Why should you publish with Ingramspark?

Out of the vast array of publishers for indie authors, Ingramspark is one of the key players that you will (or should) have heard of. Ingramspark is owned by Lightning Source (a company with operations in the US, UK, Europe, and Australia) and was started back in 2013, since then Ingramspark has published well over 7 million books and currently has over 4,000 new books added to it daily, so, it’s safe to say that it’s big within the self-publishing world.

And when we say big, we mean big, Ingramspark currently has the largest distribution of books in the US, they distribute to over 40,000 retailers and libraries globally along with making your book available to Amazon, Kobo, and B&N, so you could reach a very wide audience using their services.

So, what does it cost to use Ingramspark?

Pricing starts from $25 per title for eBooks and $49 per title for print (however, if you currently upload both at the same time it’s just $49), but you will need to purchase your own ISBNs for each edition of your book (something which KDP offers free versions of).
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One of the great things about Ingramspark is their options for print, they offer both paperback and hardback, with the hardback choices including case laminate and/or dust jacket, we have also noticed that the actual print and finish quality of each book from Ingramspark is normally very high (when compared with some other print on demand services, their finished product really shines).

How much money will you make from selling with Ingramspark?

Of course, this will depend upon the cost to produce and distribute your book along with any discount you may offer, one good thing is that Ingramspark have a calculator upon their website which enables you to work out your compensation based on page count, trim size, format, price, and discount, although if you compare to KDP, it seems to be slightly more expensive (but then you do have the larger distribution). You can use their calculator here,

Why use Ingramspark?

If you are planning to focus on pushing your book through the more traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores, Ingramspark is a great choice as it has the distribution channels you’ll need, if you also want to publish in hardback, it has a great choice of print options available too.

However, if you plan to focus predominantly on Amazon, then KDP would be your better option (paperback and eBook only), as you would be going directly with Amazon themselves, you’ll find the fees to distribute would be lower and it also seems that Amazon give preference to their own KDP books first (within Amazon’s sales algorithms).
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Ingramspark are still a great choice for authors and will give you access to huge distribution channels, which let’s face it, is why you are publishing in the first place, you want people to buy your book, but it is also worth considering the use of Amazon’s KDP in tandem with Ingramspark, yes you will need to buy ISBNs, but it will help get your book in front of as many people as you can.