Self-Publishing: Setting up a Barnes & Noble Paperback
By: A.D. Sterling
Fri, Jun 12, 2020
Read in 3 minutes
Publishing your paperback on B&N
UPDATE
If you intend to release your POD book through IngramSpark then I would NOT recommend also listing directly with Barnes & Noble (B&N). This eventually led to 2 different listings of my book on the B&N website.
* As noted below, B&N requires you to provide a unique ISBN for your POD book sold through their website - in the end this just felt like a wasted ISBN number as I clearly didn’t want 2 separate listings for the exact same book.
* The second listing that appeared on B&N was using the original ISBN I assigned for Amazon and IngramSpark. I can only assume that means that B&N pulls a feed from IngramSpark and orders the POD book through them.
For these reasons I took down the B&N specific POD listing. If you don’t intend to list with IngramSpark and want to list for free with B&N then you may find this route worthwhile.
Set up an account
The first thing you’ll need to do is create a new account at press.barnesandnoble.com. B&N has the nicest, most user-friendly UI out of Amazon KDP and IngramSpark. If you aren’t super familiar with what you’re doing or how to properly format files they do an excellent job of walking you through what’s needed.
Formatting Guide
B&N offers a complete guide on how to properly format your files for their services.
Paperback Document
B&N requires a very similar layout to IngramSpark’s paperback requirements, so I used the same interior pdf file I created for IngramSpark. This worked out perfectly and I didn’t need to make any changes for it to upload and print properly.
Cover
Unfortunately the cover file was another story. Barnes & Noble’s spine ended up being a tiny bit smaller than the cover for both Amazon KDP and IngramSpark. Presumably they use thinner paper because the page count was identical. Due to this difference I needed another cover file created specific for B&N. During the book creation they offer a Cover Template that can be used to make sure your bleeds and fold marks line up properly based on your specific size book & page length.
What you need
In order to complete setup for your paperback you’ll need the following:
- Unfortunately B&N requires a unique ISBN. This is somewhat irksome assuming it’s the identical book as what is listed on Amazon KDP and IngramSpark. The ISBN agency, Bowker, doesn’t recommend using a different ISBN for the same book, but the only way to proceed with listing is to use a new ISBN you’ve purchased.
- Your cover formatted properly as a pdf.
- Your .pdf file or Word doc of your manuscript.
- Your Author Bio copy
Listing
B&N states print books will be available within 96 hours, but my book was available for sale within a couple of days.
Making Changes
In order to make changes you first have to take your book offline and then republish it. During this time period I don’t believe your book will appear for sale, but I have yet to make updates so I can’t be certain.