In the last blog, I walked through how to self-publish using Amazon KDP. One thing I left out, which you’ll also need to do to publish with Barnes and Noble, is to complete your vendor registration. This connects your bank account for royalties and sets up your self-publishing business for tax purposes.
Luckily, if you want to hold off on this part, you can skip it until later in the process for Branes and Noble. But before you can publish your book, you will have to complete it first. And once that information is filled out, it can take up to 72 hours for Barnes and Noble to process it. So no matter what you decide, you’ll first need to navigate to: https://press.barnesandnoble.com/. Then, create an account and start setting up your book to self-publish.
Create A New Book
Once you’ve set up your account, you will go to “projects” and select “create a new book.” Next, you’ll be prompted to create a print or an ebook. We will start with ebook setup and then share the differences with print, just like the Amazon KDP walkthrough.
Title
The one thing I like about Barnes and Noble’s process is that it’s more of a guided setup and provides more opportunities to help you. So when you select to set up an ebook, it will take you to the next step, which is simple: enter your title. If you haven’t completed your vendor verification, it will prompt you here to do it now or to finish it later. It doesn’t matter what you choose to do as long as you complete it.
Interior
Next, you’ll be asked to upload your interior file. It will prompt you if your file includes the cover as well. Don’t worry if it doesn’t. You can select no and upload it later. I think that’s the easier way to do it rather than worrying about formatting the cover for whatever word processor you’re using. Barnes and Noble make it easy, and you can select whatever file type you use (doc/docx, txt, html, and epub) on this page for their guidelines. Once uploaded, it’ll ask you to review the file to ensure it looks correct. Then, you must check a box confirming you reviewed it before moving on.
After this, it’ll ask you to select one of three options:
Default sample file: the platform will automatically preview the first 5% of your book for buyers to peruse before purchasing.
You can upload a sample file of your book for buyers.
Or select which chapters are available for preview.
If this is your first book, you’re probably better off just having it default. But I imagine in the future you’ll want to be more methodical here in what you show. This will help readers move from browsing to buying.
Cover
If you did not include the cover in your original file, you’d upload it here. For eBooks, you need an enticing front cover. Barnes and Noble require a file size between 5KB and 2MB. They also recommend a height and width of at least 1400 pixels. You must also ensure you have the right to the image you upload. As with the interior, you’ll need to review and approve by checking the box the system provides.
Book Details
In this next section, you can enter more detail about your book, including the following:
Title: review what you entered previously to make sure it’s correct.
Subtitle: you can now enter an additional title to clarify further what your book is part of (if you have a series) or if it’s just an add-on to describe what it’s about.
Edition Number and Description: as I said in the last blog, you don’t usually do this for fiction books unless you’re making significant changes. But if you’re in the nonfiction realm, here’s your chance to explain more about this new addition.
Part of a Series: this will prompt you with a simple “yes” or “no” option. Then, it’ll ask you for the series' name and this book's number.
Book Description: you have between 2000 and 5000 characters to write a compelling description that hooks potential buyers and makes them want to purchase it. Spend some time working this out, which will help drive sales.
Contributors: unlike Amazon KDP, contributors are where you can enter your author name and provide a biography to share with readers more about you. But it’s also a chance to add contributors, their role in developing the book, and their background. You can add up to 5.
Audience: this is more simplified than Amazon KDP. You only get three options: young teens, general adult, and mature.
Language: select what language your book is in. There’re only 8 to choose from, far fewer than Amazon.
Categories and subcategories: next, you get to clarify if your book is fiction or nonfiction and what categories your book fits into. You can pick up to five and search for them based on what Barnes and Noble offer. You can also choose subcategories. For instance, for my book, Panzerwanderer, it would look like this: Science fiction and fantasy > alternate realities > alternate history.
Keywords: you have one hundred characters to work with and must separate each keyword by commas. I would do some research here on your genre and best practices. If it’s your first book, you can stick with the usual terms for your genre and variants.
