishing arm. Perhaps they're thinking of doing something along the lines of Amazon Encore.

I noted the likely result that some content will end up being exclusively B&N, if their service convinces them to leave Smashwords and such... exclusivity will be a benefit to them. But really, I expect they are mainly doing it to maintain a tighter control over what gets published, and how.

As far as authors and self-publishers are concerned, the situation will likely be much the same as it is on Amazon: For those who cannot publish or sell their own work, for instance, on their own website (the way I do), the service gives them an outlet for their work. But unless you can effectively advertise yourself, most authors will see limited exposure and small sales, as they'll find it difficult to rise to the top in a digital market that is still dominated by Big Pubs.

Finally, the press release mentions output in DRM'd ePub, but does not specify if it will be mandatory for self-publishers to use DRM. Along with other details of pricing and other options, it will be interesting to see what they finally offer.

Best of all, it seems to be intended for international publishers as well. :)

I suspect they are trying to match Amazon's capabilities. What it does (or doesn't do) for Smashwords is unlikely to be a primary concern. BN is running scared--and they should be. I think they're making some brilliant moves to stay relevant as the world moves to digital. Whether they'll be enough is hard to tell.

For what it's worth, deal with BN directly (and Amazon directly, of course) but still use Smashwords for incremental coverage, including coverage of the iPad platform.

Rob Preece
Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

What it does (or doesn't do) for Smashwords is unlikely to be a primary concern.

To B&N, of course. I'm sure Smashwords isn't doing handsprings about it. But the announcement doesn't say Smashwords won't be able to continue uploading their content to the B&N servers after PubIt! kicks in... so it may not have the adverse impact on Smashwords that it could have.

One thing I'm almost sure on - I won't be signing up with B&N any time soon. Aussie author typically = long wait for implementation of international capacity.

*twiddles thumbs*

I'm glad, mostly, though. I've been unimpressed by B&N's infrastructure and planning since they brought out the nook :/ and I'm in no hurry to deal with them directly.

B&N has sent out emails to anyone who requested to be updated about PubIt!'s development. A fairly basic FAQ page (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/pubit/index.asp?r=1&PID=34232&cm_mmc=Targeted-_-Other-_-100614_MI01_PubItThankYou-_-pubitfaq) is now up, for anyone who's interested.

Of note:

PubIt! Will accept pre-formatted ePub files for sale... you can use their conversion SW, but you won't have to if you're particular about your formatting.
PubIt! Specifies that it uses DRM: "Barnes & Noble's best-in-class digital rights management technology." It does not say whether the use is optional.
Non U.S. citizens can use the service... if they have registered U.S. rights to their material.
No word on what controls you will have on price (nor, therefore, whether you can post books for free).

This may need to have some of the kinks worked out, but it is definitely a big step forward in the same direction all other forms of art have gone...more independently generated. Seem natural that the book publishing industry will finally catch up. Opens up a lot of doors for authors when you can access a large distribution channel like BN.

Also says this, Steve, which might cut out most people :-

What do I need to create an account?
A BN.com login, which you can create on the spot if you do not already have one
Contact information for the account holder
A U.S. Credit Card & U.S. Bank Account and all related information
Your SSN/TIN/EIN

Which again shows Barnes and Noble has no interest in being anything but a local company, whereas Amazon wants to be an international operator.

Which again shows Barnes and Noble has no interest in being anything but a local company, whereas Amazon wants to be an international operator.

To be fair... it wasn't THAT long ago that Amazon required US bank account and address. A year ago, I think it was still that way.

I don't really mind that companies do this to start off with... I mean, it's annoying as hell, but understandable - international payments OUT must get nastily complicated, and setting up as an ebook vendor must be complicated as it is.

Know what really irritates me about B&N? They organised to get ebooks distributed by Smashwords, with no geographic restrictions - and marked them all as 'US only'. Considering that they have some 'US and Canada only' ebooks, they seem to have something bodgy in their conversion/stocking routine, and that bothers me.

Complicated? Hardly. Cheques? Decades old technology. Money orders, similarly. Bank drafts, same. EFT, a bit newer, but definitely not difficult.

Paypal, newer still but pretty simple, too.

Sure, maybe a year ago - but why deliberately handicap yourself, unless you want to?

As you point out, these big American chain booksellers are hardly models of competence. :)

This is my favourite one:

Will PubIt! support publishers based outside the U.S.?

Yes, as long as you have U.S. rights for your titles and have a U.S. bank account and a U.S. credit card.

