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Have any of you used IngramSpark to self-publish a book? If so how did it go, do you recommend the service?

What are the pros and cons? How does it compare and contrast to Amazon's service, CreateSpace?

You might think, what does this have to do with marketing and promotion? Product development is the biggest aspect of marketing!

You could have the greatest book in the world and be dead in the water if you are stuck with an awful publisher or an awful printer.

PROS:

Ease of access: gone is the onerous application process and the need to sign multiple contracts to cover all international jurisdictions.
Reasonable title set-up fee of $49.00, which is waived or refunded if a print order for 50 books is made within 60 days. While $49.00 is twice the $25.00 fee charged by CreateSpace for Expanded Distribution, ED is essentially restricted to the U.S. since all books are printed in the U.S. and shipped abroad. So you get more bang for your buck with Spark.
Extensive global reach including Oceania, an area currently not addressed at all by CreateSpace.
Manufacturing centers in the U.S., UK, and Australia, with third-party printers in Germany and Brazil; CreateSpace has centers only in the U.S. and the U.K.
More retailers worldwide. For example, Chapters in Canada lists in their online catalogue all LSI titles as “In Stock” but do not carry any CreateSpace Expanded Distribution titles; similar issues arise with retailers who compete with Amazon in the UK and Europe.
CreateSpace ED titles do not appear on Amazon Japan and China sites; LSI titles do.
Superior print book cover manufacturing process, and the ability to choose either matte or gloss finish (CreateSpace only offers gloss).
Higher royalties for books sold outside of Amazon U.S. and Amazon Europe: 45% compared to 40%.
Ability to accept print book returns, which can encourage retailers to stock your book (but it can be costly).
You can order a physical proof before approving your title for sale (contrary to reports by other bloggers and reiterated earlier by me).

CONS:

Still cannot compete with CreateSpace for the Amazon U.S., UK, and EU market: lower royalties (45% compared to 60% paid by CreateSpace), and lengthy delivery times posted on the Amazon site. Which, as my earlier article makes clear, is part of Amazon’s predatory strategy.
There is no mention on the website as to fees for file updates. I suspect IngramSpark charges the full $49.00 again. Charges to update a CreateSpace Expanded Distribution file are $25.00 per cover or interior. If changing both the cover and content, the price is essentially the same; if changing only the cover or interior, Spark costs you an extra $24.00.
Titles are charged a $12.00 per year “Market Access” fee, compared to nothing at CreateSpace ED. But again, perhaps you are merely getting what you pay for.
Significantly higher shipping fees: an order of 50 books (the minimum required to waive the title set-up charge) of a typical 6″x9″ novel with 270 pages costs $60.92 for standard shipping to a commercial address and $70.12 to a residential address; compare that to $23.00 at CreateSpace.
Charges for expedited shipping are ludicrous: $246.80 for 2-day delivery to a commercial address and $257.10 to a residential address for those same 50 books; compare that to $49.99 at CreateSpace. The difference is obscene.
Printing fees are essentially identical, so what you save in title set-up fees by ordering 50 books is clawed back in shipping fees, and those shipping fees remain high for subsequent orders.
Spark, like LSI, is still aimed at the publisher who has fulfilled their design and conversion needs elsewhere. So don’t expect design services or ebook formatting and conversion services. And you must supply your own ISBNs; IngramSpark is not a vanity publisher.

I got the above information from this link:
http://mademers.com/globalindieauthor/2 ... tribution/

I've used Ingram and Createspace.

Your information is out of date. There is no market access fee anymore, but Ingram does charge for changing files (per file type, cover or interior).

Ingram has WAY more options available and a higher quality product, especially hardcopy. Createspace only sells to Amazon (expanded distribution isn't worth it). You can buy ISBN directly from either company, but it's foolish to NOT buy them from bowker directly (30 dollars per isbn if you buy 10 instead of 100 per isbn).

Right now (until the end of May) you can add a title to ingramspark for free with a promo code (INDIEFRINGE16) and save the 49 bucks.

I have 4 books currently listed on IngramSpark, with another coming out in a few months. Each book is listed in hardcopy and paperback, all at 6x9. They all look amazing and the quality of the print is as good as anything you might find. I list the paperback copies on createspace as well, so Amazon receives them from createspace and everywhere else sources through ingram.

One thing: If your title sells fairly well on ingram, Amazon will buy up copies to have on hand and distribute directly. When I added one of my titles in hardcopy, Amazon bought 12 copies to stock in their warehouses, so the "extra time for processing" problem people bring up is only partly true. Yes, it is better to source createspace and never have processing time, but Amazon isn't just going to punish you for using ingram. If your book will sell, they will do everything they can to sell it no matter who sources it.

