Barnes and Noble Has It’s Own Royalties ‘Sweet Spot,’ in Self-Publishing Tool

Barnes and Noble launched an independent e-book publishing platform of it’s own today. Pubit! is aimed at attracting independent and do-it-yourself publishers to the Nook e-reader, much as Amazon is using the DTP platform to push publishers to the Kindle.

The similarities between the two publishing platforms extends to a royalty “sweet spot.” Amazon made waves by announcing last June that it would pay a 70% royalty rate on books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and the Barnes and Noble plan has a similar incentive, offering a 65% royalty payment on books in the $2.99 to $9.99 range.

The Nook platform enjoys Barnes & Noble’s major market presence, plus its friendliness toward peer sharing and casual content browsing. It has a “Read in Store” feature, letting users browse an e-book in its entirety as long as the reader is physically in a Barnes and Noble store; and “LendMe” lets users loan their e-books out to friends for up to 14 days.

Self-publishing tools, offered by major retailers to independent and DIY publishers, is a sure way of broadening the content available in e-book stores. “The launch of our PubIt! platform further reinforces our long-standing commitment to authors and writers, and offers a significant opportunity to provide an even greater selection of reading material to our millions of customers,” Theresa Horner, director, digital products, Barnes & Noble said on Monday.

Of particular note to publishers should be the intersection of royalties and competing platforms; while market share battles drive down margins for retailers, royalty rates are emerging as a more prominent arena of competition. The ability to manage royalties – with all of the inherent royalty calculations, data management, and processing ability – is more than ever a necessity for staying competitive.