How to Get My Indie Books on Barnes & Noble Nook

[MariaESchneider]

I agree Pigeon.  I finally got the book "downloaded" but from what i can tell, it doesn't reside on my computer (meaning I must use their e-reader.  Not that there is anything inherently wrong with their e-reader, but I am prevented from loading the book in my CHOICE of e-readers.)   I don't have any idea what format is being used (which again is okay, except I'm trying to learn what is going on here.)

It took me several minutes to figure out how to OPEN and read the darn book.  Not what I'd call intuitive. 

I'm also not certain about whether I have to be connected to read the book.  IT sounds like I don't---if my computer has enough "memory" to hold it.  But  I did not actually disconnect from the web to find out.  So...how portable is the book?  I mean, they don't expect people to be reading from their iphone and have an active connection the whole time, right???

More to learn...

[pidgeon92]

It does reside on your computer, when I downloaded one of the free books I downloaded it into the eReader folder it deposited on my hard drive's documents folder. The file format the book came in is .pdb.

I tried opening it in Stanza, but it could not display it.

[Edward C. Patterson]

Well, my one book that showd up still "technical difficulties" and won't download, although it allowed me to buy it. The other 12 must be in a different wave, because they're aren;t there. Mark Coker is looking into my technical problem - says it's a B&N thing. It also says that my eBook will take 2-3 weeks to ship?

I was in a B&N Bookstore tonight and discovered omething amazing. When I put my name in their kiosk ordering computer, the eBook shows up - yes, BUT ALSO all thirteen of my DTB books. You can't order them, but this is the first time that ny of my Paperback are available in Barnes & Noble (I checked the kiosk two weeks ago. Nada). I think all this is a work in progress, but I believe the CreateSpace (BookSuge) titles will be available through barnes & Nobles, which I thought would never happen because of the Great Online War. Amazoning.

Since my life and sales or eadership doesn;t depend on any of this, it is nice to know thre might be a layer of opportunity in its infancy, quirks and all. (I had the same problems with the eReader - if the Nook is as dizzy, I'm gld I have a Kindle).

As for sales reports, something will come back quarterly via Smashwords and hey'll report them back. It doesn;t look like that's even built yet.

Ed Patterson

[CS]

Has anyone checked out the dictionary you get for free with the B&N Reader? Seems to have a nasty "Topaz" look to it.

[MariaESchneider]

I did a search at BN website on my name--nothing comes up.  But if I put in the title of my book (catch an honest thief) it does show up (with my name...)

So yeah, there's some quirks to be sure.

Thanks Pigeon.  I'll go see if I can find it in the document folder.  I looked on the reader itself to see if it would tell me WHERE the book was, but couldn't tell.  It does seem to be different as far as format from the smashwords one (I've downloaded those and they don't look the same as the BN one.)

All in the learning curve...

[NAmbrose]

I was approved for the Premium Catalog on Smashwords on 10/10; a note said it would be sent over to BN around the 16th.  It wasn't there as of yesterday, but Mark told me they're slowly being transferred, though he had no date for completion.  Obviously, it's getting done, and frankly I can't wait to see mine over there.  It's awesome that Smashwords, being as new as they are, landed such a sweet deal with both BN and Sony.

Smashwords does seem to have some conversion issues.  I had to upload the same Word doc 3 times before most of the filetypes converted completely.  I followed their instructions--basic and Premium--to the letter.  Epub, Mobi, PRC, PDF, HTML, and several others looked okay, but RTF and the text versions kinda sucked.  PDF seemed to retain the best formatting.

Anyway, I really look forward to seeing everyone on BN soon.  It's a great opportunity to get some fantastic work from a bunch of insanely talented writers into the hands of the 'people'.  And when they're done reading all of those books, maybe they can buy mine, too!  

[David J. Guyton]

Innnnteresting! I will have to get my book up on BN too.

Ed, keep us posted about your books being available in paperback there. Doesn't Amazon own CreateSpace??? How can this be possible? Is there some huge merger coming?

Anyway, my CS book availabe at BN would be a dream come true.

