The primary competitor to Amazon KDP for self-publishers is IngramSpark, a division of Ingram Content Group. But IngramSpark isn’t just a competitor, it’s also an Amazon partner and, for many self-publishing authors, it’s a publishing portal to use alongside Amazon KDP when publishing books.
This article breaks down the key differences between Amazon KDP and IngramSpark and highlights ten things you should know before using their platform.
Keep in mind that IngramSpark also powers the print-on-demand services of several other well-known self-publishing portals such as Draft2Digital. We do not consider those viable for new self-publishers but that’s a subject for another article.
The focus of this article is on why you should consider IngramSpark and what to be aware of, starting with . . .
The biggest difference between Amazon and IngramSpark is that IngramSpark is a book wholesaler
IngramSpark does not sell your book to readers. They make your book available to retailers—Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, your local bookstores, for example—and when said retailer sells it, IngramSpark pays you.
Two vital things to keep in mind: retailers are not required to stock your book or offer it in their online store. And IngramSpark does not tell you who may be stocking or selling your book, nor who sells it when it does sell.
Like Amazon KDP, you may use IngramSpark for producing hardcovers, paperbacks, and eBooks. But that’s where the similarities end.
The ten most important things to know about IngramSpark
1. There are costs and fees to use IngramSpark, regardless of how many books you sell.
Like Amazon KDP, there are no fees to upload and list your book for sale. But IngramSpark charges fees when you make changes to your book files and adds a surcharge when a book is sold:
Change fees. Per IngramSpark: “IngramSpark allows free corrections/revisions, for the first 60 days after the book has been approved for production (printing). After 60 days, a $25 revision fee will apply to each revised file.”
Example: you list your book for pre-order, and later need to update your files. Perhaps you found an error or want to add testimonials to the cover or interior of your book. There is a charge to update files if it’s 60 or more days after you approved it for release.
Market access fees. The fee is “1% of the list price of a book and will be deducted from the compensation earnings each time the book is sold. The fee will appear in the “other” column of the compensation report.”
Example: If the book has a US list price of $20.00, the fee will be $0.20 cents.
2. You decide the discount stores get to sell your book, and if they can or can’t return it if it doesn’t sell.
This is perhaps the most important reason to use IngramSpark. If you want to make your book available to bookstores, they will expect two things:
- One is to buy your book at a discount so they can make a profit. The standard discount is 53 to 55% and IngramSpark allows you to set this. If you are not planning to market your book to brick-and-mortar retailers, you can set the discount at 40%.
- The second thing retailers expect is to be able to return books that are not sold. This “returnability” is unique to bookselling and no bookseller will stock your book if they can’t return it.
A third setting is how to handle books that are returned. This is between you and IngramSpark and here again you have two choices.
- You can choose to have IngramSpark mail you the returned book. If you are in the US, the cost is $3 plus the wholesale cost of your book. Returns to non-US addresses is $20 plus the wholesale cost. Ouch!
- The second choice is what we generally recommend: instruct IngramSpark to destroy your returned book. Oftentimes the books that retailers return are not in resalable condition. The cover is nicked or torn, pages are bent, or there are markings that make it look used.
3. Printing costs depend on speed of printing.
For most of the year, IngramSpark offers three printing speeds, each priced based on how quickly you want them to print your book. Below is an example of how that works for a black and white, 306 page, paperback book.
Note that during the holidays, or in the event of unusual circumstances (such as Covid), IngramSpark will reduce these options and/or extend the number of days quoted for printing.
4. Shipping costs are much higher than Amazon KDP.
Shipping is much more expensive when using IngramSpark. While the price for Basic shipping might seem reasonable, there is no tracking information and, if the package is lost, IngramSpark won’t replace it.
By comparison, Amazon’s standard shipping is usually less than $4 for one copy.
5. Ebook royalties are 85% of what they receive, which they won’t tell you.
Considering the lack of transparency around royalties, it’s easy to see why few in the industry consider IngramSpark a viable eBook distribution option. That said, there are two reasons to consider them for eBooks:
- They are ideal for someone looking for a single account to manage. There’s a lot to be said for this convenience, especially if you aren’t publishing many books and don’t care as much about income.
