Apparently, B & N has listened to authors’ concerns. One of the reasons I haven’t moved to Nook Press from PubIt is that you had to create a new project if you wanted to edit your manuscript, which meant you would lose all your reviews and rankings. I have a book that I know needs a couple of corrections, and I wanted to get that done before moving over. The last email I got about Nook Press says that you can now edit current books without taking them off sale. This makes me feel better.
One thing that I’m concerned about, though, is that we can no longer upload a Word document, or at least that’s what I’m understanding. We have to either create the manuscript on their site or upload an epub file. To me, creating an epub is a pain. I’ve always uploaded a Word doc to B & N, an html file to Amazon, and a Word doc to Smashwords. Epub is a little more time consuming. When I’ve had to make epub files (for All Romance), I’ve used Sigil. It also lets you create other formats.
So my questions are: How many of you have already converted to Nook Press? Has anyone used their platform to create or edit your manuscript? Any issues with Nook Press? What program do you find easiest and most effective to create epubs?
Anybody have answers?
lauralynnelliott.com 
I only upload to Smashwords and Amazon.
I used to use Smashwords to distribute to B & N, but I like to have daily sales updates, and Smashwords can’t give me that for the retailers. Otherwise, I would have probably stuck with them. I let Smashwords distribute for all the other outlets.
Going forward I might upload myself to have more control. Will have to figure out the formatting. Fun. 🙂
I use Nook Press, but I have not revised the book once I published it over there. I didn’t create my book there. I just used my epub file and uploaded it. I use Word Atlantis to create epub files, and it looked great when I looked at the book through the Nook previewer they have.
I never used Word to upload to B&N. I couldn’t get the file to look right, and I don’t know what I did but I had page breaks pop up when they shouldn’t have. Last time I published a book, Nook Press seemed to be willing to take Word so I don’t think that would be a problem. I’d try uploading the Word document and seeing how it looks through the preview. If it doesn’t look right, I’d go to an epub file then. Just my two cents. 😀
Good luck!
Word Atlantis isn’t free, though, is it? Sigil is free. It’s not a bad converter. You have to make an html file first, then you can convert it through Sigil to several different formats. All Romance is like Smashwords in that they have several different formats. The difference is, you have to upload your own formats. Smashwords does that for you.
I was really happy when I got the email from B & N that said you can now edit your books through the Nook Press platform without taking them off sale. I feel much better about the whole thing now. I hope their sales reporting will be better with Nook Press.
Word Atlantis is about $30-$35. I think you can use Calibre for free to convert to epub. Stephannie Beman does it that way. I’ve only used Word Atlantis, so I have no idea what the other programs do.
All Romance sounds like a pain since you have to make multiple formats. I thought about uploading there but decided it wasn’t worth it. There’s an author that sells way more than me, and said she makes $15. Consider her income in other places, that’s not worth the hassle.
I like that Nook Press will let you make changes in there, too, without requiring a new project. It’s hard to get the rankings established and reviews in.
Come to think of it…I think it’s Calibre I use instead of Sigil. I can’t remember what I used Sigil for. LOL.
I haven’t done well at All Romance. I always sell a little when I first upload a book, then not much after that. That’s why I haven’t uploaded Soul of a Vampire yet.
Atlantis Word Processor is not free. But I cannot imagine a more convenient way to convert MS Word documents to EPUB. You simply open a MS Word file, click a button, and you have your EPUB file.
There is a collection of video tutorials:
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/videos/creating_ebooks_introduction
That sounds pretty easy. For me, it’s not so much about easy, but about time. However, the easier something is, the less time it usually takes. 🙂
Exactly! Any author would agree that 99% of your time should be spent on writing, rather than on “coding”.
I would also recommend another EPUB-related tool, the “tweak_epub” utility:
http://www.atlantiswordprocessor.com/en/help/tweak_epub.htm
It is free. And it can be used to make “delicate” changes to existing EPUB files. You can use it to make changes to individual files from EPUB packages without affecting other files. This is not possible with Sigil.
I don’t remember how I published on B&N. I did it myself, but I don’t remember how I did it. I’m gonna go hypnotize myself and see if that works.
Listen only to the sound of my voice….you’re getting very sleepy….
I’ve used calibre but am still learning, it doesn’t do well for changing docs to pdf or changing an epub to pdf. The epubs and mobis aren’t bad though. Scrivener changes to all formats and does it well. You can edit it on your drive if you need to then change it till it’s perfect for uploading. It costs money but if you’ve done a NaNoWriMo you can get it for 20 bucks. Well worth it. I also have Liquid Story Binder (another one that’s cheap as a NaNo prize) but that one has a steep learning curve.
I always change docs to PDFs with Word. I haven’t used calibre since the last time I uploaded to All Romance. I’ll probably have to learn all over again. Lol.
I have the trial version of Scrivener but I really don’t like it that much. I didn’t even know it would convert files. It sounds like an easy way to do it.