Self-Publishing Review: Barnes & Noble Press vs. IngramSpark

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After you’ve finally finished that book you poured your soul into and worked with an editor to polish it up, the next step is publication.

Some authors prefer the prestige of traditional publication and look for a literary agent’s networking and marketing experience to represent their book and sign a contract with a publishing house.

Other authors prefer to have control over their book, everything from the rights, to the cover, to the marketing, and everything in between. I fell into the latter group and became an indie author—that is, an independently published author—in 2018 when my debut novel A Fallen Hero was released.

(Read: 3 Reasons Why I Self-Published)

Unfortunately, there are a lot of scams taking advantage of new authors desperate to publish, so be sure you do your research!

I kept my focus on the self-pub options that were already well-established—KDP, CreateSpace (this one has been phased out by KDP, both of which are/were run by Amazon), Draft2Digital, IngramSpark, and Barnes & Noble Press.

This is an honest review of my experience publishing with both B&N Press as well as IngramSpark in the hopes that it will help at least one new author preparing to publish his/her first book.

I debuted with B&N Press and ended up shifting to IngramSpark. I’ll compare the two presses side-by-side on the following topics:

Before I dive in, I want to stress that neither company is considered my publisher. As an indie author, I am the publisher operating under my own LLC as the publishing company. B&N Press and IngramSpark are the printers/distributors.

Ease of Publication


Setting up the book title was fairly straightforward for both presses. I struggled a little more with IngramSpark, but that was because they have printers and distributors in multiple countries, and I had to figure out the price of my book in foreign currencies as well as calculate the exchange rate to see my earnings (I accidentally set up a negative royalty for Australia—oops!— and had to raise the book’s retail price to compensate). That being said, IngramSpark does provide a conversion tool, so they don’t leave you high and dry to figure it all out by yourself.

I had some problems early on with B&N Press when it came to my book cover. My text was inside the dashed lines for the required margins, but it kept getting rejected without an explanation. When I reached out to their customer service for assistance, I was told the text was too close to the margin lines even though it was still technically inside the acceptable area.

I also had issues when I was submitting an RGB color file, but saving as a CMYK instead seemed to solve that problem.

It takes a few days for B&N Press to approve or reject the submitted files, and to my dismay, the multiple delays caused me to cancel my first planned book signing and almost have to reschedule my second. I hadn’t counted on the cover being rejected since my revisions were minor tweaks and the file had been previously accepted for the proof copies.

Because I hammered out those issues with B&N Press and already had a finalized version by the time I started working with IngramSpark, I can’t say if they are quite as particular about their formatting. I didn’t have any problems getting the cover approved.

Book Quality


For the paperbacks, this one is a draw, because both presses produce high quality books. Side-by-side, the books are almost indistinguishable. There’s a slight differentiation of color (IngramSpark’s version has a slightly warmer hue), and B&N Press’s book is just a tad wider, leaving more appealing white space on the outside margin of the pages.

I’m holding a proof copy from each press. Hard to tell a difference unless you’re looking closely, isn’t it?

However, I’ve had issues with the hardcover. Right now, it’s exclusive to B&N Press (I’ll address this when I talk about cost), so IngramSpark is not producing a hardcover version. I’m sad to say that there have been three instances reported to me—possibly more I’m not aware of—where a customer ordered a hardcover from barnesandnoble.com and received the wrong book with my jacket on it.

You read that right. B&N Press took the wrong hardcover book and put my book jacket on it. At least three times.

In the first case, the jacket didn’t even fit properly over Distillation Principles and Processes, which was thicker than mine and not even close to the same genre.

This is a huge strike against B&N Press, especially since the problem has reoccurred multiple times. It happened again only a few weeks ago, so they clearly haven’t come up with a prevention solution.

Marketing & Distribution


This category hands down goes to IngramSpark, for multiple reasons. B&N Press, to my knowledge, has not done any marketing for the book, and the resources they offer all seem to require paying third-party companies.

Understandably, they want to keep their sales within Barnes & Noble, but to do that, they do not offer any kind of wholesale pricing. This makes it almost impossible for you to sell through other bookstores, as they would either have to buy the books from B&N at the full retail price (not gonna happen) or receive their inventory through you either at a discount or consignment agreement, and trying to manage that yourself isn’t even worth the hassle outside of your hometown retailers.

When I started my 2019 Barnes & Noble book signing tour, I encountered another issue. B&N Press advertises on their website: “If you sell over 1,000 copies of a B&N Press eBook in 12 months, you’re eligible to pitch your book to B&N store buyers. If your book is selected, we’ll get it in B&N stores across the country.”

