Barnes and Noble Press: Publishing at America's Bookstore

Barnes and Noble is one of those platforms that indie authors underestimate. It is easy to look at Amazon's market dominance and conclude that B&N is a minor consideration—but that conclusion misses what Barnes and Noble actually offers. B&N Press is the self-publishing arm of the largest brick-and-mortar bookstore chain in the United States, with over 600 retail locations, a dedicated Nook ebook reader community, and a customer base that has a deep, habitual relationship with buying books. Wide authors who dismiss B&N are leaving real money on the table.



Understanding Barnes and Noble Press

Barnes and Noble Press (bnpress.com) replaced Nook Press as B&N's self-publishing platform and brought with it expanded capabilities including print-on-demand paperback publishing alongside ebooks. The platform serves two distinct audiences that are worth thinking about separately: Nook device and app users who buy and read ebooks, and Barnes and Noble retail customers who discover and purchase print books in stores and online.

The Nook ecosystem is smaller than it was at its peak, when the Nook was a genuine competitor to the Kindle. But Nook readers who have stayed in the ecosystem are devoted. They buy consistently, they know indie fiction is available to them on the platform, and they tend to read and review at high rates. The Nook community is not large by Amazon standards, but it is loyal, and loyal readers are the kind every author wants.

The print-on-demand opportunity is what distinguishes B&N Press from every other major wide platform. When you publish a print book through B&N Press and meet B&N's quality standards, your paperback can be eligible for in-store placement and online retail sale through barnesandnoble.com. This is the only indie self-publishing path that includes potential physical bookstore presence at national scale.

Setting Up Your B&N Press Account

Account setup at bnpress.com is among the most straightforward of any wide platform. You will create an account with an email address, provide tax information, and set up your payment preference—B&N pays via check or direct deposit. The interface is clean and the upload process is intuitive.

Account Verification

B&N Press requires account verification before your first publication goes live. This typically involves confirming your email address and completing your payment and tax information. Once verified, your books publish to the Nook store within approximately 24 to 72 hours of submission—faster than Apple Books and comparable to Kobo.

ePub Files and Formatting

B&N Press accepts ePub files for ebooks, similar to other wide platforms. As with Kobo and Apple Books, a properly formatted ePub from a dedicated tool like Vellum or Atticus will serve you better than a Word document conversion. B&N's file reviewer looks for basic quality standards—functioning table of contents, chapter breaks, readable formatting—and most ePub files from reputable tools meet these standards without issue.

For print books, B&N Press requires a print-ready PDF formatted to your chosen trim size. This is the same PDF you might use for KDP print or IngramSpark. If you already have print files, the upload process for B&N Press print is straightforward. B&N supports multiple trim sizes including the industry-standard 6 by 9 inch and 5 by 8 inch formats common in trade paperback fiction.

Pricing and Royalties

B&N Press pays a 65% royalty on ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and a 40% royalty on books priced below $2.99 or above $9.99. These rates are competitive with other wide platforms, though the 65% rate is slightly below Amazon and Kobo's 70% for the same price range.

For print books, B&N Press pays royalties based on the list price minus the printing cost, similar to KDP print and IngramSpark. The royalty calculation is transparent—you can see the exact printing cost for your chosen format and trim size in the dashboard before setting your retail price.

B&N Press does support free ebooks. You can set a book to free directly in the dashboard, making B&N a practical platform for permafree series starters.

The Print-on-Demand Opportunity

This is where B&N Press stands alone among wide ebook platforms, and it is worth understanding in detail.

B&N Bookstore Distribution

When you publish a print book through B&N Press and your book meets B&N's quality and market standards, the book becomes available for ordering through barnesandnoble.com and potentially eligible for in-store placement. B&N's retail team evaluates print titles for in-store placement based on category performance, cover quality, and sales data—automatic placement is not guaranteed, but the possibility exists in a way that it does not on any other self-publishing platform.

For some authors, particularly those writing in categories with strong B&N physical retail presence—literary fiction, children's books, regional interest, and some genres of genre fiction—the in-store distribution opportunity is a meaningful differentiator. A paperback on the shelf of a Barnes and Noble store reaches browsers who would never encounter that book through online channels.

BN.com Online Sales

Regardless of in-store placement, every print book published through B&N Press is available for sale through barnesandnoble.com. B&N's e-commerce customer base is substantial—millions of people who prefer buying books through B&N rather than Amazon for personal or ethical reasons. Making your paperback available on BN.com at a competitive price is simple to do and captures sales you would otherwise not receive.

Nook Promotional Opportunities

B&N Press offers promotional tools for authors with established catalog histories on the platform. These include the ability to participate in Nook daily deals, Nook newsletter features, and B&N's broader promotional calendar. Access to promotional opportunities expands as your catalog grows and your sales history on the platform develops.

B&N also runs promotional campaigns around major retail events—holiday seasons, back-to-school periods, and seasonal reading promotions. Authors who have established their catalogs on B&N Press before these events are in the pool for editorial consideration during high-traffic periods.

The B&N Nook Community

Nook readers have maintained reading communities on Goodreads, Facebook, and dedicated Nook reader forums even as the platform has faced competitive pressure from Amazon. Authors who engage with Nook reader communities—not in a promotional push way, but in a genuine reader-engagement way—often find that Nook readers are among the most loyal and word-of-mouth-active audiences they have. A Nook reader who loves your books will recommend them actively to other Nook users.

B&N Press as Part of a Wide Strategy

B&N Press is typically the fourth or fifth platform authors add when building a wide distribution strategy, after Kobo, Apple Books, and Google Play. That sequencing makes sense given B&N's audience size relative to the other major platforms. But it does not mean B&N should be an afterthought.

Wide authors who consistently perform well on B&N describe approaching it the same way they approach Kobo—with optimized metadata, consistent catalog presence, and participation in promotional opportunities. The authors who dismiss B&N as insignificant are often the same authors whose B&N sales are indeed insignificant, because they treated the platform as insignificant from the start.

Genre Considerations

B&N has historically been strong in certain genres where its physical retail presence is strong—mystery and thriller, romance, science fiction and fantasy, and literary fiction. If you write in these genres, B&N's audience overlap with your target readers is meaningful. If you write in niche genres with weaker physical retail presence, the ebook audience through Nook is still real, but the print opportunity is less likely to generate in-store placement.

Common B&N Press Mistakes

• Publishing on B&N as an afterthought with lower-quality cover or metadata than other platforms

• Setting prices higher on B&N than on other platforms without a strategic reason

• Not publishing a print edition through B&N Press and missing the in-store distribution opportunity

• Ignoring the promotional calendar and missing high-traffic seasonal windows

• Not connecting B&N Press to ScribeCount and losing visibility into B&N's contribution to your overall royalty picture

• Dismissing Nook readers as a declining audience rather than recognizing them as a loyal and active community

Conclusion

Barnes and Noble Press is not Amazon. It never will be. But it is America's bookstore, and it connects indie authors to a reader community that is genuine, active, and underserved by most of the indie authors they would otherwise love to read. The print-on-demand pathway is unique in the self-publishing landscape. The Nook audience is loyal and overlooked. And the platform itself is straightforward to use. For wide authors who are serious about complete distribution coverage, B&N Press is not optional—it is a pillar of a complete wide strategy.  

- Randall