PLATFORM TROUBLESHOOTING — BARNES & NOBLE PRESS
Barnes & Noble Press — Uploading, Dashboard Navigation, and Understanding Your B&N Sales Reports
B&N Press (formerly Nook Press) is the most-overlooked major publishing platform in indie publishing. Here's everything you need to know about uploading to B&N, reading your dashboard, and avoiding the duplicate-listing trap that kills your reviews.
Platform: Barnes & Noble Press (press.barnesandnoble.com)
Difficulty: Beginner-friendly
Time to Fix: Initial setup: 30–60 minutes. File rejections: 30 minutes.
Best For: Authors who want to publish directly to Barnes & Noble (the largest US bookstore chain) and maximise their B&N royalties rather than routing sales through an aggregator.
B&N Press — Direct or Through an Aggregator?
Barnes & Noble Press is B&N's direct self-publishing platform. Like KDP, it's free to use and pays 70% royalties on ebooks priced $2.99 and above. The question authors face: publish directly to B&N Press, or distribute through an aggregator like Draft2Digital and let them handle the B&N relationship?
Direct advantages: slightly simpler royalty chain, more direct control over metadata updates, and no aggregator fee between you and B&N. Aggregator advantages: one dashboard for multiple platforms, easier metadata management across stores, and one payment instead of several.
🚨 IMPORTANT: If you publish directly to B&N Press AND your aggregator (Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, etc.) also distributes to B&N, you will have a duplicate listing problem — B&N shows two versions of the same book. Resolving this requires delisting one version, and you lose reviews associated with the delisted listing. Choose one channel per book before publishing. This decision is difficult to reverse cleanly.
📋 NOTE: As of summer 2025, aggregators that distribute to B&N include: Draft2Digital, PublishDrive, StreetLib, XinXii, and IngramSpark. If you use any of these, check your B&N distribution settings before publishing directly on B&N Press.
Uploading a Book to B&N Press
B&N Press accepts EPUB files for ebooks and PDF files for print books. The ebook upload process is broadly similar to KDP — enter metadata (title, description, categories, keywords), upload your EPUB file, set your price, and publish.
EPUB requirements for B&N
• EPUB 2 or EPUB 3 format (EPUB 3 preferred)
• Maximum file size: 100 MB
• All fonts must be embedded in the EPUB file
• Cover image must be included inside the EPUB file (not just uploaded separately)
• EPUB must include a valid NCX (navigation) file and a Table of Contents
Print book requirements
B&N Press handles print book production through IngramSpark's infrastructure — meaning the technical specifications are the same as IngramSpark: PDF at trim size, embedded fonts, 300 DPI images, 0.125-inch bleed on all sides. B&N's 600+ retail stores provide a potential path to in-store visibility that KDP Print's distribution does not.
💡 TIP: B&N Press's ebook requirements are stricter about embedded fonts than KDP — where KDP sometimes overlooks missing font embedding, B&N's system will reject files with fonts that aren't properly embedded. If you're converting from Word or Scrivener, verify font embedding in your EPUB before uploading.
The B&N Press Dashboard
After publishing, your B&N Press dashboard shows your titles, their status (live, in review, draft), and basic sales data. B&N's dashboard is more minimal than KDP's — there's no equivalent of KDP's Sales Dashboard graph. Sales data is primarily available through downloadable reports rather than an interactive visual dashboard.
Sales reports
B&N Press sales reports are available for download under your account reports section. Reports are generated monthly, showing units sold and royalties earned by title. The reporting lag is approximately 30–45 days after the end of the month in which sales occurred.
Payments
B&N Press pays royalties approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which sales occurred — a similar timeline to KDP. Payment requires meeting a minimum threshold (currently $10 USD). B&N pays via PayPal or direct deposit depending on your account settings.
The B&N In-Store Placement Scam — An Important Warning
B&N Press's own website displays a prominent warning: 'Barnes & Noble will never reach out to authors and offer in-store placement for your books in exchange for money.' Authors have reported being contacted by people claiming to represent B&N, offering in-store placement for a fee.
This is a scam. Barnes & Noble does not charge authors for in-store placement. Any unsolicited contact offering B&N in-store placement is fraudulent — do not pay, do not engage.
Updating Metadata and Price
To update your book's description, categories, keywords, or price on B&N Press: log into your dashboard, find the title, click Edit, make your changes, and save. B&N metadata updates typically propagate to the B&N storefront within 24–72 hours. Price changes usually apply within 24 hours.
⚠️ WARNING: If you're listed on B&N through both a direct account and an aggregator, updating your price in one place will not update it in the other. Your book may show two different prices on B&N simultaneously — one from your direct account and one from the aggregator. This is another strong reason to choose one channel and stick with it.
How ScribeCount Helps
ScribeCount connects to Barnes & Noble Press and pulls your sales data directly into your unified dashboard. Your B&N ebook and print royalties appear alongside your KDP, Kobo, and other platform data — so you can see your total author income without logging into each platform separately. ScribeCount's Sunburst Chart shows B&N as a percentage of your total income, helping you identify whether your B&N investment is generating proportional returns.