---

Last time I checked there weren't a terribly large number of non-US residents who had US Bank Accounts and Credit Cards. FAIL.

ebooks should be global, all this localised copyright rubish really tees me off and not just because I'm in China and its really hard to get good books here. I will never use an online bookstore in an capacity (as author or reader) when they wantonly refuse to exercise the international nature of the internet. I just don't understand why they don't want to expand their customer base?

ebooks should be global, all this localised copyright rubish really tees me off and not just because I'm in China and its really hard to get good books here. I will never use an online bookstore in an capacity (as author or reader) when they wantonly refuse to exercise the international nature of the internet. I just don't understand why they don't want to expand their customer base?

Because they're desperately trying to prop up an old business model that's doomed to failure in the modern world. Then again, there's a lot of ignorant people who will buy products with DRM and geographic restrictions, so they're as much to blame for this mess as any of these corporate behemoths.

Because they're desperately trying to prop up an old business model that's doomed to failure in the modern world. Then again, there's a lot of ignorant people who will buy products with DRM and geographic restrictions, so they're as much to blame for this mess as any of these corporate behemoths.

Yes, I'd understand the logic if they were trying to sell one thing in one country and then the same thing again to the same people in another country but B&N aren't even doing that. There's a whole world of people out there to sell stuff too and they're just ignoring them even before we get to the issue of DRM. It's really pathetic.

Complicated? Hardly. Cheques? Decades old technology. Money orders, similarly. Bank drafts, same. EFT, a bit newer, but definitely not difficult.

Paypal, newer still but pretty simple, too.

Sure, maybe a year ago - but why deliberately handicap yourself, unless you want to?

As you point out, these big American chain booksellers are hardly models of competence. :)

ITINs, 'international author' status, W38 forms, 30% tax withholding mandated by the IRS... and that's only the extra paperwork I know about. :D

Complicated? Hardly. Cheques? Decades old technology. Money orders, similarly. Bank drafts, same. EFT, a bit newer, but definitely not difficult.

Paypal, newer still but pretty simple, too.


What would you do with a check in US dollars? It may cost more to prepare, ship and deposit it than it's face value

This is my favourite one:

Last time I checked there weren't a terribly large number of non-US residents who had US Bank Accounts and Credit Cards. FAIL.

There are thousands of Brits visiting Florida with US bank accounts all non-residents. There are even more undocumented Mexicans with US bank accounts. In fact, it is easier for a non-resident to open an account in US than in their own countries. One caveat is that you probably need to do it in person.

ebooks should be global, all this localised copyright rubish really tees me off and not just because I'm in China and its really hard to get good books here.

Perhaps, the reason has to do with each individual country's laws and restrictions than with the retailer's unwillingness.

There are thousands of Brits visiting Florida with US bank accounts all non-residents. There are even more undocumented Mexicans with US bank accounts. In fact, it is easier for a non-resident to open an account in US than in their own countries. One caveat is that you probably need to do it in person.


So I have to come to a country I have absolutely zero interest in ever visiting, which at the very least is an expensive eight hour flight away, open a bank account in that same country and somehow acquire a credit card at the same time, all so I can have some stupid DRM pushing company peddle my fiction on their digital store front? Please. Kafka died a long time ago, I don't need a corporation re-enacting the Trial just so I can reach an artificially restricted audience.

So I have to come to a country I have absolutely zero interest in ever visiting, which at the very least is an expensive eight hour flight away, open a bank account in that same country and somehow acquire a credit card at the same time, all so I can have some stupid DRM pushing company peddle my fiction on their digital store front? Please. Kafka died a long time ago, I don't need a corporation re-enacting the Trial just so I can reach an artificially restricted audience.

The bank policies and procedures would be the same (or most likely worse) for me if I wanted to open an account in your country.

The reason for opening the bank account was not considered or relevant to my post. You claimed it was unheard of and I posted otherwise.

Your other issues are best dealt by contacting the offending parties and local legal counsel. Good day.

The bank policies and procedures would be the same (or most likely worse) for me if I wanted to open an account in your country.

The reason for opening the bank account was not considered or relevant to my post. You claimed it was unheard of and I posted otherwise.

Your other issues are best dealt by contacting the offending parties and local legal counsel. Good day.

Why are you lying? I never claimed it was 'unheard of' I said:

Last time I checked there weren't a terribly large number of non-US residents who had US Bank Accounts and Credit Cards. FAIL.

I stand by that statement one hundred percent.

And of course it would be hard for you to open a bank account in my country, it's hard enough for me as a citizen to open one. I'm failing to see your logic here or even why you're replying. B&N are putting up artificial barriers to doing business with them as a writer (not to mention the artificial barriers as a customer but that's another argument). That's my complaint. That's what irked me, and you just come back with lies? What's up with you?

