From Rags to Riches on the Kindle? The new kid in town.
Barnes & Noble's new self-publishing program, PubIt, is now available for those looking to expand beyond the Kindle e-book market. In the past if you wanted to have your books available for the Nook it was necessary to publish through Smashwords and sign up to be listed on their premium catalog. My book has been on the Barnes & Noble site for some time now. So why did I take the Smashwords version down and sign up for PubIt? Because I wanted to have more control over my product.
About a month ago I discovered that Kobo, who was publishing my books through Smashwords, had put my books on sale at a 20% discount. I never expected to sell a lot of books on Kobo and this wouldn't have bothered me except that Amazon's contract gives them the right to match any lower price. They did so and I lost about $60.00 in royalties last month. Not a lot of money, but money I would just as soon keep. It took me almost 4 weeks to get my book taken down from the Kobo site. I contacted Kobo–they said it had to be done through Smashwords. I contacted Smashwords and was assured it would be off the Kobo site soon. I guess a month is soon to them, not to me.
The Pubit contract gives Barnes & Noble the right to discount my books, but they also offer me the chance to change my price. I can raise my price to counter the discount and it will be taken care of in 5 days. This, along with the fact that PubIt allows you to track your sales in the same manner that Amazon does, is what made up my mind. The royalty rate is 65%, slightly lower than Amazon's rate, but I'll still make a little more on sales than through Smashwords.
I will post my Nook sales in the coming months as I have my Kindle sales. In the meantime, if you would like to order my books for your Nook, here are the links.
Also Available for Kindle:
