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Nook Press Misses Payments, Authors Left With No Explanation or Support

nook press no payment

I think B&N forgot step #4

From the "You had one job" dept …

Reports are coming in this weekend that Barnes & Noble’s self-pub platform Nook Press has dropped the ball.  An unknown number of authors are saying that their latest payment from B&N, which was supposed to be deposited in their account in the last week of August, never arrived.

I’m still working to learn the full scope of this issue, which was first reported by Robert Swartwood on Friday on his blog. Noting that he had never had issue with payments from Nook Press being delayed in the past, he writes that:

 … something strange—not to mention worrisome—happened this past month.

No money was deposited into my bank account.

No money was deposited in several other writers’ bank accounts, either. I know, because I’m friends with several different writers, and they all confirmed to me they haven’t been paid. I’ve even seen writers on your infrequently-visited NOOK Press message board complain about not being paid.

B&N's payment processing server

B&N’s payment processing server

I’m still working to understand the scope of the issue, but at this time I can add that the non-payment has been confirmed by several authors on B&N’s own Nook Press support forums.

There’s been no official comment from B&N on their own forums, but as early as Tuesday one author noting the lack of payment, with another concurring:

Huh, now that you mention it, they should have arrived by now, shouldn’t they.

What’s more, these authors also confirm Mr Swartwood’s comment that he had contacted Nook Press support and was ignored. According to his blog post, "emails from several different writers have been sent with no reply". At least one author indicated that she had contacted B&N as early as Wednesday, but reported on Saturday that she’d received no response nor even an acknowledgement of the issue.

Again, we still don’t know the scope of this issue, but the lack of a response from B&N is troubling.

Have you been affected by this issue? Any guesses as to the cause?

The comments are open.

Update: B&N reports that the issue has been fixed. They have yet to explain why it happened or why they ignored authors, but I can confirm that several authors have reported being paid.

image by brewbooks

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Comments


fjtorres September 7, 2014 um 8:20 pm

The one guy who sends out the checks came down with chikungunya. 🙂


Sturmund Drang September 7, 2014 um 10:57 pm

Perhaps I’m making an erroneous deduction based upon an insufficient sample space but since I haven’t bought a book from them in over 15 months perhaps no one else has?

(just kidding)


Sturmund Drang September 7, 2014 um 11:01 pm

Seriously, buying… err ehm, ordering my nook hd a year ago Christmas was a frightful experience. I received two, I was charged for two, I shipped back one, my reimbursement wasn’t forthcoming, it took months to get them to respond and when they did it was to reimburse me for both! I called twice trying to get them to bill me for the one I kept to no avail. I think it’s more than their payment processing …. processes that are a mess.


Ebook Bargains UK September 8, 2014 um 5:26 am

https://kdp.amazon.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=776823&tstart=0

Some Amazon KDP authors having issues too.

Timothy Wilhoit September 8, 2014 um 6:09 am

Nature’s article is about "some" Nook authors not being paid for June sales which could indicate some problems at Nook Press. Your link is about "one" KDP author having problems, he/she started this thread nearly a week ago, no one else posted "me too!" on the thread, and by the second post it’s clear that there is something seriously screwed up on that author’s account. Also, the question wasn’t answered as to whether the author even had any June sales.

There’s no equivalence. Try again.

Timothy Wilhoit September 8, 2014 um 6:11 am

"Nature" = "Nate" I despise autocorrect.

Felipe Adan Lerma September 8, 2014 um 6:32 am

And I’d thought I’d just missed that article 🙂

Seems like auto-correct’s taking more and more direct attention from me lately (phone, laptop, almost all text programs).

Jana DeLeon September 8, 2014 um 11:02 am

Wrong, I’m afraid. I received payment today. There was definitely an issue with payment processing for a lot of authors. BN said that in their response email to me.

Nate Hoffelder September 8, 2014 um 11:14 am

I think you might be misreading Timothy; my read is that he was only commenting on the equivalence of the KDP and Nook Press situations, not the scale of the payment issue.

Timothy Wilhoit September 8, 2014 um 11:38 am

You’re exactly right. 😀


Felipe Adan Lerma September 8, 2014 um 6:01 am

Strange to hope this is like the worst processing glitch ever over at B&N, and not an "uh-oh" event.

fjtorres September 8, 2014 um 8:53 am

From a small publisher it would be a cue to call up an IP lawyer fast.
From B&N it’s likely just a glitch in switching from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian.

Felipe Adan Lerma September 8, 2014 um 9:18 am

best response yet 🙂


Nook Press Misses Payments, Authors Left With No Explanation or Support | The Passive Voice | A Lawyer's Thoughts on Authors, Self-Publishing and Traditional Publishing September 8, 2014 um 9:00 am

[…] Link to the rest at The Digital Reader […]


Andrea September 8, 2014 um 9:10 am

I haven’t been paid either. After two emails, they finally responded that they were checking into the issue. And that’s it. I know a lot of authors and asked around but only heard back from two who said they’d been paid. So….*shrugging* It leaves me wondering, that’s for sure.