B&N are putting up artificial barriers to doing business with them as a writer (not to mention the artificial barriers as a customer but that's another argument). That's my complaint.

B&N are making (from their point of view) reasonable restrictions to simplify setting up a new business for them. The US market for English language books is larger and simpler for them than other markets.

It is complicated for a company to arrange to pay citizens of other countries, when you take into account the actual method of payment, the currency the agreement is negotiated in, the tax and reporting implications and so on. By requiring the US bank account and registration they shift those issues to the author rather than them.

They may decide that once the business is up and running it will be worth their time taking this trouble, it is more likely that they will set up local bookstores in other countries, and then arrange cross-company agreements.

B&N are making (from their point of view) reasonable restrictions to simplify setting up a new business for them. The US market for English language books is larger and simpler for them than other markets.

It is complicated for a company to arrange to pay citizens of other countries, when you take into account the actual method of payment, the currency the agreement is negotiated in, the tax and reporting implications and so on. By requiring the US bank account and registration they shift those issues to the author rather than them.

Agreed. This isn't a matter of B&N having it in for "all those furriners." It's a matter of difficult legal and financial arrangements, different for each country, that have to be managed where they were never managed before. If you think things suck now, imagine what things would be like if they just opened the floodgates: Erroneous payments, no books delivered, no way to get recompense from foreign governments; it would not be pretty.

It was always hoped that a truly global marketplace would work out some form of truly global payment system... but we're clearly not there yet. So give them time to work things out.

Perhaps, the reason has to do with each individual country's laws and restrictions than with the retailer's unwillingness.

Trust me on this, draconian copyright laws are not a feature of living in China. It's one of the reasons I like this place. It's just in this case, B&N don't care enough to make it happen but I digress slightly. I didn't actually mean to imply it's the company's fault that it's so ridiculously hard to sell books internationally, I just meant that it shouldn't be that hard. Multinational Corporations have been around how long? International banking? The internet? It's high time culture superseded country.

One more thing, there are B&N bookstores in the UK, Hong Kong, Australia and who knows where else. But their ebooks, the ones delivered on the technology that can send them anywhere on the face of the planet and even at least once place not on the face of the planet, are only available in the US. Talk about irony.

Trust me on this, draconian copyright laws are not a feature of living in China.

We know. That's why China, as well as other countries, has such a reputation for stealing and reproducing foreign content and products, in violation of international copyright laws. (A fair or bad rep? I'm not judging, I'm just saying.) It's this lawless environment that is holding up much of potential commerce... a lack of agreement and fair dealing. Until that changes, expect countries to have a hard time sharing goods and services, including ebooks.

One more thing, there are B&N bookstores in the UK, Hong Kong, Australia and who knows where else. But their ebooks, the ones delivered on the technology that can send them anywhere on the face of the planet and even at least once place not on the face of the planet, are only available in the US. Talk about irony.

I'll grant you that: Any business that has a multi-country presence should be expected to sell at least the same products in e that they sell in p. I imagine it's only an expected lack of profit, and/or resistance from local print-based book producers and sellers, that delays such efforts in other countries, just as they have in the U.S.

ITINs, 'international author' status, W38 forms, 30% tax withholding mandated by the IRS... and that's only the extra paperwork I know about. :D


Right, so you are suggesting the people at Barnes and Noble are too stupid to either type in bank account numbers or fill in paperwork? The latter being largely the person getting the money's problem.

Both of which of course are things the 13 year old child of a milk bar owner could manage. :)

Right, so you are suggesting the people at Barnes and Noble are too stupid to either type in bank account numbers or fill in paperwork? The latter being largely the person getting the money's problem.

It is being suggested that it is reasonable decision for them to make that at this stage of their business that the extra administration required for them to manage this is not worth the expected small benefit from selling self-published books by non-US authors to the US market.
That doesn't make them stupid.

Maybe, but making books with worldwide rights US only does, as mentioned above.

So does ceding a significant and growing market to a competitor (or competitors) that are currently having you for lunch.

Quantum physics is complicated. Making an international bank payment is most definitely not.

Maybe, but making books with worldwide rights US only does, as mentioned above.

So does ceding a significant and growing market to a competitor (or competitors) that are currently having you for lunch.

Quantum physics is complicated. Making an international bank payment is most definitely not.

There are two totally different topics being conflated here.
a) Restricting their self-publishing facility to US authors.
b) Restricting their books sales to US customers.

*sigh*

I for one think it's pretty obvious that setting up an international business overnight would be extremely complicated, therefore costly and more likely to fail than starting in one location, tweaking it to get it right, and then expand to other countries.

