Barnes & Noble Press for a UK publisher: the only Nook route under the no-Draft2Digital rule

Harvested 31 Oct 2026 (skills harvest). 'nook'/'barnes' had 0 hits in INDEX.md before this. B&N's own help pages answer 403 to scripts, so their wording below is from search snippets of the pages (marked) plus one practitioner guide that read them on 12 Oct 2026.

What changed

• B&N Press used to be US-only. Its help article "Barnes & Noble Press International Availability" now reads (snippet): "B&N Press is currently available for print and eBook publishing to authors and publishers in the following countries: U.K. Ireland ...".
• publishing.co.uk (Robert Prime; updated 12 Oct 2026, read) confirms: "UK authors can publish direct: B&N lists the U.K. among the countries it accepts."
• Our house rule is never Draft2Digital, and Kobo Writing Life does not feed Nook. So until now Nook readers could not get Cedwyn titles at all. Direct is the only door.

Terms (as published)

• E-book royalty: a flat 70% of the list price you set. B&N Help "Getting Paid for Sales" (snippet): "70% royalty for all sales for $0.99 and higher after January 1, 2021". B&N's own announcement (snippet): a flat 70%, "up from a range of 40% to 65%". The legal Royalty Payment Terms (snippet): "You will be paid a 70% author royalty off the List Price. You will, at all times, ensure that the eBook List Price: ..." The rest of that clause (very likely price parity with other stores) was not checked. Read it in the dashboard before pricing.
• Print: 55% of list price minus printing cost; minimum print list price $14.99; author copies ship to the US only (publishing.co.uk, read).
• Payment: 30 days after the end of the month of sale, once ebook and print together reach $25 (publishing.co.uk, read), by bank transfer (ebookpbook.com 29 Jul 2026, snippet). Whether payouts reach a UK bank in GBP was not checked; check it at sign-up.
• ISBN: B&N offers a free ISBN, but "this free ISBN can only be used on B&N Press for distribution to Barnes & Noble and bn.com" (ISBN FAQs, snippet). Taking it is free but creates a B&N-only identifier. Whether an e-book can list with no ISBN at all was not checked.
• Free (£0) e-books: whether B&N allows a permanently free e-book was not checked. The 70% band starts at $0.99.
• Market size: the practitioner verdict is "The Nook market is small versus Kindle ... For UK authors it is low priority" (publishing.co.uk). No Nook sales numbers for UK history or non-fiction titles were found. Do not expect volume.

Decision rule

1. Worth it only when the Nook upload costs under an hour per title and the EPUB already exists (it does).
2. Do it after the higher-value shelves are live: own /ebooks/, Google Play, Kobo, Apple Books. Each has its own file in this folder.
3. Use the same EPUB, cover and description as the Kobo upload. Price in USD at the same level as the GBP list price on the day; no "was" prices.
4. Skip print on B&N: the $14.99 floor and US-only author copies make no sense for a short local-history title.
5. Measure: a link from /ebooks/ with UTM utm_source=bn&utm_medium=store-link, and the B&N sales report after 60 days. If there are 0 sales after 90 days, leave the listing up (it costs nothing) and stop spending time on it.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

• Owner action (new account, payout and tax details): only the owner can create the B&N Press account and enter his bank and tax details. The root's rule today is no new accounts by agents. So this is one PROPOSAL line for the bizdev queue, not an action: "Open a free B&N Press account (UK is now accepted) so the e-books reach Nook readers; no Draft2Digital needed."
• ISBN: ISBNs are the owner's spend decision (see uk-plr-ebook-library-loans.md). The free B&N ISBN costs nothing but works on B&N only. If ISBNs are bought later, use the owned one on B&N too.
• Editions: v0.0.2 at the USD equivalent of £4.99. Whether v0.0.1 can be free on B&N is not checked. If B&N refuses $0, keep v0.0.1 free on our own site and Google Play only, and don't list it on B&N at $0.99, so the free edition is never sold for a price somewhere else.
• Description: reuse the Kobo/Google Play blurb. Public text rules apply: never name the project lead; banned words (states, assertions, per, second-hand report, not checked, reported, deception, taken); no insignia; nothing about family holdings or addresses.
• Where it sits: Cedwyn has 0 sales and the problem is traffic, not shelves (sales check 40: about 35 visitors a day to /ebooks/). B&N is a completeness item and weighs less than any traffic fix.

Sources

• help-press.barnesandnoble.com (snippet; 403 to scripts)
• publishing.co.uk (read; 26 May 2026, updated 12 Oct 2026)
• help-press.barnesandnoble.com (snippet)
• help-press.barnesandnoble.com (snippet)
• press.barnesandnoble.com (snippet; 403 Access Denied when read)
• help-press.barnesandnoble.com (snippet)
• ebookpbook.com (snippet)

Raw Markdown: barnes-noble-press-uk-direct-nook-only-route-under-no-d2d-rule.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json