So Barnes & Noble rolled out Nook Press today, which at first blush seems to be a large step up from their PubIt service. It seems, however, that this is their move to ‘exclusivity’, in the same way a lot of authors are married to Amazon (for obvious reasons), B&N is likely trying to get at least some of those authors to publish exclusively through them.
To that end, it has one major feature that Amazon and other retailers don’t- you can write, edit, etc right within it- basically, a full service word processor. It has some nice features- an outline feature, separate space for front and back matter and 0ne-click-publishing. Spiffy. Of course, this speaks to their efforts to keep authors to the Nook platform (which I certainly don’t fault them for) in that it creates another step to publish to Amazon and elsewhere.
The sales dashboard is nice, clean and simple and monthly reports are easily exportable. Most e-retailers have pretty user-friendly dashboards, and I think this is important because many authors either A) don’t want to get too in-depth (at least on an every day basis) and/or B) don’t have time, as they’re also working a day job, have families, lives, etc. So streamlined, one-click reports are a valuable tool.
It also boasts that there will be a lot of merchandising and marketing opportunities and support, which could end up being the difference in keeping (making?) Nook a truly relevant platform. If you’re an author, be sure to read through the FAQ (A well-written and organized FAQ goes MILES with me).
On the whole, it seems to be a huge step up from PubIt, and if authors and readers buy into it, could go a long way to keeping B&N afloat and relevant.
–DESR
deanfortythree 
Reblogged this on Unwritten and commented:
As self publishing becomes a more common solution, companies seek exclusivity agreements with authors.
I hadn’t gotten a chance to check out their writing platform. I doubt I will write on it, but I think it is an interesting thing for them to try. Thanks for the tip that the FAQ are interesting.