Don't forget that in this case, B&N has to collect payments from international customers and pay the self-publishing author. I would assume that both aspects involve all kinds of reporting requirements, VAT and income taxes and so forth. Simplifying distribution does not magically make every single regional law, tax obligation or other requirement disappear into thin air.

I don't think it will be impossible or that they will never do it, only that it takes time.

Of course, since we live in the Intarnet age, people have about as much patience as a fruit fly on crack. ;) More irrational whining in 3, 2, 1.... :D

Whining? I am more than happy for them to go down in flames, personally. ;-)

Ah, so taking credit card payments from people is now hard for large companies, too?

Lol!

Most companies of course don't anything like taking money and paying out money stuff day to day, so I can see how that would be so very, errr... taxing for a neophyte small trader like Barnes and Noble.

:-)

Whining? I am more than happy for them to go down in flames, personally. ;-)

Ah, so taking credit card payments from people is now hard for large companies, too?

They cannot sell to customers outside the US unless they have licensing rights to do so. This is unconnected to any administrative difficulties.

Lol!

Most companies of course don't anything like taking money and paying out money stuff day to day, so I can see how that would be so very, errr... taxing for a neophyte small trader like Barnes and Noble.

Do you actually want to have a discussion, or just make 'funny' comments?

Complaining that B&N hasn't yet solved the ebook trade, security and international copyright issues that no one else has yet managed to fully solve, sounds a lot like blaming the airlines for not having invented transporter technology yet.

I'm not saying people shouldn't be frustrated. I am saying that blame should not be placed at B&N's feet. They are doing what they can with the resources at their disposal, according to existing laws that they did not write. They are also not a charity, and so should not be expected to do something that will cause them to lose money.

Any complaints about international trade and copyright procedures should be taken to your respective governments, not to a bookstore chain.

Hardly frustrated, as to me they are 100% irrelevant. It would be good for them to cark it, so the book depository can get some of their market, and have foreigners continue to subsidise our bookbuying. ;-). So from that point of view I am quite pleased they are inept.

Steve, copyright in this sense is completely makes no difference for people self publishing, as they own all of them to start with, and can sell it anywhere, so you are making no sense. Same goes for international trade barriers. American companies can sell ebooks they have all the rights for to anyone they please. So what trade barriers? Otherwise those doing it now *could not*. Certainly no laws stopping them doing so.

We aren't talking about flogging Stephen King editions to kiwis.

They cannot sell to customers outside the US unless they have licensing rights to do so. This is unconnected to any administrative difficulties.



Do you actually want to have a discussion, or just make 'funny' comments?

See where it says about self-publishing? You still don't understand that if you write something tonight and want to upload it you have *all* the rights to it? Or someone that has had their rights revert, etc. There are no licensing restrictions. Maybe there's the odd case where an already published author gets their yank rights back, but not elsewhere. However, a database that has a few rights fields - you know, like all the retailers do already - is again extremely simple.

Barnes and Noble _bought out_ a company that had all this handled already, so you can hardly make excuses about poor dumb johnny-come-latelys given that fact.

See where it says about self-publishing? You still don't understand that if you write something tonight and want to upload it you have *all* the rights to it?

A sincere question (or three) , if I may?

How does an author prove it's their work?

How does B&N et al satisfy the legal requirements necessary to avoid an infringement lawsuit?

Are e-books by B&N, Amazon, etc even profitable in the US market?

Thank you.

Steve, copyright in this sense is completely makes no difference for people self publishing, as they own all of them to start with, and can sell it anywhere, so you are making no sense.

The problem is that a lack of established, mutually followed copyright laws can mean person in country A duplicates the work of person in country B and sells it, and person A has no way to legally prevent it or seek recompense. B&N is surely aware that such a person might seek to sue them in such a case, so they would rather avoid such issues.

Obviously not a problem if you don't care about others stealing your work and profiting from it... but not everyone is that generous.

Wow, what an uncharacteristically acrimonious thread!

Isn't it fairly standard procedure to roll out goods and services in one's own country first and expand into international markets if it seems to be working out?

Wow, what an uncharacteristically acrimonious thread!

Isn't it fairly standard procedure to roll out goods and services in one's own country first and expand into international markets if it seems to be working out?

Well, the ebook market does seem to have that effect on people, after all the years of fumbling the ball on their own home field. Basically, we'd all like to think that all of this would have been worked out a long time ago, and we'd all be reading cheap, well-formed ebooks from all lands today. It can be disappointing to be reminded that the industry just hasn't come very far yet.

