B&N Launches Self-Publishing Service

Turns out B&N is truly serious about challenging Amazon and its Kindle device. B&N already has a powerful e-book reader that can hold its own against iPad and Kindle. But what good would it do if authors can’t easily publish their books to B&N store (like they can on Amazon with Kindle Publishing platform). B&N intends to change all that with PubIt!. It’s a self-publishing service that allows authors to upload their work, add cover arts, and publish it to B&N in ePub format.

While this is the right move for B&N, details are still unknown about how this service will work. We still do not know how much B&N’s cut will be. That is a huge deal for publishers. Considering all the issues that Amazon has had with publishers in the past, B&N should not get too greedy here.

e-readers are still not as mainstream as many of us want them to be. But they are well on their way. They not only save consumers money, they give publishers yet another way to monetize their works. B&N’s latest move is certainly exciting. Let’s hope the process is simple enough for publishers to take advantage.