2026-07-21 · all guides

Apple Books vs. Barnes & Noble Press: Which Has Bigger Distribution?

The short answer

Apple Books has substantially larger geographic distribution than Barnes & Noble Press.

Apple currently allows publishers to offer paid books in 51 country and regional storefronts, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, much of Europe, and parts of Latin America. One accepted ebook can be priced and cleared for sale across those storefronts from the same Apple Books account.

Barnes & Noble Press is a more focused retail channel. Its ebooks are sold through BN.com, the Barnes & Noble app, the Shop section of NOOK devices, and the NOOK app. B&N Press now permits authors and publishers from 12 countries to register, but that is account eligibility—not a network of 12 equivalent international bookstores.

If the goal is to choose one non-Amazon platform first, Apple Books is the better choice for reach. Barnes & Noble Press is still worth adding afterward, especially for access to US Barnes & Noble and NOOK customers.

What “distribution” means on each platform

Neither service is an aggregator like Draft2Digital. Uploading to Apple Books does not send the ebook to Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo, or Amazon. It places the book in Apple Books storefronts. Uploading through B&N Press places it in Barnes & Noble's own online and NOOK channels.

The important difference is the size of those ecosystems.

Apple Books is built into Apple's devices and is available for paid book purchases across dozens of countries and regions. Readers can buy and read through the Books app on supported Apple devices. Apple provides one publishing account for managing territory availability, local prices, sales reports, and payments.

B&N Press concentrates on Barnes & Noble's retail ecosystem. An ebook can appear on BN.com and in NOOK shopping and reading apps. B&N Press also supports print-on-demand books, but publishing a print book through B&N Press does not automatically place it on the shelves of physical Barnes & Noble stores. Local placement or an event requires a separate process and is not guaranteed.

Which one should a new publisher choose?

Choose Apple Books first when your priority is international ebook reach. Its 51 paid-book storefronts give a single title much broader geographic availability, and Apple pays a 70 percent ebook royalty regardless of price point.

Add Barnes & Noble Press when you want another direct retail relationship, access to NOOK readers, or the option to offer a print-on-demand edition through BN.com. B&N currently pays a 70 percent royalty on ebook sales, subject to its current payment terms.

Publishing on both is normally allowed because neither platform requires exclusivity. The major exception comes from Amazon: if the same digital book is enrolled in KDP Select or Kindle Unlimited, Amazon requires the ebook to remain exclusive to the Kindle Store during its 90-day enrollment period. Do not place that ebook on Apple Books, B&N, or any other digital store until its KDP Select term has ended.

Do Apple Books and B&N Press allow AI-generated books?

Both platforms currently provide a path for declaring generative AI use, but disclosure is not a promise of acceptance.

Apple requires a book containing a material amount of AI-generated content to use the “AI Generated by” contributor role. The book description must also state that AI was used to generate the content. AI-assisted work—where a human wrote the book and used AI for such tasks as research, editing, or refinement—does not require the same disclosure under Apple's current guidelines.

Barnes & Noble Press asks whether generative AI was used in the manuscript, cover, artwork, images, or translations. It then asks whether the material was “AI-Created” or “AI-Assisted.” B&N says content remains AI-Created even when AI generated it and a person edited it afterward. The disclosure must be completed in the Rights & Other Information section before the project can be published.

In either case, the publisher remains responsible for accuracy, intellectual-property rights, metadata, formatting, and reader experience. A truthful AI disclosure does not protect a repetitive, misleading, infringing, or poor-quality book from rejection or removal.

How to get started with Apple Books

Apple's signup flow deserves its own guide because it involves an Apple Account, iTunes Connect, a Paid Books agreement, tax and banking verification, and the EU Digital Services Act question.

For an independent publisher, the usual starting choices are Individual if you publish as yourself or a sole proprietor, Offer Books for Free and Sell Your Books if you intend to charge for ebooks, and I'm a trader under the DSA if you operate commercially and want to sell in the EU.

Our dedicated beginner's guide to publishing on Apple Books walks through every signup screen, explains what contact information becomes public under the DSA, covers Apple's AI-content disclosure, and shows how to upload the first EPUB.

How to register and sell on Barnes & Noble Press

1. Create a B&N Press account

Go to Barnes & Noble Press and create an account. B&N currently accepts authors and publishers based in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

The official B&N Press getting-started guide explains current country eligibility and where ebooks and print books are sold.

2. Apply to become a vendor

Creating the login is not the final step. To sell books, open the menu and select Vendor Account. Complete all three sections:

• Contact Information
• Publisher Information
• Payment & Tax Information

B&N uses the banking information for electronic royalty payments and the tax information for income reporting. Submit the completed vendor application for approval. B&N says this review can take up to 15 business days.

Follow the official instructions under Becoming a Vendor.

3. Wait for the Vendor Account to become active

Check the Vendor Account page and your email for questions or requests for corrections. You can begin publishing books for sale once the account displays an Active status.

4. Create the ebook project

Start a new ebook project and upload the EPUB and cover. Add the title, author or pen name, description, categories, price, publication information, and rights details. Check the current B&N Press ebook resources for file and formatting requirements.

5. Complete the AI disclosure

In Rights & Other Information, answer whether AI was used in the manuscript, cover or artwork, images, or translations. Identify each applicable element as AI-Created or AI-Assisted. B&N's definitions and required workflow are explained in Use of Generative AI in Your Project.

6. Review and publish

Preview the ebook carefully, confirm that the cover and metadata match the file, and submit it for sale. An approved B&N Press ebook is offered through BN.com, the Barnes & Noble app, NOOK devices, and the NOOK app. It is not distributed automatically to Apple Books, Amazon, Google Play, or other retailers.

The practical publishing order

For a publisher moving beyond Amazon, the sensible order is:

1. Check whether the ebook is enrolled in KDP Select. If it is, wait until the current exclusivity term ends and disable automatic renewal before distributing the digital edition elsewhere.
2. Register with Apple Books and complete its agreement, tax, and banking setup.
3. Publish a small number of strong, thoroughly checked books to Apple first rather than submitting an entire catalog at once.
4. Register as a B&N Press vendor while the Apple titles are being reviewed.
5. Add the same eligible ebooks to B&N, keeping the title, author, cover, description, and edition information consistent.
6. Track sales separately on both dashboards and correct any quality or metadata problems before scaling.

This order captures Apple's larger geographic reach first while still adding Barnes & Noble as a useful direct US retail channel.

Official resources

• Apple Books for Authors
• Apple Books availability by country and region
• Barnes & Noble Press
• B&N Press: Becoming a Vendor
• B&N Press generative-AI disclosure
• Amazon KDP Select exclusivity

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