What they don’t mention is that BEFORE you hit that sales goal—notice it specifies ebooks, which means your print book sales don’t count—your book is listed as a nonreturnable print-on-demand book in the system.

I didn’t think much of that status until B&N store managers told me they couldn’t order my book because of its nonreturnable status.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Books printed through B&N Press couldn’t be ordered in Barnes & Noble stores where I was being featured at a signing event.

Whether or not a store would carry the book was a location-by-location basis. Some store managers were confident the book would sell and ordered 10-20 copies ahead of my signing. Others didn’t want to risk being stuck with books that couldn’t be returned, and I had to supply my own with a consignment agreement. In those cases, any books that didn’t sell at the signing came back home with me.

Obviously, it’s much better for me to leave books on the shelf for people to discover and buy after I’m gone.

IngramSpark’s books are returnable. That means the B&N stores who told me they couldn’t buy the book from B&N Press were later able to order copies from IngramSpark. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the logic behind this system.

B&N Press also advertises on their website: “Meet your fans at a book signing or reading at our stores! Authors who sell over 500 copies of a B&N Press eBook in 12 months are eligible to host a store event.”

An insider secret…you don’t have to sell 500 ebooks to have a store event. Barnes & Noble stores have book signings for authors who didn’t even publish through B&N Press.

Most people assume my 2019 book-signing tour, which took me to seven Barnes & Noble stores across three states, was organized by Barnes & Noble, but that wasn’t the case at all. I had an event coordinator research and contact those stores on my behalf. Some said no. Several on the list didn’t respond, including my local store. Those seven said yes, and the dates were scheduled for consecutive weekends so I could market it as a tour.

Battle Creek, MI

The numbers say a lot. I’ve sold almost as many books in two months with IngramSpark as I have in nine months with Barnes & Noble. (Note: these are only my online sales. I’m not counting all the books I personally sold at events.) I expect IngramSpark’s number has likely surpassed B&N now since they update my sales report at the end of the month, whereas B&N Press is updated within 48 hours of online sales and within 30 days of in-store sales (although this is yet to be determined, as I still haven’t seen any of my book sales from my May/June events). These numbers are without any paid marketing beyond my own social media posts, and I expect IngramSpark’s number to go up as I continue to reach out to my regional bookstores. IngramSpark sends out a quarterly catalog to all of its booksellers. This is something you have to pay for, but I think it will be a good investment! A Fallen Hero is scheduled to be included in the next catalog sent out in August, so I’m excited to see how that affects my sales.

This is important—IngramSpark distributes to Amazon. B&N Press does not. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Being on Amazon is crucial, especially since Kindle ebooks are not compatible on Nook, and vice-versa.  Yes, Barnes & Noble is a big chain and reaches a lot of readers, but IngramSpark distributes to Barnes & Noble, and Amazon, and a wide network of other bookstores.

Cost


This one goes to B&N Press, because it’s completely free. There is no setup fee, and there is no revision fee if you want to take your book off sale, upload a new file, and put it back on sale. Barnes & Noble takes 45% of each sale, which means for every $19.99 paperback I sell, they keep $9.00. However, I don’t actually pocket the full $10.99 remaining, because the print cost is taken out of my share. I make $3.61 profit per book. That percentage with Barnes & Noble isn’t negotiable, and they do set a minimum amount you can sell your book for, but then you have the freedom to raise the price as much as you want.

IngramSpark does charge a fee to register your title. I took advantage of jointly filing my ebook at the same time as my paperback to pay only the one fee instead of paying twice. I believe they charge a revision fee if you need to make changes to your book after it’s on sale, but I have not yet done this. Although they recommend giving wholesalers a 55% discount and advise that some booksellers may not buy your book if you go any lower, you do have the freedom to determine what percentage you want to set. I stuck with the recommended 55%, so for every $19.99 paperback that is sold in the United States, I make $1.99 profit per book. That’s about on par with royalties from traditional publishing, before the agent takes a cut, of course. I make more money per book with B&N Press, but I sell more books through IngramSpark to a wider range of book retailers, so I’d say it’s a wash.

*Update: When I published my second book, I lowered the discount to 50%. My royalties increased, and I did not see any repercussions with retailers unwilling to carry the novel. I’m not sure I would be comfortable going any lower, though. Also, IngramSpark often has promo codes that will waive the registration and revision fees, especially around NaNoWriMo. Be sure you check to see if there are any promotions before you fork over that dough! Indie authors need to be conscious of every penny spent on editing, publishing, and marketing costs.