Pricing: this area is not as complicated as how Amazon KDP resents it. You enter your price point. You get 70% royalty, and they take 30% for eBooks. They provide a royalty estimate in real-time at whatever price you set.
Rights & Other Information: in this section, you’ll get to decide three things:
DRM Encryption: similar to Amazon KDP, this prevents it from unwanted sharing. I want people to share my book as much as possible. That’s a personal choice for the author, though, and contributors.
Public Domain: Is this content in the public domain, or do you own the rights to it? You have to hold the rights to the content if you’re going to put it up for sale.
ISBN: just like Amazon KDP, you don’t need an ISBN for your eBook but one for your print. Here you can decide whether to include your ISBN for your eBook.
Editorial Reviews: this is the final step in the Book Details phase, where you can verify everything looks correct and upload advanced reviews you might have for your book. As a first-time self-published author, you probably don’t have these, and you shouldn’t worry about it until you get further along anyway (unless you have reputable reviews).
Vendor Form
Rember that section it kept prompting you to finish? Well, now you can’t get away from it. At this time, to continue, you need to finish it. It’ll ask you for two things:
Your publisher’s name and website (if you’re a self-publisher, it would be your name and website).
Are you a US citizen?
Taxpayer and banking information
Review & Publish
You’re almost there! After all these steps, you’ll have one final review before submitting it. But now, you might want to set up your print version. In this next section, I’ll explain what you didn’t have to do for your ebook.
Publishing a Print Book
In the beginning, you’ll select print. Once you do, it’ll prompt you to choose if you are trying to sell this book or create it for personal use.
Book Size & Type
You’ll need to enter the estimated page count and page size in this section. This will inform the system to provide recommendations on formatting. You’ll also select the following things:
Interior Print Color
Black & White
Standard Color
Full Premium Color
Cover Format
Paperback
Hardcover w/ Printed Case
Hardcover w/ Dust Jacket
Cover Finish
Gloss
Matte
Paper Color
White (70lb)
White (50ln)
Cream (70lb)
All of these features impact printing costs and the overall quality of the final printing. If you’re publishing a typical fiction book, you’ll end up selecting: black & white > paperback > matte > cream (70lb). The printing cost per book will vary depending on the page count and size, but it will show you that estimation in real time.
Now, if you are releasing a literary journal with art and photography, you would want to use full premium color and white (70lb) to prevent a sort of see-through on the page. I’ve had a colleague use Barnes & Noble for this purpose, and she’s had great success with this service compared to Amazon KDP.
Formatting
Based on what you entered in the previous section regarding size, this section will preview what you should do formatting-wise for your book. But, again, knowing as much about this formatting stuff up front will enable you to write your book already formatted, so once you have a final version, you’ll know right away how many pages it’ll be based on the size you’ve planned for. Also, it makes it easier when you’re at the end of everything and want to push this thing live.
Next, the system will allow you to prepare any interior images, embed fonts, and upload your file as PDF (just Amazon KDP, this is the recommended file type for print books). Then last, you’ll need to upload your cover as either separate files (front and back) or as a full spread. If you know the size of your book in advance, then I recommend downloading the template and sharing it with your artist to do the full spread. Bear in mind the book needs to be done. Any adjustment in page count could impact how the printing of the spine portion of the cover turns out.
You’re Done if You’ve Setup your ebook
The following three sections are the same for print. And if you have already set up your ebook, the same information (if it’s the same book) will be brought over, making these final sections move much faster. That’s why in this case, it pays to set up your ebook first.
Now, it’s the waiting game! They’ll notify you once your book has gone live, and you can conduct all of your marketing and social sharing to start driving people to buy it. Of course, you should and can do a lot before you launch a book, which we’ll get into in later blogs. But now you have a good idea of what to do to launch on Amazon KDP and Barnes and Noble. In the next blog, I’ll cover some other popular platforms that make up the additional 20% of the market share.
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