When we bring a new book into existence, I focus on the bigger houses in this order: Kindle first (they sell most),
then Pubit (Nook reader, or its replacement) for Barnes & Noble, then Smashwords (so I can get into Apple, but we've also reached Kobo, Sony, and Diesel that way too), all with the same ebook Word file.
Not exact matches
The indie publisher has to do a cover, which includes finding the photo or the art,
then format the manuscript, and
then launch it on Kindle and
Pubit and Smashwords, among others.
-- It took me five minutes to save - as and zip the files, add the copyright extra into Smashwords,
then load the files up to Kindle,
Pubit, and Smashwords.
I just can't imagine not selling on B & N. Like Susan said, if you didn't want to take the extra effort to do
Pubit,
then just upload to Smashwords and sell there and several other places.
Then the B&N technologists seem to have fallen prey to the second system effect and created a replacement for
Pubit!
Once everything is showing up as it should (and you've verified by saving and reopening in Sigil),
THEN go upload the Epub file to
Pubit!
Barnes and Noble recently trademarked the phrase
PubIt PRO and since
then many baseless rumors inundated the internet.
Then you can try Smashwords.com — which ports to most of the other major e-Bookstores except Amazon and Google — or
PubIt!
It's funny, thinking back on it, to remember that there were no such panic attacks when Barnes & Noble brought out what was
then called the
Pubit platform for indie authors and small presses.
If the only publishing you are going to do is eBooks on the big retail platforms,
then I would suggest adding either Barnes & Noble Nook (via
Pubit) or Apple's iStore after giving Kindle a running start.