I just received an email announcing that PubIt! is ready for registration and selling your books.

I went to the PubIt! main page (http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com), which still has the "coming soon" label, and a non-working Terms and Conditions pagesite, giving you no clue that you can actually get started with it. In fact, apparently only people who preregistered with PubIt! will get this email invite.

The link included in the email takes you to a signup page that prompts you to create an account, using your B&N customer login or a PubIt! users' login. You sign in with your B&N account, or create a new account, and you are taken to...

The PubIt! signup page that you just came from, whereupon the only thing you can do... again... is sign up for an invite to PubIt!

So, to recap: The email link puts you in a signup circle, the Terms and Conditions don't work/aren't available, and you can't actually go in there and publish anything.

Very confidence-inspiring, non?

I just received an email announcing that PubIt! is ready for registration and selling your books.

I went to the PubIt! main page (http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com), which still has the "coming soon" label, and a non-working Terms and Conditions pagesite, giving you no clue that you can actually get started with it. In fact, apparently only people who preregistered with PubIt! will get this email invite.

The link included in the email takes you to a signup page that prompts you to create an account, using your B&N customer login or a PubIt! users' login. You sign in with your B&N account, or create a new account, and you are taken to...

The PubIt! signup page that you just came from, whereupon the only thing you can do... again... is sign up for an invite to PubIt!

So, to recap: The email link puts you in a signup circle, the Terms and Conditions don't work/aren't available, and you can't actually go in there and publish anything.

Very confidence-inspiring, non?

Can you post jpg's of your e-mail? This is what I got. My terms and conditions page worked, too. :blink:

http://i55.tinypic.com/2u5s1ti.jpg

Actually, that's not the same email I got. I received that one a while ago, and a new all-text email is now out that takes you to a page that is similar (http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home&code=410ccc3cfe3d4ad6bd2c6754cb2e21cd), but includes a Create Account button and no "coming soon" note at top. Did you click on the B&N Terms and Conditions, or the T&C accessed from question 15 of the FAQ (the "here" link)? And what happened when you signed in?

Edit: It looks like the T&C link at the bottom of the new PubIt! page works okay, so don't try to access it from the FAQ. Of note is item VIII. Security/DRM: It suggests DRM is applied at the publisher's request, which is good.

The rest of the agreement isn't so hot. B&N has the right to set the price for your book, regardless of your suggested list price... royalties are not specified, except in a Service Policies document that (surprise, surprise) does not appear... they state they have the right to "correct errors" and edit formatting on your book, and the only recourse you have to any errors they introduce is to yank the book, a 5-day process... they retain the rights to yank your book in an instant if they don't like the content... etc... etc...

Do you think MR authors will opt for the LendMe and Read in Store features?

And I wonder how the authors will be compensated for doing so.

It looks like authors don't get any compensation for the LendMe feature. The PubIt! T&C didn't mention Read In Store. I didn't see anything to indicate that these were optional for publishers. Compensation and royalties info don't seem to be available yet.

Non U.S. citizens can use the service... if they have registered U.S. rights to their material.
[/LIST]

How do you register US rights other than by having the (c) statement on the "back" of the title page? Is it $20 to the WGA like is is for screenplays?

A U.S. Credit Card & U.S. Bank Account and all related information


Does it have to be your own account? Could I use our daughter's?

ITINs, 'international author' status, W38 forms, 30% tax withholding mandated by the IRS... and that's only the extra paperwork I know about. :D

Amazon and Kobo, can't remember about Smashwords all need those, too. I set in motion the procedure to get an ITIN the other day. I'll report back how easy/hard it proves to be.

Does it have to be your own account? Could I use our daughter's?

You could probably put the B&N account in her name and use her bank account for transactions (if your daughter doesn't mind!). They'd want her SSN or tax number if you did. Keep in mind: B&N has a proviso that, in the case of refunds, they will take money out of the account to cover their losses.

It's good to see this site is finally up and running. I'm on their e-mail list and I've been waiting, but never heard from them. I'll head over and check it out.
L.J.

In response to an email I sent to B&N, asking about specific payments/royalties numbers or percentages, I was sent a boilerplate email referring me to the main PubIt! page... and not even the new PubIt! page, but the old Coming Soon page. As far as I can determine, the service policy doc is still not coming up when you click on it, and no numbers are available. Color me unimpressed.

Add to this the fact that I'm reading a major publisher's ebook from B&N that has so many formatting errors it's not even funny, and I'm feeling serious misgivings about handing these guys any of my business.

Nobody on any of the forums I visit have been able to make it work yet.