[Carolyn Kephart]

Yours works. Mine don;t yet. I'll ask Mark. Bought Wysard as a test.

Ed Patterson

Ed, you're a Renaissance patron prince of indie writers. Many thanks.

May your problems soon be solved, and the sales start pouring in.

Namaste,

CK

[NAmbrose]

The latest article I read on the 'Nook' says it accepts 'EPub, Fictionwise, and PDF'.  I would think their downloadable software would take the same.  Fictionwise does not seem to use a specific format, although they seem to lean toward .mobi, so I don't really know what that means.  I think EPub is BN's filetype of choice, since they convert web RSS feed subscriptions to that format before beaming into the Nook. Anyway, FYI...

[Sam Landstrom]

FYI, I got the formatting taken care of (I think). I followed Maria's suggestion of going into the HTML. I stripped out some erroneous style content that was inside of many of the <SPAN> tags. Note that if you fix your formatting like I did, you'll probably have to re-submit  for review. The re-sumbmitting process is buried inside your My Smashwords interface.

Just thought I'd re-cap this in case anyone runs into similar issues.

[Edward C. Patterson]

Well there are 2 possible reasons for my free book not showing up. I had a misspelled word in the title (Your instead of You). I've reset that in Smashwords and its going through the cycle again. And, according to mark Coker, B&N's technicians had a problems with some of their programming which handled indents incorrectly cause some books to have 'technical" difficulty. Mark suggests that that is the real reason. They are working with B&N's technicians.

Thanks
Ed Patterson

[mamiller]

Ed, I saw Bobby's Trace on there if you do the search by ISBN.  Widow's Tale was there by ISBN as well, but doesn't come up in the conventional search yet.

[mamiller]

...ahhh, but it shows "not in stock" yet.   

[MariaESchneider]

Thief now shows up on either a search of my name or the book name (previously, only on book name.)  Getting there.  Other book still not there and it was actually submitted first.  Shrug. 

Sam--That is GREAT.  I'm glad that worked for you.  I had to do more than a few lines like that myself--still don't know why.  Just one of those things.

[ASparrow]

Well there are 2 possible reasons for my free book not showing up. I had a misspelled word in the title (Your instead of You). I've reset that in Smashwords and its going through the cycle again. And, according to mark Coker, B&N's technicians had a problems with some of their programming which handled indents incorrectly cause some books to have 'technical" difficulty. Mark suggests that that is the real reason. They are working with B&N's technicians.

Thanks
Ed Patterson

Looks like your version with the typo has made it onto Barnes and Noble. Congrats!

[koland]

The latest article I read on the 'Nook' says it accepts 'EPub, Fictionwise, and PDF'.  I would think their downloadable software would take the same.  Fictionwise does not seem to use a specific format...

Actually, they have their own format - ereader, which they own. It's the same format used by the BBN reader (drm'ed, extension is PDB), where your EXACT name and credit card (all 16 digits) are the key to unlock your books (but on as many devices as you want). Make sure you write the info down - that book is keyed to that for forever (although you MIGHT be able to redownload later with updated CC info, there is no guarantee). And your device/reader must store this info to use for future purchases or you must enter it each time (for each book), which should be fun on a touch screen. The store does retain the info, so they can encrypt each book (it doesn't' have to be the CC used for purchase, as some claim, as I purchase from FW in many ways, but only use on CC to encrypt the titles). If the store you use doesn't store the info for you, don't make the mistake of entering your name in different ways (as my mother did) or you'll have some books that want a middle name, some with a middle initial, some with punctuation, etc.

EPUB and PDF are, of course adobe formats - I suspect only PDB will be sold by BN (they make more money, as there are no DRM fees for Adobe and the fees they pay FW are just to an internal division). But, at least you can read non-DRM'd epub and PDF (has anyone seen a definitive FAQ from BN that they'll support the DRM version of these?). PDF, though, I expect to be quite a poor choice on the small screen, just as it is for the Sony (it's a fault of the format, not the device).

I just wish Amazon would use an open PDF reader for the DX, instead of licensing from adobe, so they could add more features instead of being restricted as they are now.

