Did I miss the part where they took down ebooks? I thought the problem was just paperbacks. The few ebooks I still have wide are all still up. (And oddly, an audio book that wasn't up has now appeared.)
While I don't like this move, if ebooks were affected, wide authors could go direct to BN. After all, authors have had to do that with Google for some time. That was annoying, too, but people adapted.
As for paperbooks, a look at the website suggested to me what's going on. Nook Press is Now Barnes and Noble Press, and it seems to provide paperbacks and hardcovers exclusively to Barnes and Noble--no more expanded distribution from them for physical books. They aren't even pretending to offer store placement anymore, though they point out that a customer can order special order BN Press books at any store. What they do claim to offer is
We highlight both emerging and established B&N Press authors in monthly themed collections on BN.com.
Reach half a million readers with our featured genre and deals newsletters.
Your book could be featured in special offers exclusive to Barnes & Noble readers.
Now, all of that sounds impressive. It might not amount to the proverbial hill of beans, or it might be a meaningful burst of promotion, at least at first. My new theory is that BN is clearing the decks so that it can focus on indies it distributes. If they did meaningful promotion, that might actually end up being a good thing (aside from the hassle of having to set up paperbacks with a second or third distributor, depending on your current model).
So yeah, it isn't good, but it isn't really any worse that past shenanigans by Amazon or Google.
Edit: You can use BN Press for physical books only, meaning that those of us in KU could still go direct to BN in paper.
