Publishing with Barnes & Noble Press

What B&N Press is

Barnes & Noble Press is a direct publishing platform run by Barnes & Noble. You upload an ebook, a print book or both, set the price, and B&N sells it in its own channels and pays you a royalty. Its help center answers the basic questions plainly (B&N Press, Getting Started, updated June 17, 2026):

• Cost. "There is no cost to use B&N Press platform."
• Exclusivity. "B&N Press is non-exclusive. You may publish a project with us even if you have published it through another site," with one condition: a "unique, never-used ISBN."
• Where it sells. Ebooks go to bn.com, the Barnes & Noble app and the NOOK devices and app. Print books go to bn.com and the Barnes & Noble app.
• What it does not do. "Publishing though B&N Press does not place your book in Barnes & Noble Bookstores." It also cannot sell audiobooks.
• Who can use it. Authors in the United States, the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

To sell, you first register as a vendor with contact, publisher, bank and tax details. B&N says approval "should take up to 15 business days" (B&N Press, Becoming a Vendor).

Formats and print options

B&N Press prints on demand: copies are made when they are ordered. The options, from its help pages on creating print books and trim sizes and paper:

For a typical nonfiction book, 6 x 9 inches in black and white on cream paper is on the list. If you need a size or finish that is not, B&N says it "cannot customize the trim sizes outside of what is listed." B&N also adds its own barcode to your back cover and asks you to remove any barcode from your files (ISBN FAQs).

Royalties, prices and payment

B&N Press publishes one royalty rate for each format (Royalty and Payment Terms, updated February 27, 2026):

• Ebooks: "70% of the retail price that you set," for sales at $0.99 and higher.
• Print books: "55% of the Retail Price that you set, minus the per book printing cost."

Printing cost depends on format, trim size, page count and ink, and B&N's online quote tool gives the exact figure (Print Book Pricing and Printing Costs). As an illustration only: if a paperback listed at $16.99 cost $5.00 to print, you would earn (0.55 × $16.99) − $5.00 = $4.34 a copy. The $5.00 is a made-up figure for the arithmetic; get your real quote before you set a price. For comparison, KDP pays 60% of list minus printing on Amazon.com at $9.99 and up, as covered in KDP vs IngramSpark vs Draft2Digital.

How and when you are paid (Getting Paid for Sales, updated August 17, 2026):

• A payment is issued once you have "accrued a minimum of $25 in royalties" and 30 days have passed after the end of the month of the sale.
• Payment lands on the last Wednesday of the following month by electronic transfer. April sales are paid on the last Wednesday of May.
• "Royalties are not paid for orders placed through your BN Press account," because those copies are already discounted.

Author copies and proofs cost "just slightly higher than the costs necessary to print the books." There are "no discounts for bulk orders," orders run from 1 to 999 copies per cart, author copies ship only within the United States, and B&N "does not offer returns or exchanges for print books" you order, so check your proof carefully (Print for Sale vs Personal Use; Royalties from Print Book Sales; Returns and Refunds).

The 2026 policy changes

From April 22, 2026, B&N Press began changing several rules (April 2026 Policy Updates):

• A $14.99 minimum print price. New print listings cannot be created below $14.99, and titles still below it on May 14, 2026 began to be removed from sale. Ebooks are not affected.
• A 100-title limit per account for titles on sale, with print and ebook of the same title counting as one.
• Original content only. Public domain titles are no longer allowed.

B&N also asks, during setup, whether generative AI was used in the cover, text, images or translation, and whether that use was "AI-Assisted or AI-Created." The disclosure is required before a project can be published (Use of Generative AI).

The price floor matters for short nonfiction. A slim paperback that sells at $9.99 on Amazon would need to be $14.99 or more as a B&N Press print edition.

Stores: what it does not do

The name suggests a route onto Barnes & Noble shelves. It is not one. B&N's own help page on local store interest explains why: to be sold in a store, a book "must be in our system as a returnable item," and a B&N Press book "is considered a Print-on-Demand item" that "cannot be considered returnable" (Local Interest in Selling Your Book). A local store may still carry a B&N Press book on consignment or host an event, if you ask that store directly.

The chain does consider print-on-demand books for its stores, but through Ingram, on trade terms. Ingram's help pages list B&N's requirements (IngramSpark, Barnes & Noble Requirements, updated October 21, 2026):

• A wholesale discount of 53% to 55%.
• Returnable, with unsold copies returnable "at any time, in any condition, and for any reason."
• Those terms kept "for the life of the book."
• A barcode with the retail price embedded, and the title and author on the spine.
• A submission to B&N's small press department, which decides.

Even then, B&N's own page says that changing your terms "is not a guarantee of shelf placement." It also warns that it "will never reach out to authors and offer in-store placement for your books in exchange for money," and that such offers are a scam (B&N Press scam warning). The economics of discounts and returns are explained in how book distribution works.

How it fits with KDP and IngramSpark

The ISBN rules decide what you can combine. Each format needs its own ISBN, and B&N's ISBN page is strict (ISBN FAQs, updated September 17, 2026):

• "If your ISBN has been submitted for use at any other retailer, including bn.com, you cannot use that ISBN with Barnes & Noble Press."
• B&N's free ISBN "can only be used on B&N Press for distribution to Barnes & Noble and bn.com," and the publisher field will read "Barnes & Noble Press."
• KDP's free ISBN likewise "can only be used on KDP" (KDP ISBNs).

Two more facts shape the choice. A paperback in IngramSpark's catalog can already be listed on bn.com: Ingram says any book in its print-on-demand catalog "can automatically be available" to Barnes & Noble customers online and by special order. And B&N says a book that reached bn.com through another platform's Expanded Distribution stays with that platform: a B&N Press account "does not let you claim or redirect royalties" for it (Expanded Distribution).

For ebooks there is a separate catch. KDP Select requires exclusivity: while enrolled, "you cannot sell or distribute" the ebook "in digital format in any territory where you have rights" (KDP Terms and Conditions, KDP Select section). An ebook in KDP Select cannot also be on B&N Press. How to weigh that trade is in KDP Select vs going wide.

In practice, B&N Press makes most sense for the ebook (if you are not in KDP Select) and for authors who want B&N's royalty on bn.com print sales and do not need stores. If bookstores matter, the Ingram route is the one that can meet the terms. Whichever you pick, buy your own ISBNs if you may ever move or combine platforms; why that matters is covered in who owns what.

What most people get wrong

• Expecting shelf space. B&N Press books are not returnable and not placed in stores.
• Reusing an ISBN. An ISBN already sent to another retailer, including bn.com through IngramSpark, is refused.
• Listing the ebook while in KDP Select. That breaks Amazon's exclusivity terms.
• Pricing below the floor. Print listings under $14.99 are no longer allowed.
• Paying for placement. B&N never charges for in-store placement; anyone who offers it for money is not B&N.

Scribe Media, which makes this site and sells publishing services, distributes its authors' books through Ingram and says plainly that it does not automatically put books in bookstores (Scribe Media FAQ).