B&N’s new ad platform launched with significant flaws, but B&N has already issued refunds and appears to be reshaping the program
In January, Barnes & Noble sent an email to all users of Barnes & Noble Press—the company’s self-publishing arm—announcing that self-serve advertising is now available. The program is meant to be comparable to Amazon Marketing Services, which allows authors to purchase ad space at Amazon based on keywords. (For more about Amazon advertising, see our item this issue about the newly launched Amazon Chronicles.)
Ian Lamont, founder of i30 Media Corporation, a publisher of quick guides, says he was very excited about the development until he saw “crazily overpriced CPMs [cost per thousand impressions]” combined with a minimum $300 spend. To give you an idea of how crazy: Amazon advertising campaigns can be kept under $1 CPM, and BookBub asks for a $1 starting commitment. Barnes & Noble’s CPM is between $7 and $12.
Also, Barnes & Noble doesn’t yet offer the same sophisticated tools as Amazon to ensure an ad’s effectiveness.Lamont says, “Publishers who aren’t familiar with the self-serve ad landscape may not know how much they are overpaying.” Lamont surmises that the only logical reason to place such ads is for a branding play. Yet the entire purpose of most self-serve ad systems is to drive sales (and profitable sales)—something that seems to have been lost on Barnes & Noble in their first iteration of the system.
Within several days, Barnes & Noble realized their mistake and alerted purchasers that their fees would be refunded. The email said, “Thank you for your early purchase on the B&N Advertising Portal. While we work out a few kinks and make some adjustments, we would like to refund you the initial purchase you made of $300. We would like to continue your campaign free of charge so that we may learn from how the advertising platform is working, but we don’t want to charge you for volunteering to help us with this initial feedback.” As of now, they are not taking new ads, “as we are currently at capacity for our beta testing.” (Check here to see if they’ve reopened the program.)
Bottom line: On the one hand, we have to say bravo to Barnes & Noble for making the attempt to compete and offer something of potential value to authors. Over the last few years, they’ve taken steps to improve Barnes & Noble Press’s features and opportunities for indies—and some romance authors report that their sales at Barnes & Noble are robust, or even doing better than Apple Books sales. (See Marie Force in our 2018 reflection piece, as well as this item on marketing for Nook.) However, it’s frankly not surprising to see B&N bungle the launch, revealing ignorance of the market they’re competing in. We hope they adjust the program and re-launch soon.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
