How much does it cost to publish and print your book with Ingramspark?

Self publishing a book with IngramSpark is a very popular choice for many authors, with their great distribution and wide printing options along with the ease of use of their service, it’s easy to see how they are one of the biggest self publishing options.

But how much does it cost to publish your book with them?
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Well, setting up your new account with IngramSpark is free (as you’d expect) and they have just recently started to offer free ISBNs for US customers (however, these free ISBNs are for their own platform only, so if you are publishing on other services too, then you will need to purchase your own ISBNs to be safe).

Once your book is ready to upload, IngramSpark have a couple of upfront fees you’ll need to pay, firstly, if you are publishing in both print and eBook then you can upload both at once for $49, however, if you want to publish them separately, or if you are just publishing in the one format, then uploading just for print is still $49 and uploading just as an eBook is $25.

So, it pays to have your book formatted and ready for both before you upload.

Next, you’ll need to work out the cost of your book, IngramSpark have a calculator which you can use to figure out the costs of publishing your book along with how much money you’ll get in royalties for each sale.

If you look at the following example, you’ll see with a 6x9 B&W book, crème interior, paperback with a page count of 300 and at retail price set at $14.99, the print charge is $5.48, this leaves you with a royalty (Publisher Compensation) of $3.51 per book sold.

You’ll also notice in the calculator the option for a wholesale discount, so what is it? The wholesale discount will determine how much a wholesaler will pay for your book, then when they sell your book to a retail store etc. they’ll pass on a portion of the discount to them, this a common way that book stores purchase new titles and make a small profit.

Choosing a discount will depend on your plan for publishing, but most authors choose around 55%, although you can go as low as 30-35%, having said this, going lower than the average 55% may make your book less attractive to the wholesalers and affect its chances of being picked up by them.

Another great option that IngramSpark offers is printing and shipping direct to your own customer, they have a shipping calculator so you can figure out how much this will cost, again, depending upon the size of book and your printing specifications along with where your customer is located.

So, a 6x9 B&W book, crème interior, paperback with a page count of 300 being shipped to Manhattan, using the economy service ($5.48) and choosing the shipping option of basic which is $4.20, breaks down as follows: unit price $5.48 + $1.99 handling fee + $4.20 shipping fee + $1.04 tax = $12.71 Total Cost.

They also give you multiple shipping options in case you need to get the book to your customer quicker or if you’re sending it internationally. Again, this is a great option that’s worth looking at if you’re selling the book yourself.

If you would like to know how much it costs to publish via KDP, check out our great article for more details.