Dave September 8, 2014 um 10:52 am

An indie author friend recounted her experience with Nook Press’s customer support. Basically, the department exists to answer basic questions and to forward details of problems to the same department that never replies to emails. They’re awful.


Georgette St. Clair September 8, 2014 um 11:18 am

Yes, they have not paid me yet and have not answered repeated emails and requests for an explanation. They owe me $1766 for June. It’s infuriating, and also worrying. Have they literally run out of money?


Amy September 8, 2014 um 11:18 am

I got paid by them on 9/2 which is later than their usual time. But it did come through!


Tymber Dalton September 8, 2014 um 11:26 am

I haven’t received payment either, come to think of it. It’s usually a small amount, so I didn’t even miss it until I saw this. I always see the 'Zon payments come through on time.


John Van Stry September 8, 2014 um 1:09 pm

I haven’t been paid. It’s never taken this long to pay me before. I don’t know of anyone who has been paid. I don’t want to file a lawsuit, but it’s starting to look like I don’t have any other options. I needed that money to help pay my bills this month (I’m a full time author).
I’m pretty pissed.


John Van Stry September 8, 2014 um 1:26 pm

Oh on guesses to the causes, the first is that when they redid their website and software they’re got ripped off and hired people who didn’t know crap about programming and then never tested any of it.
This was readily apparent by all of the problems that the site had (and several that it still has) since they 'remodeled'. Why they felt the need to remodel something that was working perfectly fine is a question I would love to hear the answer to.
The second cause is maybe they’re out of money.


James Calbraith September 9, 2014 um 2:10 pm

Just my luck – June was the month when I finally took the plunge, got off KDP Select and put all my books on Nook. Wouldn’t you know it, that’s the month they decide to mess up on payments!
I haven’t seen any money or support message yet (it’s 9th here) so if it’s "fixed", it’s not on my end. The amount was supposed to be fairly substantial, so I’ll have to dig into my credit cards to get by if they fail to deliver. Not happy!

John Van Stry September 9, 2014 um 3:31 pm

Send them an email. I did that and I finally got paid. I think they have NO IDEA who got paid and who didn’t, and are just waiting for people to write in and complain.

James Calbraith September 10, 2014 um 4:41 pm

I’ve sent them two already – the first one on the 2nd, then yesterday. Got the same automatic response about "teams working on the issue".

Nate Hoffelder September 10, 2014 um 4:46 pm

Thanks, James, for the update.

James Calbraith September 12, 2014 um 6:24 am

I now have the payment ID on my Nook account (for a wrong amount, but that’s par for the course for Nook – will have to wait for the actual deposit). Not deposited yet, but I’m not US-based so it will probably take a few days – fingers crossed.

James Calbraith September 15, 2014 um 3:15 am

September 15th update – the money is in my bank account… but about a third less than I expected.


Giacomo Giammatteo September 9, 2014 um 2:55 pm

I had heard of a few authors missing payments, but mine came in on the 29th of August, as it has every month.


Annoyed Author September 9, 2014 um 5:36 pm

I saw a payment notification on my sales page for September 2014, however the money owed to me hasn’t been deposited in my checking account. If this issue isn’t resolved soon, I’m selling my e-books on Amazon full time.


Nate Hoffelder September 10, 2014 um 9:42 am

I just sent an email to several of the authors who say they weren’t paid. Let’s see what happens.


Authors Continue to Go Hungry in Nook Press Payment Fiasco – The Digital Reader September 10, 2014 um 10:56 am

[…] numerous authors complained that Nook Press, B&N’s self-pub platform, had missed their most recent […]


Annoyed Author September 10, 2014 um 7:55 pm

Now instead of stating before that it was a payment for September 2014, it now says "August 2014" on my sales page and yet the amount owed to me still has not yet been deposited. I know it’s not much money for this pay period, however it is money still legally owed to me. Barnes and Noble, you need to seriously fix your computer glitch or many authors are going to give you the boot.


Annoyed Author September 11, 2014 um 7:29 pm

Apparently, NookPress has decided to steal what little money is owed to me and continue to ignore my e-mails as of today. I have sent them another e-mail a few minutes ago. If I don’t get a response in the next 2 days from them, I’m taking my book OFF NookPress, PERMANENTLY.


Annoyed Author September 14, 2014 um 4:53 pm

Adiós Nookpress!


Sedonia Guillone February 6, 2016 um 12:34 pm

I am a small press that has a number of titles at Nook and I am experiencing this problem right now. I try to contact wupport but my emails have been ignored and there is no phone number. Any advice on how to proceed from here? Thank you for the article.


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