I almost get the impression they rolled this out as a strategic move during their "buyout" negotiations, with little interest in whether or not it actually, y'know, worked and stuff...

I've heard one person say he was able to upload his books. I asked him about the royalty (because the "terms" page won't load for me) and he said he thinks it's 65%, but he's not sure. Apparently, the language is a little dense. I'm holding off on this distribution venue for now.
L.J.

Here's the pricing policy:

http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=support#pricing_payment_terms

I'd advise him to double-check his output as well. Though I suspect output quality will be better than the OCR'd output from major publishers, he should be sure.

In the U.S., works are automatically copyrighted when you publish them. I understand that using the (c) and stating "all rights reserved" is a good idea, but I'm no lawyer so don't take that as a fact. Also, you may want to register the copyright with the U. S. Copyright Office, which you can do online. I believe it costs $35.

You can see them appearing now. Huge number of public domain ebooks for free.

Plus a good number of $2.99ers.

I see ISBN numbers starting with 294 instead of 978. Maybe that's them too?

I just converted one of my self-published Kindle books and put it on B&N via PubIt. (Question: Does 'PubIt' rhyme with 'pubic'? :-)

The process of publishing through PubIt is about as easy as Amazon's DTP platform for Kindle publishers. Where it's really lacking now is in technical support. Amazon's DTP has a big support (aka "Community") section, with forums where questions are answered by an Amazon tech person and a dtp-support email address for self-publishing problems and questions.

For PubIt, there's a pretty meager FAQ, and that's all. (And the FAQ has darned annoying "expansion triangles" that don't do anything; you have to click on the text of the question to expand it.)

It will be interesting to see how things develop.

I just converted one of my self-published Kindle books and put it on B&N via PubIt. (Question: Does 'PubIt' rhyme with 'pubic'? :-) ...

It might. Nook e-books rhymes with, well...

Unsuccessful publishing experience with first PubIt book.

1. When adding new title, Preview runs and runs and never previews.
2. "Is ebook part of series?" question never accepts "No."
3. "Categories" never indicates if category is accepted.
4. No way to delete duplicate title.
5. No response from pubit@bn.com.
6. Thumbnail shows in Foxfire, not in Safari.

This ePub book was successfully added to the Apple iBookstore.

- Fabe

-------------
Update: #s 2, 3, & 6 are resolved. They just work. I am now uploading the book and will report back. -F

-------------
Update 2: status = processing.

MuGAWD! At least two people have managed to get into PubIt! and get it to work! Happy Days!

Me, I'm still having problems getting past the Login/Please SignUp loop.

The content policy says, "You are responsible for checking for updates and your continued use of the service after we post amendments will constitute your acceptance of the changes..."

This is not valid in CA; there was a big lawsuit a few years back, and it was decided that "we can update our website at will" is not considered acceptable terms for a contract; users have to be notified of changes. They are not in violation of a contract they haven't agreed to. (That said, since most of the content rules seem to be "you can't post this or that," and other parts of it say "we can remove your content at any time for no reason," there wouldn't be much to fall back on if they changed the rules and your book got pulled.)

If, for example, they change the percentage rates, people could sue to receive payment under the terms they signed up for, not the ones they were switched to without notification. (If their FW pattern continues, they'd quietly pay off anyone who complains and hope that's few enough people to not be worth notifying anyone.)

Descriptions of ebooks are not allowed to include:
* Hyperlinks of any kind, including email addresses.
* Request for action (i.e.: "If you like this book, please write me a review.").
* Advertisements or promotional material (including author events, seminars, etc.).
* Contact information for the author or publisher.
Wow, they *really* don't want people to use BN as a contact point. They want to be the book provider; they want to discourage shopping elsewhere.

And... Barnes & Noble will provide refunds to customers who are unsatisfied with their eBook purchases. Returns will appear on your My Sales report and will be deducted from your next payment.

Gee, that's nice of them, considering how solidly they REFUSE to refund sales from their main bookstore, including outright fraudulent ones, where they advertise one book and deliver another.

Descriptions of ebooks are not allowed to include:
* Hyperlinks of any kind, including email addresses.
* Request for action (i.e.: "If you like this book, please write me a review.").
* Advertisements or promotional material (including author events, seminars, etc.).
* Contact information for the author or publisher.

Wow, they *really* don't want people to use BN as a contact point. They want to be the book provider; they want to discourage shopping elsewhere.

Fortunately, you can include any of that in the book itself.

