Tuesday, November 11, 2014

New Barnes & Noble Print on Demand Service

Barnes & Noble debuted a new print on demand service today as part of its Nook Press.



From what I can see, the prices are going to be more reasonable than Lulu. I created a 180-page hardbound edition with a dust jacket for $10.10. The same book with Lulu would cost $13.25, so you save a little over $3.00 per copy. Not bad. From what I can see, you're able to order between one and 125 copies. Shipping was reasonable. I ordered two copies, and postage was $6.00.

Now for the downside.

At the current time, Nook is strictly a print on demand service. They do not distribute your books or sell them on their platform. Because of that, you need to have your own method for distributing your book.

You could sell them to friends, at book signings, and on your website. You can also sell them on Amazon if you have a seller account. I did that with a few hardbacks I printed on Lulu before Amazon picked them up.

Creating the book was fairly easy once I figured out how to embed fonts in my files. The good thing is Nook Press walks you through the entire process, and explains how to embed fonts, and create PDF print ready files.

To get started you need three PDF files. The inside file, the front cover, and the back cover. Nook specifies page sizes and margins for everything, so it's easy to follow along. You upload each file separately and then create your spine.

Like I said, I ordered two copies. It sounds like it should take a week or two to receive them. I'll share the results here when I receive them.