By Dennis Abrams
NOOK Media (a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble) has announced the launch of NOOK Press, described as a “new and innovative self-publishing platform offering authors a fast, easy and free way to write, edit, collaborate and publish the highest quality eBooks and directly distribute them to millions of avid readers.” It is, in short, a rebranding of Pubit!, the self-publishing platform the company has utilized for several years — now with additional features powered by self-publishing service provider FastPencil.
According to Digital Book World, NOOK Press will offer:
- Ebook creation and distribution
- Live chat support
- A lite mode for authors who want to try out the tools before making a commitment
- Collaborative tools for workshopping
- Sales dashboard
- 40% royalty on all Ebooks priced below $2.99 or above $10; 65% royalty on Ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99. The former is five points above what Amazon offers; the latter is five points below. However, unlike Amazon, NOOK doesn’t seem to be charging extra for large files.
It’s interesting to note that Barnes & Noble have decided to rebrand NOOK Press despite the success of Pubit! (author numbers grew by 20% and title numbers by 24% quarter over quarter). But, as Theresa Horner, vice president of digital content at Nook Media told Digital Book World.
“We have decided to rebrand to NOOK press because we’ve been very successful with our NOOK brand and that brand has quality and breadth to it that Pubit! could leverage. We also wanted to have the NOOK Press platform as described to be easily understandable as a quick gateway to the Nook ecosystem.”