Also, for pricing...with ingram, you set your % discount (from 30-55). bookstores expect 55% and returnable, so unless you're willing to lose a LOT of money on returns, I wouldn't do that until you are established. If you set it to 30% with a decent price, you'll get more money from ingram than createspace. So, for my paperbacks, I actually get more per copy from Ingram, and that is from ANY seller. I only use createspace because they are super easy to use and Amazon preferred vendor.

Hope this helps. My information comes directly from personal experience.

Lincoln wrote:I've used Ingram and Createspace.
...
My information comes directly from personal experience.

Lincoln, what have you found to be the process for getting books in brick and mortar stores through Ingram? Is it a reasonable goal for a no-name author, or is the lure of bookstore distribution just another selling point that looks better on paper than in actual application? Do you have books in brick and mortar bookstores? I've checked out the website numerous times, and it's not very user friendly. If you could share any additional info, I'd really like to know more about it. Thanks!

Scott wrote:Have any of you used IngramSpark to self-publish a book? If so how did it go, do you recommend the service?

What are the pros and cons? How does it compare and contrast to Amazon's service, CreateSpace?

You might think, what does this have to do with marketing and promotion? Product development is the biggest aspect of marketing!

You could have the greatest book in the world and be dead in the water if you are stuck with an awful publisher or an awful printer.

I've used it.

Pros - Global Distribution, high-quality printing, ease of setup. Hard copy versions are incredible.

Cons - can be expensive to start/update if (though mitigated if you wait for coupons to load for free).

I recently published through IngramSpark and signed up for the recommended 55% discount. My goal was to make my book available to retailers. My book has been on amazon through Createspace for months but bookstores won’t carry it through Amazon. The problem is IngramSpark says they offer the book for a 55% discount to retailers but what they actually do is take 15% of that for themselves and then Ingram Books takes another 15% and they offer it to retailers at a 25% discount. I have confirmed this with several retailers. IngramSpark’s terrible customer service says things like “we can’t speak to the agreement a retailer may have with Ingram Books, they are a totally different company.” But they know what percentage is being taken and they don’t care that no retailer will buy a book for such a low profit margin. They make their money with their set up fees and never expect to make anything from our books. And they never actually mention that they even take 15% from the 55 in the first place. I’ve done some research and learned about this problem and others. They genuinely seem like they are scamming authors.

Scott wrote: ↑01 Jan 2016, 11:53 Have any of you used IngramSpark to self-publish a book? If so how did it go, do you recommend the service?

What are the pros and cons? How does it compare and contrast to Amazon's service, CreateSpace?

You might think, what does this have to do with marketing and promotion? Product development is the biggest aspect of marketing!

You could have the greatest book in the world and be dead in the water if you are stuck with an awful publisher or an awful printer.

Product development is almost everything! Thanks for pointing this out, Scott.

Lincoln wrote: ↑27 Apr 2016, 07:38 I've used Ingram and Createspace.

Your information is out of date. There is no market access fee anymore, but Ingram does charge for changing files (per file type, cover or interior).

Ingram has WAY more options available and a higher quality product, especially hardcopy. Createspace only sells to Amazon (expanded distribution isn't worth it). You can buy ISBN directly from either company, but it's foolish to NOT buy them from bowker directly (30 dollars per isbn if you buy 10 instead of 100 per isbn).

Right now (until the end of May) you can add a title to ingramspark for free with a promo code (INDIEFRINGE16) and save the 49 bucks.

I have 4 books currently listed on IngramSpark, with another coming out in a few months. Each book is listed in hardcopy and paperback, all at 6x9. They all look amazing and the quality of the print is as good as anything you might find. I list the paperback copies on createspace as well, so Amazon receives them from createspace and everywhere else sources through ingram.

One thing: If your title sells fairly well on ingram, Amazon will buy up copies to have on hand and distribute directly. When I added one of my titles in hardcopy, Amazon bought 12 copies to stock in their warehouses, so the "extra time for processing" problem people bring up is only partly true. Yes, it is better to source createspace and never have processing time, but Amazon isn't just going to punish you for using ingram. If your book will sell, they will do everything they can to sell it no matter who sources it.

Also, for pricing...with ingram, you set your % discount (from 30-55). bookstores expect 55% and returnable, so unless you're willing to lose a LOT of money on returns, I wouldn't do that until you are established. If you set it to 30% with a decent price, you'll get more money from ingram than createspace. So, for my paperbacks, I actually get more per copy from Ingram, and that is from ANY seller. I only use createspace because they are super easy to use and Amazon preferred vendor.

Hope this helps. My information comes directly from personal experience.

Thanks for sharing your personal experience. I appreciate.

I haven't used it but heard about is a little. And the reviews pros, and cons posted in the previous threads are well informative. I guess I'l be giving a try very soon.

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