Barnes & Noble Launches NOOK Press Self-Publishing Platform

In an effort to compete more closely with Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, Barnes & Noble is launching NOOK Press, which is a self-publishing platform that the company hopes will attract more self-publishing authors. NOOK Press is actually a rebranded service from Barnes & Noble's previous PubIt! platform.

The new NOOK Press includes updated content-creation and management tools that builds on the company's old PubIt! platform. NOOK Press gives independent authors the opportunity to sell their work in Barnes & Noble's ecosystem by giving them the necessary tools and allowing them to sell ebooks anywhere from $0.99 to $199, in which the company takes a 35% cut on books priced up to $9.99, and 60% for anything above that.

The books show up for sale on the NOOK Book Store in both the US and UK, as well as on Barnes & Noble's website. The cut that the company takes may seem a little steep, but it's right up there with Amazon's 30% and 65% cut that they take from authors with their Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Plus, Apple takes the same 30% cut Apple from iBooks Author.

NOOK Press is only available in the US as of now, and aspiring authors have to be approved by Barnes & Noble before they can start writing and selling books through NOOK Press. However, we're guessing that UK support will come soon enough. As for whether or not NOOK Press can take away some of Amazon's self-publishing market share, we'll ultimately have to wait and see.