UPDATE 7/19/21: IngramSpark coupon codes used to be fairly easy to track down. But starting July 2021, they’re restricting free title setup and free revision codes:

“IngramSpark works to ensure independently published books are valued for their significant contribution to the publishing industry at large. Part of connecting the work of our joint community with readers is maintaining a catalog of books that distribution channels and end consumers can trust. In line with our ongoing catalog integrity efforts, we now limit per-account use of promotional codes to help distinguish the works of our community from the millions of mass-produced and public domain books too often found in the self-publishing landscape. In this way, and many others, we hope to reduce bias against self-published works.” Source: IBPA

Translation: IngramSpark is concerned that waiving registration and revisions fees was resulting in low-quality books being pushed through their system, which, to be fair, is a valid problem that Amazon has. Personally, I can accept that explanation for the registration fee. But charging a revision fee discourages serious authors to correct errors and punishes them for improving the quality of their books. I’m not happy about this news.

That being said, there are still codes out there… you just have to hunt harder to track them down. Tip: check out Reddit for IngramSpark authors helping each other out and sharing codes, or join an organization like Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) that provides these now-limited codes to their members.

Customer Service


IngramSpark has been phenomenal! They are available by email, live chat, or phone. Although I haven’t used the live chat feature yet, I’ve been able to speak with a rep on the phone twice to clarify ISBN questions, and as promised, she followed up immediately with emails containing additional information.

As far as B&N Press goes, the only method of contact is an online email form, and I’m not unconvinced it isn’t AI responding based on keywords. I’m rarely able to resolve the issue with one email and really wish they had a phone number. Talking to a real person would save time and prevent headaches, and it would eliminate a lot of confusion and back-and-forth correspondence.

To put it in perspective with an example, I once contacted them and explained that I was a B&N Press vendor and I was having issues with the stores being able to order my book. I asked if there was a way to change the book’s nonreturnable status so stores could put it on their shelves.

The response? I received information about how to become a B&N Press vendor and instructions to set up an account. I wish I could say that was a joke…but it’s not. I actually had to email back and repeat that I was already a B&N Press vendor and had been since last year, then copy/paste my inquiry before I got a true answer. That was a lot of unnecessary work and hair pulling to get the simple answer of no, the book’s nonreturnable status could not be changed.

On the social media support side, IngramSpark’s team has been highly engaged! They’re quick to like any of my Instagram, Facebook, and/or Twitter posts I’ve tagged them in, and they’ve responded to my Twitter threads with fun gifs and enthusiastic encouragement, saying multiple times how thrilled they are to be working with me and that they wish me luck and success. Barnes & Noble…crickets. Instagram accounts for the individual B&N stores on my book signing tour have followed me and been engaged when they’re tagged in posts, but there has been absolutely nothing from Barnes & Noble’s official account. One would think a well-established corporate giant like Barnes & Noble would have an active social media team, but they’ve had zero interaction.

IngramSpark doesn’t just passively click the like button on posts! They usually add a comment and/or gif (left), and they even shared a photo of AFH I recently posted on Facebook (right). #cometothesparkside

Conclusion


I’ve definitely learned a lot! I made some mistakes along the way, but I feel better prepared for Book II coming out next year. If you’re shopping between B&N Press and IngramSpark, I will absolutely recommend IngramSpark as the way to go. Between their helpful customer service, broad reach when it comes to distribution, and engaging social media team, it’s worth paying a registration fee and pocketing a smaller royalty to get your book in the hands of more readers and on the shelves of more bookstores.

Barnes & Noble’s greatest asset is its name. Everyone has heard of Barnes & Noble, so publishing through them brings a certain amount of respect from people who probably wouldn’t be familiar with other self-publishing companies like IngramSpark or KDP. I think B&N Press has the potential to be great, but as far as I can tell from my multiple emails answered by only a select few representatives, they probably have a small team, and they definitely have some major flaws to work out. I’ll be curious to see how the recent deal with Elliot Management affects B&N Press.

Any additional questions? Post in the comments, and I’ll be glad to answer! Happy publishing, friends!


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Love fantasy worldbuilding, strong character bonds, and page-turning adventures? Check out my award-winning Chronicles of Avilésor: War of the Realms series.