- Royalties for eBooks distributed through KDP, and priced between $2.99 and $9.99, are reduced by Amazon’s eBook delivery fee. Presumably, that doesn’t happen here, which means you may make more money selling a large book via IngramSpark.
(Large book refers to the file size of the eBook file. See our article Guide to Amazon Fees and Royalties for Kindle eBooks and KDP Print.)
6. It takes much longer to process your publishing files and make changes.
It helps to explain this in steps and then contrast it with Amazon KDP.
IngramSpark
- Upload your new book file. The pre-check takes a few minutes at the most.
- Submit your files for processing. This takes several days, to easily more than a week.
- Once complete, you can order proofs or approve the files for publication. Sometimes it takes a couple days for the book to appear on Amazon, but usually more than a week. Be patient!
Amazon KDP
- Upload your new book file. The pre-check takes a several minutes at the most. You can then order a proof and it is in your Amazon cart within four hours.
- If you don’t want to wait for a proof, you can immediately approve your book for distribution and it will appear for sale on Amazon within 72 hours.
7. Customer support and troubleshooting issues
IngramSpark has no free phone support, only email. Responses usually take about a day. Their help options are found here.
You can also pay for a personalized, one-on-one virtual appointment via their IngramSpark Connect program. The cost is $49 for 60 minutes or $25 for 30 minutes.
Tip: Members of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) receive one free support call per month. This is in addition to the IBPA bonus of one free change/revision per month (see number one above).
8. You can sell your book directly to readers from your website.
Share & Sell is IngramSpark’s answer to helping authors sell direct to their readers, bypassing Amazon and other retailers. Please see our insider’s guide for details:
9. You have limited control over how your book is presented in online stores.
The information (metadata) that IngramSpark sends to their dozens of retailers needs to be standardized and can’t vary much from store to store. This has almost no impact on your book, except in the case of Amazon.
Amazon has a feature called A+ Content that is only available to self-published books using KDP or Amazon Advantage. Learn more about A+ Content in our two-part series.
10. IngramSpark has many more printing options than Amazon KDP.
Many of the options noted below are limited to certain combinations of dimensions and paper type. Be sure to use their free online print and ship calculator to see the options before you begin designing your book. Also note that there are surcharges.
- There are lots of dimensions, including custom, but the most notable paper dimension is 11” wide by 8.5” tall—a very popular option for children’s books. KDP cannot print this layout.
- You can personalize a book before printing it, which is ideal for gifts or events. The cost is $1 per book. How to Use IngramSpark to Personalize the First Page of Your POD Book.
- Paper options can include “groundwood” which is like mass market paperback paper, and four color paper options.
- Duplex cover printing is available, so you can print on the inside cover of your paperback book.
- Perforated pages are an option for some books. Pages have a small line of perforation that allows for pages to be more easily removed from the book.
- And let’s not forget the ability to print a hardcover dust jacket. This is another feature that sets IngramSpark apart from Amazon KDP.
What about IngramSpark print quality?
Be sure to check out our article, Inconsistent Print-on-Demand Book Printing and What to Do About It.
* * *
That’s sums up what we see are the most important things to know about IngramSpark if you are considering printers. Their features are designed for serious book publishing when POD is your preferred way to print books.
Does IngramSpark publish computer and information science books?
IngramSpark is not a publisher. They print and distribute books that you as the publisher upload to their website. They have a list of the types of books they won’t distribute and computer and info science aren’t on that list.
Dear David,
I uploaded an ebook in epub format to Ingramspark. The validity check failed the first time, and I got several errors of the following form:
(RSC-005): /EPUB/text/ch002.xhtml: Error while parsing file: Duplicate ID “Table1_2”
Then I removed all tables and references, and re-uploaded it. I got the same errors during validation.
I then created a “dummy file” containing just the preface (and no chapters). To my surprise, I got the same errors during validation. My guess is that they are storing the errors generated in the first upload in some database and dumping those errors again and again even for dummy files. I contacted the customer service, and they told me they will connect me to a technical person who can help me. They simply cutoff the connection after 10 minutes without getting me connected to a technical person. I raised several tickets for solving this but only automated replies are received by email that does not solve the issue. Can someone help me how to overcome this dilemma? Any help will be appreciated.