BellaOnline Forums .Private. Book Writing Support Group Barnes & Noble pub it!

Just got email today about Barnes & Noble's new Pub It program. You can sell ebooks there. They do take a pretty big cut of your sales price, though, so something to keep in mind. I've just barely taken a look, but wanted to share with those who might not be on their list.

At first glance, I think it's a great option for off-topic content or just to supplement Bellaonline sales.

Here's a link if you're interested:

Pub It info

And, if you do further research, please let us know what you think -- it could be weeks before I get back to it!

Interesting! Thanks for the link, Deb.

Reading over the rules and regulations my opinion is they're too greedy with their percentage of sales cost.

I don't know what ebooks standards are, but B&N cut is about what they get from print media. They get 50-60% retail price, since the sale markup from publisher is usually 100%. (They used to be a remainders seller, which meant they paid publishers about 10 cents on the dollar, if that, of which authors got nothing!) I have sold books to B&N that I self published, from which I got about 40% of the sales price, and that was way better than 1.5% authors' royalties on the books published by others. That was a while back, though, and things could have changed...

I understand about the price....BUT...it IS Barnes and Noble...

LOL, Robin. You know how next to impossible it is to get shelf space with them.

So, what is their ebook reputation?

So, for an ebook that sells for 4 dollars, they'd get 2.60 and we'd get 1.40.

65 percent does seem high - especially considering that here we'd get to keep the whole 4 dollars.

But.... it is Barnes and Noble LOL.... If they sold 1,000 copies, that would still be 1,400 in my pocket.

The one publisher I worked with {Fairwinds Press} wouldn't even offer me any royalties. I did get 3,000 up front - but then no possibility of every making another penny. Unless I buy the books myself for cost, and then resell them at book faires.

At least with Barnes and Noble, you could continue to make money - over 10 years you could make way more than a publisher would have offered up front.

I am JUST starting to study self-publishing. I know many publishers, in this current market, don't want to take a chance on new writers.

And, I heard a joke about publishers from a guy giving a seminar on moving forward with technology from the Wall Street Journal....

Q: How many publishers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Why change it?

I want to check out Amazon's pub tool too.

I think print media is out of date, especially for new authors who might not have a serious hook upon which publishers can hang the hype they'll use to push the book. Like, did your father try to assassinate a president, or did you? etc. LOL.

$3000-5000 is a nice advance (if they don't ask for some of it back because the book didn't sell out of its first printing) but then they'll remainder it and never print it again, most likely, so that's all you'll get.

With an ebook or ezine, you can keep the material before the public as long as you wish AND you get to keep the money instead of some puny royalties. Further, you can edit it, update it, add video & other glitz as the technology becomes available. Just way more control and potential for earning.

That said, I feel wholly inadequate in the graphics department, but I have children and contacts who are much more literate (and talented) in those areas, and with self-publishing, I can just make agreements with them to work together.

It's truly amazing the tools BellaOnline offers to its editors for free!! And doesn't even take a cut of the sales.

Do keep us posted if you decide to go with B&N. They do have some presence in the publishing and marketing world, and it would be nice to know if that helps get the word out to the buying public. At least, that's what I assume the author would be paying that 65% towards...