Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Barnes and Noble switch from PubIt! to NOOK Press

I received an email yesterday from B&N about their switch to NOOK Press. (PubIt! is scheduled to be phased out in favor of NP). The email says "Same Great Terms: Our favorable PubIt! business terms and commitment to a transparent retail partnership remain unchanged." But when I went to signup, I read through the terms and backed out, thinking to go through it again thoroughly later since I was skimming the information. I've been through it again and here are some comparisons.

1.
NP can "remove or modify the cover artwork, metadata and product description that you submit to us, or reformat your eBook to make it compatible with NOOK Press."

PubIt! terms: "We may, in our discretion, reformat your eBooks to make them compatible with the Service, and you acknowledge that certain unintentional formatting errors may occur in the process of reformatting of your eBooks."

2.
NP pricing and payment terms are nebulous as set out, aside from this biggie: "We have sole and complete discretion to set the Retail Price at which your eBooks are sold to the customer." But note that NOOK Pricing and Payment Terms offer the same figures given (as of this date) under PubIt! Service Policies.

PubIt! is the same: "We have sole and complete discretion to set the Retail Price at which your eBooks are sold to the customer." Service Policies under PubIt! gives the same figures listed under NOOK Press Pricing and Payment Terms, linked above.

3.
NP: "We will use commercially reasonable efforts to effect any change in List Price you provide to us within twenty (20) days following the date on which you submit it." Reasonable efforts? Is 20 days really necessary?

PubIt! terms in comparison: ""Any change in List Price you provide to us will be effective within five (5) business days following the date on which you submit it." Much more reasonable.

4.
Ebook withdrawal terms has changed by giving NP five more days.

Anyone with more findings, give a shout-out:)

EDIT: Mindy Klasky notes a major flaw when uploading stories at NP in comments

2 comments:

  1. NP currently permits each book to be loaded *once*; you can't correct an error and re-load the book. Instead, you have to create an entirely new book (new ISBN (ka-ching!), new sales stats, etc.) if you want to change anything -- like sales links to other books, in the back.

    PubIt! lets authors make updates to previously loaded books.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It doesn't sound reasonable to intentionally implement that. Wonder if it is an unintended flaw?

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