Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc plans to issue $100 gift certificates to people who won't receive its Nook electronic reader by December 24, if they had ordered it on time.

The company, which has been bedeviled with problems in producing and delivering the e-reader in time for the holiday season, earlier this month postponed the in-store debut of the $259 device.

Barnes & Noble said the delays affected a very small percentage of customers who may not receive their Nook in time for Christmas Eve, on Thursday.

We are working very hard to keep up with the demand and to get all Nook orders out the door and to customers on or before December 24, a Barnes & Noble spokeswoman said.

Affected customers were notified on Friday, the spokeswoman said.

Barnes & Noble launched its Nook e-reader in October, but said in November that it had sold out because of strong demand. The bookseller has said that orders placed after November 20 would not be filled until January.

Barnes & Noble shares were up 62 cents, or 3.4 percent, at $19.01 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba in New York and Abhishek Takle in Bangalore; Editing by Mike Miller and Lisa Von Ahn)