Barnes & Noble’s distribution arm for self-publishing authors, Barnes & Noble Press, announced that all paperbacks must be listed at $14.99 or higher. The announcement said the changes are designed to “protect independent authors as well as maintain the quality of the content on our platform.” The requirement takes effect on April 22. Last year, Amazon KDP changed the royalty rate for paperbacks priced less than $9.99, lowering it to 50 percent from 60 percent.
Cost pressures on print have been increasing, but this new requirement at Barnes & Noble Press will prove challenging for sales of novellas, poetry, or works with low page counts. Authors may want to consider other platforms to distribute print editions to Barnes & Noble, such as IngramSpark or Draft2Digital—assuming distributed titles are not subject to the same restrictions. (I am still confirming.)
Similar to Draft2Digital’s new fees, these changes appear partly driven by the increase in AI-generated titles, since Barnes & Noble Press also announced that any account with more than 100 titles available may see some titles removed from sale, plus B&N Press will no longer allow public domain titles to be sold. None of these restrictions affect traditional publishers.
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.
