Apparently the creators of NOOKcolor (and Nook) are continuing to insist that these aren’t simply Android tablets locked up and ready for reading. Can you imagine? Indeed there are big initiatives being set forth by Barnes & Noble, in all seriousness now, to push their Self-Publishing Author program PubIt! to the forefront. In the Android Community there’s been a big bunch of excitement at the hacking and freeing of the NOOKcolor as of late, but we’ve got to remember that indeed this device was made for reading books, and it does continue to do so. Barnes & Noble is holding their first in-store event for Pub-It tonight.
Tonight at Barnes & Noble’s Santa Monica, CA, store, they’ll be holding a special even featuring super successful PubIt! author H.P. Mallory, Beth Orsoff – another traditional author turned PubIt! success story, and Lisa Cortés, President of Cortés Films and Executive Producer of the Academy Award®-winning film Precious. See them chat and hang out with them and give them high fives. NOOKcolor only really launched in full force a few months ago, PubIt! only showing up four months ago, now already having 11,000 publishers and authors signed up for the program.
Another impressive statistic is the fact that there are 35 PubIt! specific titles in the Barnes & Noble top 200 NOOK books list. That’s one whole heck of a lot if you consider these books might never have been so widely distributed had it not been for this medium. ALSO of note, since we know you love coffee and hate statistics, we’ve got to let you know that on Saturday, February 26, if you head over to ANY Barnes & Noble location and let them speak to you about NOOKcolor, you’ll get a free tall cup of hot or iced Starbucks Coffee. Deal?
More than 11,000 Independent Publishers and Self-Publishing Authors Bring Their Digital Works to
Barnes & Noble’s PubIt!™ Publishing Platform
Company Launches First In-Store Event Featuring Popular PubIt! Authors,
Expanding Online Visibility to Retail Channel
35 PubIt! Titles Currently Among Top 200 NOOK Books™
New York, New York – February 23, 2011 – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, is experiencing major growth for PubIt! (www.PubIt.com), its easy-to-use digital publishing platform for independent publishers and authors, and announcing the expansion of its program into its bookstores. Since launching four months ago, more than 11,000 independent publishers and authors have joined the PubIt! community of booksellers, adding more than 65,000 new works to Barnes & Noble’s expansive NOOK Bookstore™ of more than two million digital titles. In fact, there are currently 35 PubIt! titles among the Top 200 NOOK Books based on sales, and Barnes & Noble customers have purchased PubIt! works in more than 50 categories to date.
“The variety and quality of the content we are seeing through PubIt! is beyond our expectations,” said Theresa Horner, Barnes & Noble’s Vice President, Digital Content. “We are thrilled with our initial sales for PubIt! titles as our millions of customers enjoy exploring newly added works from PubIt! writers and publishers.”
Continuing its strong tradition of author support, Barnes & Noble also announced its expanded promotion for PubIt! titles and authors into its retail channel. The company will host its first in-store event featuring PubIt! authors tonight in its Santa Monica, CA, store. The panel discussion will feature successful PubIt! author H.P. Mallory, Beth Orsoff, a traditional turned self-published author who has boosted her sales with PubIt!, and Lisa Cortés, President of Cortés Films and Executive Producer of the Academy Award®-winning film Precious. The discussion will explore new opportunities in do-it-yourself publishing, online and on-screen. For more information on the event, visit http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/3085464.
“This in-store PubIt! event is a continuation of Barnes & Noble’s strategy of bringing the digital and physical reading worlds together,” said Horner. “We recognize the importance of uniting the reader with the author regardless of the book format, and we look forward to conducting many more events to support our PubIt! authors in our bookstores.”
In addition to in-store events, Barnes & Noble offers PubIt! authors and publishers access to the unique marketing and merchandising opportunities through the NOOK Bookstore, a PubIt! bestseller list and additional exposure through the Read In Store™ program available for NOOK Color™ and NOOK™ device customers in the company’s more than 700 bookstores across the country.
Authors have found great success with PubIt!. H.P. Mallory, author of Toil and Trouble, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, and To Kill a Warlock, calls PubIt!, “an incredible experience…one of the best decisions I ever made.” Mallory’s paranormal romance books have become such a hit that she just signed a three-book deal with a major publishing house. Lori Brighton, author of A Night of Secrets, The Mind Readers and The Ghost Hunter, says, “PubIt! places publishing in the author’s hands, which benefits not only the author, but also the reader.”
With clear and competitive terms – and no hidden fees – the self-service online PubIt! portal provides qualified content owners a simple and profitable way to bring their works to millions of new readers. PubIt! uses a Web-based platform for publishers to independently set up their accounts, upload their eBooks, set the list price and track their sales and payments from a competitive royalty based on the price. PubIt! publishers can be confident they will be compensated from the list price they set with no additional charges, regardless of file size. Publishers’ content is offered in ePub format, the industry standard that allows content to be enjoyed by customers on hundreds of the most popular mobile, computing and eReading devices.
Barnes & Noble offers e-mail support and a robust online community for those interested in PubIt!. More information on PubIt! can be found at www.pubit.com.
PubIt! titles can be enjoyed across the company’s entire family of NOOK products and software, including the award-winning NOOK Color, NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi® and NOOK software-enabled iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Android™ smartphones and tablets, and Windows-based PCs, laptops or netbooks. For more information on free NOOK software, please visit www.bn.com/nookapps.