Update #1: IngramSpark wasted no time in verifying my claim about an engaged social media team! This was their response to my tweet citing a link to this blog post.

Update #2: Wow, I had no idea this post would be so helpful to so many aspiring authors! Now that I’ve been on the platform for almost two years, I have a few extra notes.

If you’re seriously considering IngramSpark as your printer/distributor, you may be interested in a follow-up article I published that goes into more specific details about the process. It covers everything from copyright registration, to ISBNs and barcodes, to my personal royalty breakdown, to title setup and troubleshooting tips.

I’m disappointed to say that I did NOT see an increase in my sales after paying to be included in Ingram’s catalog. With my second book, I found more success participating in a NetGalley author co-op program instead. Although I personally had a mixed experience with NetGalley, I know other authors have found success, and this is a platform traditional publishers also use. I was impressed with the co-op I joined, and if NetGalley is an avenue you are considering, I highly recommend Victory Editing NetGalley Co-Op.

COVID-19 seriously impacted IngramSpark with high volume and delays. Publishing my second book with them in July 2020 was a very different experience than I had with the first book at the end of 2018. Their customer service, which used to be fairly easy to reach, has been experiencing ridiculously long wait times since March 2020.

I’ve found that the best way to get a fairly quick response is to use live chat on their website or send a message on Facebook rather than rely on phone or email. Printing/shipping times were also delayed. This primarily affected me and not customers or retailers; someone could order a book on Amazon and receive it in a matter of days, whereas I had to wait several weeks to receive the proof copy of my novel. It’s good that IngramSpark is prioritizing customers… but it’s been extremely frustrating from an author’s standpoint.

I don’t know if other self-publishing platforms experienced similar delays and high volume during the pandemic. Still, if you can get through the frustration of have less accessible customer service than usual, it’s a good global distribution network.

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I'm an award-winning fantasy author, artist, and photographer from La Porte, Indiana. My poetry, short fiction, and memoir works have been featured in various anthologies and journals since 2005, and several of my poems are available in the Indiana Poetry Archives. The first three novels in my Chronicles of Avilésor: War of the Realms series have received awards from Literary Titan.

After some time working as a freelance writer, I was shocked by how many website articles are actually written by paid "ghost writers" but published under the byline of a different author. It was a jolt seeing my articles presented as if they were written by a high-profile CEO or an industry expert with decades of experience. I'll be honest; it felt slimy and dishonest. I had none of the credentials readers assumed the author of the article actually had. Ghost writing is a perfectly legal, astonishingly common practice, and now, AI has entered the playing field to further muddy the waters. It's hard to trust who (or what) actually wrote the content you'll read online these days.

That's not the case here at On The Cobblestone Road. I do not and never will pay a ghost writer, then slap my name on their work as if I'd written it. This website is 100% authentic. No outsourcing. No ghost writing. No AI-generated content. It's just me... as it should be.

If you would like to support my work, check out the Support The Creator page for more information. Thank you for finding my website! 🖤

20 thoughts on “Self-Publishing Review: Barnes & Noble Press vs. IngramSpark

  1. Thank you! My first book came out this year and I’ve been fumbling around trying to get this all wrapped up with a hardcover and publish the paperback and hardback with B&N and then I found out they don’t push it to Amazon, so Ingramspark as on my list (suggested by another author) and I’m realizing I will have to increase my book sale price to even make any money selling with these two; thus my search today about B&N vs Ingram. Happy Sales! 🙂

  2. Super informative insight, much appreciated! Loved reading what you had to say!

    Can you give some insight about the book cover process? I am an author looking to publish my novel, and I have my heart pretty dead set on what the cover should be. I am eager to learn how creatively free or restrictive IngramSpark is when it comes to letting authors design their own covers.

    Look forward to hearing from you!

    1. Hi, Robert! That’s great to hear! I did my own cover design as well and had very little restriction. The only minor problems I experienced were ICC issues and slight margin errors, which were easily corrected. IngramSpark did not offer any input on the design itself; the only requirement is that it fits within their template guidelines based on the size of your book to ensure no text is lost in the trim margin or spine edge. Having the freedom to create my own cover was a major factor in my decision to publish independently as opposed to traditionally, and my design was not hindered in any way by IngramSpark. Best of luck you!

  3. HI! I’m curious to know about the amount you get per e-book with IngramSparks? I know KDP keeps 30%, how do e-book sales/royalties work with Ingram? Thanks so much for such an informative run down!

