My client Kait Nolan is a self-publishing phenomenon. She knows more about PubIt! and its challenges than most. So she seemed like the perfect writer to reach out to for her opinion on Barnes and Noble’s recently announced DIY publishing platform: NOOK Press. As usual Kait does not disappoint. Her strong opinions may be her own, but I’ll bet they are shared by many who were hoping for more from the struggling B&N. Without further ado…here’s Kait!
-Laurie
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On Tuesday I got an unexpected email in my box from Barnes and Noble telling me all about its new self publishing venture Nook Press, which I’ve heard exactly NOTHING about. Given I’ve been on PubIt! since its inception two years ago, I was curious what precisely this was supposed to be. According to the announcement:
The NOOK Press platform features these exciting new tools and services:
• NEW! One-stop Publishing Solution: Write, edit, format and publish your eBooks in our web-based platform, instantly reaching millions of NOOK customers within 72 hours.
• NEW! Easy ePub Creation and Editing: Upload your manuscript file and make changes directly in NOOK Press. Editing and previewing in one session saves you time and effort.
• NEW! Integrated Collaboration: Collaborate with editors, copyeditors, and friends, allowing them to review and comment on your manuscript without ever leaving NOOK Press.
• Visual Sales Reporting: Our new visually-enhanced sales report makes tracking your sales progress even easier.
• NEW! Instant Chat: Live Chat customer service is now available to quickly answer your questions Monday through Friday between 9am-9pm EST.
• Pathway to Passionate Readers Everywhere: Publish once and reach millions of customers using NOOK and NOOK Reading Apps in the US and UK and more coming soon.
• Same Great Terms: Our favorable PubIt! business terms and commitment to a transparent retail partnership remain unchanged.
I have absolutely NO DESIRE to write my book on your platform. I have Scrivener or Word or WriteWayPro or any number of other programs for that. Given the epic technological screw ups you’ve had with your various and sundry websites (like botching my account such that the cover, book, and summary listed for my book were NOT in fact mine–and my account wasn’t hacked), no WAY am I trusting the safety of my work to you. And I do all my own formatting and EPUB creation via Sigil–have for years. I’m certainly not going to collaborate through your portal, which I know nothing about. But better sales reporting sounds good, and the prospect of getting a HUMAN BEING when I have issues is a good thing. And you say you’re going to have the same business terms as PubIt!.
So I made the switch. I admit it. I really just wanted to see whether they would finally create a sales report that will give me a tally by title by month like Amazon does. They don’t. They have the exact same sales report with a chart. Whoopteedoo. They’ve spent who knows how much time and money and THIS is what they give us? Please. I am wholly underwhelmed. Absolutely none of this is going to change the fact that scores of self published authors have had their sales absolutely TANK on this platform the last several months.
What they NEED to be doing is overhauling their store to create a better interface for shopping for Nookbooks. Their search engine hasn’t ACTUALLY worked properly from inception. You can’t find the majority of self published books based on keywords. You have to know the title or author. Not to mention there’s been absolutely NOTHING offered up by Barnes and Noble to cross swords with Amazon’s KDP Select program.
But I’ve gotten used to disappointment from Barnes and Noble, so I shrugged it off as being mostly a name change to go along with the fact that Barnes and Noble plans to sell off Nook later in the year (because it makes so much business sense to sell off what could potentially be your most profitable sector when you’re floundering financially).
And that was the last thought I gave it yesterday.
Then this morning, I see this post by author Holly Lisle warning about the problem contract terms associated with NOOK Press. It’s worth reading. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Back?
So…if you’ve been with PubIt! for a while, you’ll notice that these are NOT, in fact, the same terms we agreed to with PubIt! as they claimed in their announcement email. Most notable are the lack of stated royalty rates, the fact that our royalty payments will be calculated based on potential discounts that THEY have the right to decide, and that they can–hold the phone–change our COVER?
In the comments, of course there’s someone saying “It’s all Amazon’s fault.” Because blaming the innovator in the industry is always a popular choice for explaining another company’s preferred tactic of sticking its head in the sand.
Holly’s pretty upset about it and planning to pull her books from the platform. And I see numerous other authors on Twitter doing the same in response to her post.
This seems premature
Let’s take this with a grain of salt.
1) Okay yes, the lack of listed royalty rates is a bit iffy. But oh, look, they’ve addressed that over here. Presently it’s the same royalty rates we’ve always had. But they state (big shock)
We may update or alter the Pricing and Payment Terms at any time and changes will be effective and binding on you on the date thirty days from posting, as described in the NOOK Press Terms & Conditions.
Guess what? Pretty much all the platforms we sell on reserve that same right. They’re the distributor.
2) The whole discount thing–hello, Amazon has been doing this for years and we tolerate it there. Why is this any different?
3) Changing the covers was definitely a HUH? kind of moment, but as someone pointed out on Twitter earlier, this is probably them covering their behinds on the erotica front in case a cover is deemed too pornographic for their platform (which is a whole other can of worms and not the point I’m making here). The likelihood that they’re going to run around willy nilly changing our covers seems pretty low.
Here’s the thing. From what I can tell, NOOK Press is going to be taking the place of PubIt!. Right now the migration is voluntary, but eventually they’ll be forcing people either over or off. You, as a self publisher, have options that don’t involve a knee-jerk removal due to alarmist THIS MIGHT HAPPEN thinking. You can go ahead and make the switch. You can ride the wave on PubIt!, and see what happens. You can pull your books and re-release them through Smashwords Premium distribution program. But by doing that, you’re losing whatever reviews or rankings you’ve accrued over your time there. The truth is, there is no reason to remove ANYTHING until NOOK Press actually does something that PROVES they’re the bad guy.
The fact of the matter is that right now, they’re making money off of self published authors. A fairly significant chunk, if these numbers from the press release are to be believed:
• PubIt! continues to attract 20% more independent authors every quarter.
• Titles from self-published authors continue to increase by 24% each quarter in the NOOK Store™.
• Customer demand for great independent content continues to dramatically increase as 30% of NOOK customers purchase self-published content each month, representing 25% of NOOK Book™ sales every month.
They truly cannot afford to tick off the self publishing community enough to have people leaving in droves. If they screw up, we can let them know by pulling out THEN and not before. As a community of authors, we have power to affect change, but let’s not blow it by acting pre-emptively.
Kait Nolan, author of action-packed paranormal romance for teens Red, and adults Genesis: Mirus Book #1
http://www.kaitnolan.com
@kaitnolan on Twitter
