An Update on Barnes & Noble, and We Need Your Help
Recently we informed you of certain issues facing Barnes & Noble, resulting from the impact of COVID-19. We wanted to update you with some news, and with a special request.
Just as each of us has individually faced unexpected challenges during this worldwide crisis, so have major retailers. With many of B&N’s storefronts closing during the pandemic, the retailer has seen a dramatic drop in cashflow. One result of this has been a delay in paying publishers for ebooks sold via their Nook Platform.
We've been informed that these delayed payments are being done for larger accounts, such as Draft2Digital, and not necessarily for all smaller accounts.
Barnes & Noble has advised us that full
payment may be delayed up to 90 days. However, B&N has agreed to pay us 1/3 of the total for February sales now, and to pay the remaining 2/3 of funds at a future date.
As a demonstration of faith in our distribution partners, we at Draft2Digital have decided to establish a line of credit, so that we may cover the remaining 2/3 immediately. As such, once we receive the 1/3 payment from Barnes & Noble, D2D will immediately initiate the full 100% of payments owed to our authors for the month of February.
While we cannot predict what may come, and we have no way of knowing how Barnes & Noble will handle future payments, we are confident that B&N will resolve their cashflow difficulties. We will also continue to honor our terms of service and pay our authors once we have received funds on their behalf. We will never delay payments due to you.
We have had a strong relationship with B&N in the
past. Considering that relationship, along with our own financial position, we believe it is worthwhile for us to take this risk and ensure our authors are paid.
We expect that B&N will overcome their current cashflow challenges and continue to be an excellent distribution partner for our authors and their work.
We would like to ask you to extend the same faith, and to continue to keep distributing to Barnes & Noble, during this time.
Currently, ebook sales are doing incredibly well on all retailers, including Barnes & Noble. In fact, ebook sales have never been higher than they have in the past month. For this reason, we believe that any cashflow problems B&N is experiencing will be resolved.
Continued distribution to B&N’s Nook platform could, in fact, be what turns things around much more quickly. By keeping your books with the platform, you could be helping to bolster this
iconic business during a time of great need. This helps B&N, it helps you, and it helps all indie authors. It also helps your readers, who may be depending on your books to help them get through this challenging time.
This is the best time to be an independent publisher, with ebook sales on the rise worldwide, and more readers desperately seeking an escape from the news and strangeness around them. This is the time to rally, and to stay fast. We are asking you to share our faith that this, too, will pass, and that betting on independent authors and publishers is always the best and safest bet.
We know that this is a difficult time, with more challenges than we ever thought we’d face. We believe in you, and we believe in Barnes & Noble. We are willing to take a risk, in the name of that belief, and we ask you to do the same.
Thank you for your continued support, as we face these challenges together.
The Draft2Digital Team
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