[Carolyn Kephart]

I just noticed that B&N ebook listings now have a sales counter akin to Amazon's. Sweet!

CK

[Maria Hooley]

I just did a search for my name to see if the books came up, and the first five that I started with did.  I bought one of the titles to see what the formatting looked like.  The line spacing is a little uneven but beyond that, I didn't see any problems with the novel, and the line spacing isn't something I can control, I don't think.  The whole file is in 1.5 spacing.  The cover art was exceptionally blurry when you are reading the book on the computer screen so I may have to try to bolster the resolution.  There was only one reason they initially rejected my submission to the premium B & N listing--was too many blank pages that I had in there because of the print version.  After I took those out, the Word files were accepted.

[Reeses_Addict]

Well there are 2 possible reasons for my free book not showing up. I had a misspelled word in the title (Your instead of You). I've reset that in Smashwords and its going through the cycle again. And, according to mark Coker, B&N's technicians had a problems with some of their programming which handled indents incorrectly cause some books to have 'technical" difficulty. Mark suggests that that is the real reason. They are working with B&N's technicians.

Thanks
Ed Patterson

Ed, I am having the same problem as you.  All of my books, under my name and my pseudonym, all say special order on the detail pages and technical difficulties when you try to download them.  All of my freebies went in the first wave, and they are ranked from 32,000 to 80,000 which tells me that I am pissing off potential customers that might not give me a second chance when my for sale stories make it over.  Although I applaud the opportunity to be over there, I hope they fix this "glitch" soon.  I would rather them pull the detail pages until the problems are fixed than allow people to "purchase" and then not get my stuff. 

[Reeses_Addict]

Checking the names of all who posted up, it looks like the freebies are having the problems.  From what I can tell, only books that have a price are available.  The first of my books to have a set price went premium two weeks after the freebies so I should not have to wait long to see those. 

[Edward C. Patterson]

My other 12 books have a price and went in 2 different waves, so I need to wait. I had forgotten to change my Kindle edition in my copyright, so I missed the first wave.

Ed Patterson

[NAmbrose]

koland--

Thanks for the info--very helpful!  Saw the 'Nook' notation under 'ereader format' on Wikipedia after you mentioned it.  ('Comparison of ebook formats')  Appreciate the heads up.


UPDATE:  Just got an email from Mark Coker--as follows:

"Hi Nicolas,

I'll send out an email tomorrow to all Smashwords authors to update everyone on where we're at with B&N.  They've had delays, but they're working as quickly as they can to get our books up."

UPDATE 2:

Mark's email arrived--very detailed and helpful.  It appears most of the issues holding up transfers are conversion related.  B&N is indeed changing their filetype of choice to EPUB from ereader, as is Sony.  Both sides are vigorously working the problems, and progress is being made.  He expects most of the kinks worked out in roughly 2 weeks.  FYI

[David J. Guyton]

The submission page says you need an ISBN. My ISBN is through CreateSpace, and of course I have my Kindle version. What do I do for BN? An all new ISBN?

[Thumper]

None of mine have showed up on B&N yet... 

[NAmbrose]

David,

I asked this question myself, and was told that BN will assign their own ISBN--we need not do anything on our end.

My email read--

My book is in your Premium Catalog, and so should make it over to BN soon,
I hope. (I followed all of your formatting guides to the letter!) But, there
is no ISBN associated with it, as I originally published the paperback
through Lulu, and then to Kindle and Smashwords. Is that a potential problem
with BN, or will they just assign their own #?

Mark's answer--

You don't need to do anything with the ISBN - B&N will assign their own identifier.


update:  I may have misunderstood your question.  The above relates only to ebooks in the Smashwords Premium Catalog that are in the process of being moved over to the BN ebook site.  I you're referring to paperbacks, then yes you would need an ISBN first.  At least that's how I read the BN submission page...

update2:  Reading through the Createspace policy, it seems that the ISBN through them can only be used for books sold through Amazon, and is not transferable in any way.  In other words, they are the publisher of record.  I may be wrong, but that's what it looked like to me.