This is Part 8 in my Self-Publishing Made Simple blog series.
Why Choose IngramSpark as your Print Book Distributor?
Why Choose Ingram?
• Book distribution to over 39,000 retailers, libraries, schools and universities.
• Direct shipping and global delivery. IngramSpark distributes to Canada from the U.S. and has print facilities in the UK and Australia. With their Global Connect program, they have relationships with print partners in China, Germany, Italy, India, Poland, Russia, South Korea.
• Ingram does not sell directly to the public, but it gets your book into more online bookstores. You can use these bookstore links on your website pages.
• Bookstores can order your book directly from Ingram.
• Booksellers are attracted by deeper wholesale discounts, returnability, and not having to buy your book at Amazon.
• You can produce your book in hardcover, paperback, and e-book editions.
• You can choose a discount between 30% to 55% on the IS print version. In KDP, you lack flexibility.
• Payment is royalty percentage of retail price minus printing costs. For example, you set a retail price of $14.99. With a 40% discount, this means you’ll earn 60% royalty. That comes to $8.99 per book minus the print cost of $4.56 equals a net royalty of $4.43. Ingram takes half of the discount, and the retailer gets the other half. So for a 40% discount, a bookseller only sees 20% off.
• Librarians most often will not order from KDP. So even if you choose their Expanded Distribution, it does not guarantee librarians will have access to your books. They prefer to deal with Baker & Taylor (accessed through Draft2Digital) or Ingram, among other sources. They use Overdrive for e-books (accessed through Kobo, D2D, or Smashwords).
• On Ingram, you can personalize your orders with an extra page inserted at the front.
Disadvantages
• There is a one-time setup fee at IS of $49 for print or print plus e-book. This $49 is refunded if you order 50 print books within 60 days of title setup. Or, for the e-book alone, it’ll cost you $25 setup fee at Ingram. It costs nothing to upload a book to KDP. However, Ingram offers coupon codes periodically if you sign up for their author mailing list or blog. Some professional writing organizations have Ingram codes as well.
• Uploading a revised manuscript costs $25 at IngramSpark. No charge at KDP. Ingram will only process this revised file after all current orders have been filled.
• Ingram can be more complicated to learn than KDP.
• It costs $85 to get into the advance Ingram catalog.
What’s the difference between IngramSpark and Lightning Source?
IngramSpark combines Lighting Source print-on-demand services with e-book distribution. This gives authors a single platform to manage both print and electronic titles. IngramSpark is more user friendly. Royalty statements in either case come from Lightning Source.
Coming Next: How to Use IngramSpark
Disclaimer: This information changes rapidly, so it only represents my interpretation at the time this article was written. Please let me know if you have any updates or corrections.
Did you miss the earlier posts on my Self-Publishing Made Simple blog series? Go here to catch up:
Part 7 – Print Book Distributors, https://wp.me/paLXP7-4qh
Part 6 – E-book Distributors, https://wp.me/paLXP7-4qf
Part 5 – Book Production for the Indie Author, https://wp.me/paLXP7-4q6
Part 4 – Buying and Assigning ISBNs, https://wp.me/paLXP7-4pO
Part 3 – Adding Front & Back Material, https://wp.me/paLXP7-4pz
Part 2 – Manuscript Preparation for the Indie Author, https://wp.me/paLXP7-4oX
Part 1 – Getting Started as an Indie Publisher, https://wp.me/paLXP7-4oQ