I tried uploading a book this morning... the Denial of Service stories. The process was just a bit buggy, and I had to edit the Word file a few times to get the ePub to come out right upon upload. I discovered you cannot submit a book into their site for free sales... they must be at least .99 cents. I did like the fact that you can download the ePub file and examine it closely (the preview on the PubIt! site isn't an actual view of the file on a Nook, just a sort of snapshot of a page, and I don't know how it's generated, so I don't know how accurate it is).

It is now "processing." I have no idea how long that will be, but it's been "processing" for at least a few hours, now. I won't try anything else until that process is over, and I see the next step.

Unsuccessful publishing experience with first PubIt book.

1. When adding new title, Preview runs and runs and never previews.
2. "Is ebook part of series?" question never accepts "No."
3. "Categories" never indicates if category is accepted.
4. No way to delete duplicate title.
5. No response from pubit@bn.com.
6. Thumbnail shows in Foxfire, not in Safari.

This ePub book was successfully added to the Apple iBookstore.
-------------
Update: #s 2, 3, & 6 are resolved. They just work. I am now uploading the book and will report back.
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Update 2: status = processing.

My ePub book is now available on Barnes & Noble's web site. Despite the initial hassle, this all was done in one afternoon. The cover image did not show up, but I'll give it some time.

Go take a look. The book is called: The Ultimate Bob Dylan Quiz (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ean=9781453656341). I guarantee it will delay the onset of Alzheimer's by at least one year. Tell your friends!

- Fabe

Go take a look. The book is called: The Ultimate Bob Dylan Quiz (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ean=9781453656341). I guarantee it will delay the onset of Alzheimer's by at least one year. Tell your friends!

- Fabe

Are you able to add to or edit the synopsis after upload?

Only 63K ... is that accurate?

Are you able to add to or edit the synopsis after upload? Only 63K ... is that accurate?

Great question, thanks. I will go download it, make a comparison and report back...

-----------

Okay, here's what I discovered. The original ePub file is 64 KB. The cover, which is not yet showing is 178 KB.

I tried editing one detail to no avail. I could not save the change. - Fabe

Follow-up: The processing finally finished, and the book went on-sale (and I immediately took it off, because I'll be offering it for free on my site).

I will make another attempt, this time with a book I plan to leave up: the first Kestral book, which I have renamed (more on that at another time). But so far, so good.

Keep us updated Steve. I'd really like to know about the "Lend Me" and read in store features, if they even exist and/or work for the indies.

Read their pricing policy, it appears they're taking an opposite stance to Amazon's "We must be the cheapest" policy.

B/N says they're not allowed to be HIGHER than any other e-tailer. Interesting..

Definitely not a fan of their draconian language about accepting new terms/conditions.

I went back in this morning to upload The Kestral Files: My Life, After Berserker. (Before I did that, I also uploaded it to Amazon. Neither are for sale yet.)

B&N allowed me to choose a number of formats to upload, and as I'd already custom-created an epub file in Sigil, I used that. Adding the rest of the information (including opting-out of DRM) was easy enough, and the system didn't give me any trouble. I was able to save the info, go back in and edit a few areas, and resave it, no problem. So they've gotten most of the bugs out of the process so far.

It is presently on hold in their system, not put on-sale yet. (I'm trying to get the external sales to roughly coincide with my new website, which isn't active yet.)

Overall, I'd say the process was as easy as Amazon's DTP (which has been redesigned from its old layout, and the two systems are very similar). B&N's royalty being 65%, it is 10% lower than Amazon's... Amazon also states they will drop royalties to 70% if they are forced to drop their price to match a lower competitor, so either way, Amazon is the better deal for authors.

This weekend I put Verdant Skies and Kestral for sale. Process took 2 days to appear. When it did, I realized that neither of my covers appear on the product page.

B&N was fairly specific about what was acceptable, a jpg, between 300 and 6500pixels in length, between 20KB and 5MB (or so)... my covers fit all of those criteria. So as far as I can tell, there's no reason they wouldn't display.

B&N support, being what they are (sorry), is no help... in fact, they seem to be MIA. Even links to the PubIt! Help board, apparently populated by authors only, are hard to find, and I have yet to see signs of any B&N personnel on them.

It does seem from the B&N discussion board there are a number of complaints about missing covers, so this is not just my problem. Moreover, I remember this being a problem with B&N's previous publishing system, before they uprooted it and replaced it with PubIt! So we're talking about a problem that hasn't been fixed in over a year...

I got my email from B&N a couple weeks ago but procrastinated on uploading my books until yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon I set up my account and uploaded my two books as HTML files. It took me a little while to get them to look right in the Nook preview. I downloaded the converted EPUB files from PubIt onto my desktop and then fumbled around in Calibre until finally getting the formatting to look the way I wanted.

