Because if they don't have either a W-9 for residents or a W8-BEN for non residents, then the company has to withhold tax at a fixed rate and send it to IRS.
Paying directly to authors and very small publishers is something new, I believe, for B&N so they probably panicked when they realized they had to issue 1099-MISC to anyone they'd paid at least ten dollars in royalties for books.
But they still deduct them
Paying directly to authors and very small publishers is something new, I believe, for B&N so they probably panicked when they realized they had to issue 1099-MISC to anyone they'd paid at least ten dollars in royalties for books.