Happy Monday, 3.5 readers.
Wait. Are Mondays ever happy?
Interesting article in The Columbus Dispatch.
Barnes and Noble, which has allowed self-publishers to sell their books on their site to Nook users (Nook being B + N’s version of the Amazon Kindle) will let self-publishers sell books in their brick and mortar stores.
According to the article above, there is a catch, namely, that the author must have sold 1,000 books in the past year.
On the surface, it sounds like a great development for the self-publishing community.
I’ve yet to self-publish, but I’ve read (on blogs) and heard (on various podcasts) that there are a number of self-publishers who are iffy on Nook, they just don’t see the sales that they see on Amazon or other sites.
Still, getting your book in a bookstore…that’s the dream of every author, isn’t it? Might as well reach out and grab it while bookstores are still around.
My gut tells me this is a recognition that print media is rapidly going the way of self-publishing. More writers are bypassing the traditional publishing run around by building their blogs, their social media, their online fan base and as that continues, physical bookstores will need to get print copies of those self-published books into their stores to keep sales up.
That’s my take on it. I can’t think of any other reason why they’d do it.
What say you, 3.5 readers?
If you are a self-publisher, will you try this out?
Bookshelf Battle 