(I had first tried uploading my books as PDFs but the formatting was a mess in the Nook preview so that was a no go.)

I put both books up for sale and B&N said they would be available in 24 to 72 hours. When I logged in this morning, they were already on sale. The book covers are not on my product pages yet and I have no sales of course.

I would say getting everything ready to go took me less than two hours, and this with my 3-year-old daughter sitting on my lap while talking to my wife with my 1-year-old son pulling on my leg and being in a rush before leaving for a pumpkin patch.

Very similiar to Amazon's DTP, and I have lots of experience there, which probably made PubIt easier for someone like me with basic computer skills.

I have a Kindle 3 at home (My Precious), so I don't know how my books look on the Nook. I will head over to our local B&N and take a look this evening.

Overall, my experience with Amazon DTP and now PubIt has been very positive. My experience with traditional publishing -- not so much.

This is a great time for writers, I think. And now that I have a Kindle 3, I'm realizing what a great time it is for people like me that always need to have a book to read. My Kindle is with me everywhere I go and I'm plowing through books like nobody's business, quite a few of which are public domain that I've always been meaning to read but never got a hold of.

I'm making a couple hundred bucks a month from Amazon off my two novels, and this long after giving up my dreams of being a famous traditionally-published multi-millionaire best-selling author.

We'll see what happens with Pubit.

Here are the links to my new B&N pages:

GALAXY OF HEROES (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ean=2940011825187)

THE PSYCHIC (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ean=2940011826108)

Covers are now up.

Well... better a year late than never, I suppose...

I also found that it took a few days for my cover image to appear on the B&N product page. In my experience with Amazon, it takes a few days for the product description to appear after the product page has gone up, so I'd call that a tie.

BTW, I imagine this has been mentioned elsewhere, but I found this online ebook converter to be the easiest way to convert my Kindle .mobi's to nook epub's:
http://ebook.online-convert.com/convert-to-epub
Calibre is so oriented toward managing libraries that I find it cumbersome for things like converting single (or a few) books.

This weekend I put Verdant Skies and Kestral for sale. Process took 2 days to appear. When it did, I realized that neither of my covers appear on the product page.

B&N was fairly specific about what was acceptable, a jpg, between 300 and 6500pixels in length, between 20KB and 5MB (or so)... my covers fit all of those criteria. So as far as I can tell, there's no reason they wouldn't display.

B&N support, being what they are (sorry), is no help... in fact, they seem to be MIA. Even links to the PubIt! Help board, apparently populated by authors only, are hard to find, and I have yet to see signs of any B&N personnel on them.

It does seem from the B&N discussion board there are a number of complaints about missing covers, so this is not just my problem. Moreover, I remember this being a problem with B&N's previous publishing system, before they uprooted it and replaced it with PubIt! So we're talking about a problem that hasn't been fixed in over a year...

The covers are up and looking great, Steven.

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?ATH=Steven+Lyle+Jordan&STORE=EBOOK

Yup... now, if I could get someone to read 'em and leave some reviews behind!...

The covers are up and looking great, Steven.

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?ATH=Steven+Lyle+Jordan&STORE=EBOOK

Ditto about the covers, Steven! Guess I'm gonna have to break down and buy them... :D :D :D

Derek

Ditto about the covers, Steven! Guess I'm gonna have to break down and buy them... :D :D :D

Please do... and bring friends!

Does Pubit! give you the option of NOT using DRM?

Does Pubit! give you the option of NOT using DRM?

Yes, it does... and as I did with Amazon, I made sure to turn off DRM for my books (it's a simple checkbox).

So does Apple and Smashwords. So that means Apple, Amazon, B&N and Smashwords are great for DRM-free ebook publishing! Yay!

Derek

I published several books through PubIt! I found the part that drove me most nuts was how long it took to load up the preview file for the Nook emulator. There were a number of times I just gave up and went back to it later.

I found it worked better when I loaded the cover first, then a epub file.

The covers need to be a min 750 in height, and it won't let you load up small cover sizes.

It is very similar to Amazons DTP. I think that once they get the kinks worked out it will really help.


Amy

PubIt! now has it's own webpage called Nookbooks. Looks very nice. It has 8624 books listed.

MR member BV Larson has two books in the top 20 Nookbook bestseller list. Congratulations!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/pubit-self-publish-ebook-publishing/379002433/?cds2Pid=32280

Yes, it does... and as I did with Amazon, I made sure to turn off DRM for my books (it's a simple checkbox).

Is there any way for the buyer to know if a PubIt book has DRM?

Is there any way for the buyer to know if a PubIt book has DRM?

Not that I know of...