BARNES NOBLE : More than 11,000 Independent Publishers and Self-Publishing Authors Bring Their Digital Works to Barnes & Noble's PubIt!? Publishing Platform

02/23/2011 | 12:30pm

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller, is experiencing major growth for PubIt! (www.PubIt.com), its easy-to-use digital publishing platform for independent publishers and authors, and announcing the expansion of its program into its bookstores. Since launching four months ago, more than 11,000 independent publishers and authors have joined the PubIt! community of booksellers, adding more than 65,000 new works to Barnes & Noble's expansive NOOK Bookstore? of more than two million digital titles. In fact, there are currently 35 PubIt! titles among the Top 200 NOOK Books based on sales, and Barnes & Noble customers have purchased PubIt! works in more than 50 categories to date.

?The variety and quality of the content we are seeing through PubIt! is beyond our expectations,? said Theresa Horner, Barnes & Noble's Vice President, Digital Content. ?We are thrilled with our initial sales for PubIt! titles as our millions of customers enjoy exploring newly added works from PubIt! writers and publishers.?

Continuing its strong tradition of author support, Barnes & Noble also announced its expanded promotion for PubIt! titles and authors into its retail channel. The company will host its first in-store event featuring PubIt! authors tonight in its Santa Monica, CA, store. The panel discussion will feature successful PubIt! author H.P. Mallory, Beth Orsoff, a traditional turned self-published author who has boosted her sales with PubIt!, and Lisa Cortés, President of Cortés Films and Executive Producer of the Academy Award®-winning film Precious. The discussion will explore new opportunities in do-it-yourself publishing, online and on-screen. For more information on the event, visit http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/3085464.

?This in-store PubIt! event is a continuation of Barnes & Noble's strategy of bringing the digital and physical reading worlds together,? said Horner. ?We recognize the importance of uniting the reader with the author regardless of the book format, and we look forward to conducting many more events to support our PubIt! authors in our bookstores.?

In addition to in-store events, Barnes & Noble offers PubIt! authors and publishers access to the unique marketing and merchandising opportunities through the NOOK Bookstore, a PubIt! bestseller list and additional exposure through the Read In Store? program available for NOOK Color? and NOOK? device customers in the company's more than 700 bookstores across the country.

Authors have found great success with PubIt!. H.P. Mallory, author of Toil and Trouble, Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, and To Kill a Warlock, calls PubIt!, ?an incredible experience?one of the best decisions I ever made.? Mallory's paranormal romance books have become such a hit that she just signed a three-book deal with a major publishing house. Lori Brighton, author of A Night of Secrets, The Mind Readers and The Ghost Hunter, says, ?PubIt! places publishing in the author's hands, which benefits not only the author, but also the reader.?

With clear and competitive terms – and no hidden fees – the self-service online PubIt! portal provides qualified content owners a simple and profitable way to bring their works to millions of new readers. PubIt! uses a Web-based platform for publishers to independently set up their accounts, upload their eBooks, set the list price and track their sales and payments from a competitive royalty based on the price. PubIt! publishers can be confident they will be compensated from the list price they set with no additional charges, regardless of file size. Publishers' content is offered in ePub format, the industry standard that allows content to be enjoyed by customers on hundreds of the most popular mobile, computing and eReading devices.

Barnes & Noble offers e-mail support and a robust online community for those interested in PubIt!. More information on PubIt! can be found at www.pubit.com.

PubIt! titles can be enjoyed across the company's entire family of NOOK products and software, including the award-winning NOOK Color, NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi® and NOOK software-enabled iPad?, iPhone^®, iPod touch^®, Android? smartphones and tablets, and Windows-based PCs, laptops or netbooks. For more information on free NOOK software, please visit www.bn.com/nookapps.

About NOOK? from Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble's NOOK brand of eReading products makes it easy to read what you love, anywhere you like? with a fun, easy-to-use and immersive digital reading experience. With NOOK, customers gain access to Barnes & Noble's expansive NOOK Bookstore? of more than two million digital titles, and the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices. NOOK products are the most full-featured, dedicated eReading devices on the market. NOOK Color ($249), the first full-color touch Reader's Tablet, provides the ultimate reading experience with a stunning 7-inch VividView? Color Touchscreen to read all of the content you love. For book lovers, NOOK 3G ($199) and NOOK Wi-Fi^® ($149) offer a paper-like reading experience with a color touch screen for navigation. In Barnes & Noble stores, NOOK owners can access free Wi-Fi connectivity, enjoy the Read In Store? feature to read NOOK Books for free, and the More In Store? program, which offers free, exclusive content and special promotions. Barnes & Noble was the first company to offer digital lending for a wide selection of books through its LendMe? technology, available through NOOK eReading products. Find NOOK devices in Barnes & Noble stores and online at www.BN.com, as well as at Best Buy, Walmart and Books-A-Million.

In addition to NOOK devices, Barnes & Noble makes it easy for customers to enjoy any book, anytime, anywhere with its free line of NOOK software, available at www.bn.com/nookapps. Customers can use Barnes & Noble's free eReading software to access and read books from their personal Barnes & Noble digital library on devices including iPad?, iPhone^®, iPod touch^®, Android?, BlackBerry^® and other smartphones, PC, and Mac^®. Lifetime Library? helps ensure that Barnes & Noble customers will always be able to access their digital libraries on NOOK products and software-enabled devices and BN.com. Barnes & Noble also offers NOOK Study? (www.nookstudy.com), an innovative study platform and software solution for higher education, NOOK Kids? (www.nookkids.com), a collection of digital picture and chapter books for children, and NOOK Books en Español? (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooksenespanol), the first-ever Spanish language digital bookstore in the United States.

For more information on NOOK devices and eReading software, updates, new NOOK Book releases, Free Friday? NOOK Books and more, follow us on www.twitter.com/ebooksbn and www.facebook.com/nookbn.

ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE, INC.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 705 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 636 college bookstores serving nearly 4 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble is the nation's top bookseller brand for the seventh year in a row, as determined by a combination of the brand's performance on familiarity, quality, and purchase intent; the top bookseller in quality for the second year in a row and the number two retailer in trust, according to the EquiTrend^® Brand Study by Harris Interactive^®. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore? (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble's NOOK? eReading product offering, customers can buy and read eBooks on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK eBook Readers, devices from partner companies, and hundreds of the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

NOOK?, NOOK Color?, NOOK Books?, NOOK Newsstand?, NOOK Books en Español?, VividView?, NOOK Friends?, AliveTouch?, LendMe?, ArticleView?, Daily Shelf?, NOOK Kids?, NOOK Study?, NOOK Developer?, ReadAloud?, NOOK Book Personal Shopping?, Read In Store?, More In Store?, Free Friday?, PubIt! ?, Lifetime Library?, Read What You Love. Anywhere You Like? and Touch the Future of Reading? are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Other trademarks referenced in this release are the property of their respective owners.

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Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Mary Ellen Keating, 212-633-3323
Corporate Communications
mkeating@bn.com
or
Carolyn J. Brown, 212-633-4062
Corporate Communications
cbrown@bn.com