    1. Hi, Sara! Good question!

      You might be interested in another blog post I recently published that addresses this more in-depth: https://ebh.f0e.myftpupload.com/ingramspark/

      KDP charges a delivery fee for ebooks based on the size of your file unless you’re in a very low or very high price bracket, so they’re actually keeping more than 30% in most cases. I calculated their royalty based on the size of my epub file and discovered that if I were to use KDP, I would actually be earning about 58% for my ebook at my current price point, not 70% as advertised. I don’t know if there are any other hidden fees.

      IngramSpark isn’t a consistent percentage. It depends on your file size and retail price. I’m going to be totally transparent; I recently did the math on my sales and found that I’m currently earning about 48% per ebook at my price point. However, if I were to raise the retail price by a couple of dollars, I would be earning 63%, so there are different factors at play. I decided to keep Book I at a lower price than the sequel that was recently released, but I do have the potential to raise my price and earn higher royalties down the road if the book does well. I tend to write big books, so if you have a smaller book with a smaller file size, you’ll likely have more favorable royalties with both KDP and IngramSpark. You’ll just need to play around with the numbers to see what works best.

      I hope that helps!

      Best,

      Sara

  4. Hello Sara, thanks for this complete article!

    Happy new 2021 🙂 I have a question about print books : I have been struggling with publishing my paperback and hardcover on Barnes & Noble and Ingram Sparks. Is it one or the other but not both????

    The first attempt I published on B&N and then IS refused my ISBN as they said it was already in use. Note I OWN my ISBN, it is not from B&N.
    So I filled the IS paperwork for title transfer and I’m still waiting. For my second book I did the reverse, published first with IS, then uploaded to B&N, and now they tell me the ISBN is in use????

    Any success stories or suggestions?
    Thanks Guy

    1. Hi, Guy! I had the exact same problem; I published through B&N Press first and then discovered that I couldn’t use the same ISBN with IngramSpark (like you, I had purchased it from Bowker). There’s no need to publish with B&N Press if you’ve transferred to IS. They’ll make your book available on Barnes & Noble’s website, and it’s a better deal because you can make IS books returnable. I learned the hard way that B&N Press’s books are not returnable. As crazy as this is, when I approached B&N stores about carrying my book, they were willing to order it when it was printed through IS but not their own press because of the returnability issue. I would recommend going with IngramSpark and ditching B&N Press altogether. If you absolutely want both, you’re going to A.) need separate ISBNs for the two platforms, which in my opinion is a waste, and B.) end up with duplicate listings of your book, which divides your reviews between different product pages depending on which page someone writes a review. It’s better to accumulate more reviews on a single product page. I hope that helps! Best of luck to you!

      1. Thank you Sara, yes this is very clear now!!! Did you also did the title tranfer? How long did that take and did you have to delete your books from B&N? or they automatically did that? or is that not relevant? One last question, for the ebook version I’m still keeping it on B&N because of higher royalties compared to IS ebook distribution. I uploaded directly to amazon, apple, kobo, B&N and completed with Draft2Digital and Smashwords, unchecking the optional channels in order not to overlap. What do you think? :-))

      2. Thank you Sara, yes this is very clear now!!! Did you also did the title tranfer? How long did that take and did you have to delete your books from B&N? or they automatically did that? or is that not relevant? One last question, for the ebook version I’m still keeping it on B&N because of higher royalties compared to IS ebook distribution. I uploaded directly to amazon, apple, kobo, B&N and completed with Draft2Digital and Smashwords, unchecking the optional channels in order not to overlap. What do you think? :-))

        1. Glad I was able to help! Yes, I did the title transfer, although it was a while ago, so I don’t remember exactly how long it took. I know B&N Press dragged their feet a little on their end, but then it went pretty smoothly once IS took control. When the title is transferred, you don’t have to delete anything, although you can if you want. The status in your project dashboard will change to “Needs Attention,” and you’ll see an error because that sku is no longer registered to B&N Press. The listing that shows on the website will be IS’s, not B&N’s, so that error doesn’t matter if you choose to leave the listing in your dashboard for any reason. I had decided to leave the info in B&N’s system in case any sales were pending even though my projects weren’t active.

          I actually had separate ISBNs for the paperback/ebook for IS and B&N Press (I hadn’t realized IS wouldn’t allow me to pick and choose which retailers to use, so I thought I could let B&N Press keep the Barnes & Noble listings and have IS handle everything else). So I did have to deactivate those listings, and those skus were basically burned and unusable since they’d already been registered. Learned my lesson the hard way. My plan then was to keep the hardcover as a B&N exclusive, but when they continued to mess up the printing and send people the wrong book, I did do the transfer once I realized that was an option.

          I ended up letting IS handle all of my formats, including the ebook. I know my royalties are a tad lower, but for me, after the giant headache of coordinating between IS and B&N Press, it was so much easier for me to have everything on one platform with one set of ISBNS to manage. I am, however, considering the IS/KDP partnership option when I publish my third book. I haven’t yet reached the stage to start diving into that research to make my final decision, but I’ve heard good things from other authors online who went that route. Some basic info: https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/ingramspark-vs-createspace

          I’m just wary of KDP… it raised some red flags for me when I was initially doing my self-publishing research, and I don’t like their ebook “delivery fee” that none of the other platforms charge, which would knock my royalty down from the advertised 70% to somewhere around 58% when I did the calculation based on my file size. A couple of KDP authors I talked to had experienced issues with Amazon suddenly pulling their listings without warning for allegedly violating the terms & conditions and then refusing to pay them the royalties they were due. Granted, that was back in early 2018 when I chatted with those authors, so maybe KDP has improved since then. How has your experience been using multiple platforms for your ebooks? Have you been happy with that process in order to get the higher royalties?

  5. Ingram Spark appears to be focused almost exclusively on print books, not EPUB books. Is there anything you can add to your blog about the advantages and disadvantages of that?

    1. That is a correct assessment. IngramSpark is hands down the best for print books. When it comes to ebooks, it depends on your priorities and marketing strategy. On the one hand, it’s convenient to have everything all together on one platform with one ISBN. Your royalty cut depends on the size of your file and the retail price you set, but most people would see a slightly smaller royalty going through Ingram than they would if they were to upload directly onto each selling platform individually. Your marketing tools are also much more limited. I’ve recently been in contact with IngramSpark’s customer service team on this issue and will likely be writing a blog post addressing ebooks in the near future based on the responses I received directly from IngramSpark. Stay tuned! Thank you for expressing interest in this subject.

  6. Hi there!! This article was so helpful as I’m trying to decide actively which way to go. However you say that Ingram spark is so easy to talk to by phone or email or chat but I cannot find the information for any of this and have no clue how to start. Please help!! Thank you. Barb

    1. Hi, Barb! I’m so glad you found this article to be valuable!

      You can send IngramSpark an email via an online form here: https://www.ingramspark.com/help

      Their phone number was a little harder to track down (I’m wondering if they took it off their support page, because I thought I remembered finding it there before), but it’s still listed on their Facebook page: (855) 997-7275. I’m not sure where you are located – that might be a U.S. phone number rather than an international one.

      If you want to do the live chat, you’ll need to log in to your account, click the Support button in the bottom right corner, and select Live Chat if it’s online.

      I hope that helps! Good luck with everything!

  7. I just wanted to say thank you!! I am in the US and will try all of those ways. I guess I need a little hand holding to get started. What a wonderful person you are thank you!!

    1. You’re welcome! I’ve been in your shoes, so I know it can be overwhelming and frustrating when you’re first trying to figure everything out. I made some rookie mistakes with my first book, which is why I try to help other indie authors avoid those same pitfalls whenever I can. Feel free to shoot me an email if you have more questions! https://ebh.f0e.myftpupload.com/contact/

  8. Hi! I’m reading this and am very appreciative of your sharing your experience and knowledge. I’m wondering how Ingram Spark would work for my daughter’s book, which we hope to sell at events to support veterans. What would be the price to just buy the books for our own use, as opposed to their usual distribution channels? Is it even possible to print multiple copies for ourselves, or would we be required to buy booksat a retail store or online?

    1. Hi, Natalie! Thanks for reaching out! I love that your daughter’s book would support veterans. The print cost depends on various factors, like whether it’s hardcover/paperback, how many pages, trim size, black-and-white interior vs. full color, etc. IngramSpark has a tool that will let you calculate the cost of printing and shipping to get an estimate: https://myaccount.ingramspark.com/Portal/Tools/ShippingCalculator

      If you order copies through your IngramSpark account, you just have to pay the base print cost, tax, and shipping. Not the full retail price. And, if you’re in the U.S. and registered with your state to be a reseller, you can have the tax waived from your IngramSpark orders. You’ll be able to order as many copies as you need, whenever you need them. Hope that helps!

  9. Thank you for this post. I was weighing the options between the two, and this helped me decide. Thank you so much!

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