Let's learn how to upload your book to IngramSpark. I use IngramSpark with my clients to upload their hardcovers, but you can also upload your paperbacks. This is your huge, expanded global distribution. Amazon will have your books in a lot of different places — hundreds of thousands of places! IngramSpark will take your books everywhere: schools, libraries, retail stores, bookstores, you name it.
Getting Started
Start by going to ingramspark.com. Create an account and then log in. When you have logged in, you're going to go to the top right and click add title.
IngramSpark gives you 3 options for uploads:
- Print + Ebook — $49
- Print Book Only — $49
- Ebook Only — $25
Note: I do eBooks with Amazon KDP. One, because they are free to upload. Two, because Kindle is the biggest ebook distributor.
Once you select which format you'll be uploading, hit continue. They'll ask if you have all files (you should when you're ready to upload — PDF the Interior and Cover). Once you answer yes, they'll ask: What do you want to do? Print, Distribute, and Sell — or just print? You want to Print, Distribute, and Sell. You're not doing expanded distribution with Amazon KDP because they play the middleman to get to IngramSpark, which means you get less money back in royalties. You want IngramSpark to print, distribute, and sell your books.
Title Information
Insert the title, language of choice, and the ISBN number you purchased from Bowker. They'll also give you the option to use their FREE ISBN — but you want to select no. Using FREE ISBNs from IngramSpark and Amazon limits how and where you get to distribute and sell your books.
Once you've done that, you'll need to select that you own the work and have copyrights. They also want to double-check with you and make sure there are no famous people, no famous images, no logos, no toys — none of this stuff is in there — before proceeding. You have to approve of that and say, "No, my title does not include any of the above."
Author, Categories, Audience
Once you click okay, you'll head to the next page where you'll enter the author(s) information. This can be co-authors, editors, illustrators, etc. Whoever you want to add — it's up to you. Then you'll select your categories. Your categories are which genre your book falls in. Try to get as specific as possible. Even look at the subcategories.
Next, select the audience for your book. Is it for college, elementary, juvenile, trade professionals, adults, young adults? Select the appropriate one and then head to the next section — your book description.
Description and Keywords
The book description is a must, and the easiest way to do this is by adding the same description as you put in Amazon into IngramSpark. After adding the description, check for spelling and grammatical errors. Then add your keywords.
KDP gives you seven (7) spaces to add keywords, whereas IngramSpark does a 500-character maximum. You just need to separate them by a semicolon. Start typing your keywords in — as many as you can fit. For keywords, you want to think of what people will search to find your book. That's what you'll use.
If you'd like us to choose all your metadata (keywords, categories, book descriptions) to ensure you get optimized results with your book sales, CONTACT US.
Print Information
You'll need to know the trim size and color of your interior paper.
If we're doing a children's book, we strongly suggest using premium colors. You want your images to pop off the page. You don't want them to be dull or ashy. If you're doing a journal, a novel, or a coloring book, black and white is perfect.
For binding, you'll choose whether you want paperback or hardcover. For case laminate, decide if you want gloss or matte for your cover. The gloss has a little shine to it when you move it, whereas matte is more smooth — some may say dull, but very clear. I like them both. It just depends on the kind of book you're publishing.
Next, you'll need to know the page count. Select the market that you are in (country). Once you add that, it will tell you how much it will cost to print your book based on the type of book you want to publish, page count, and cover.
Pricing and Royalties
Now you can put in how much you're going to retail your book for. Do your comparative and competitive research to determine how much a book in your genre is. Be sure not to overprice or underprice your book. Then you'll be directed to fill out the wholesale discount. This is the discount that bookstores all over the world will get.
Any store that will carry your book will usually favor 55% when you're doing black and white books. That works, but those color books are so expensive. You want to make sure that you still get a decent royalty — which in my book is anywhere between $2.30 and above. $2.50 is the sweet spot for children's books. As far as the royalty percentage for children's books, we recommend 40% in order to get a good royalty. Novels, journals, and coloring and activity books are good at 55%.
Make sure when you're doing the royalty and price of your book for other countries, that your royalty earnings are positive. Otherwise, it'll turn red and not let you proceed. Play around with the numbers. Other countries' currencies are different — you must change your prices to accommodate their currency so that you are making a profit when you're selling your book.
Returns
After you do the royalties for all countries, head to the right column and decide what you want to do about returns. You have three options:
- No returns
- Yes, deliver the returns to my address
- Yes, destroy those returns
The "no" option is not really an option if you want your book in stores. You must have a return policy — otherwise it's unattractive to them and lessens your chances of getting your books picked up. For instance: the book isn't as popular as they thought, it's not selling, it's holding up space for other books. They want to return them.
Then you have the option of "yes, return them" but deliver them to me. The caveat: the books could have been sitting in a storage unit covered in dust, or ruined, or pages torn out, or returned to the store and it's just deformed. There are all these crazy things that could have happened to this book — and now it's being returned to you, in your house or garage, and you can't sell it because it's ruined.
We don't suggest clicking that option either. We strongly suggest clicking "yes, but destroy it." IngramSpark will accept returns but destroy them for you. Then IngramSpark will prompt you to agree that you understand these options and approve of your prices.
Print Options
The "Enable Look Inside Feature" is awesome because it gives your potential buyers an opportunity to see a snippet of what your book has to offer. It's usually only about 10% of the book. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more — just depends on how big your book is.
The Large Text Edition option is great for children's books because the font is usually 16-point font. The right-to-left content option depends on if the book is written in Arabic. If you have it right to left, you want to make sure you see that in your printing options.
Publishing Date
If you know it, great! Enter it in the space provided. If you don't, that's okay. Try to get as close to your ideal date as possible. Hit continue!
Upload Files
Remember — you need your two print-ready PDF files (print interior and print cover). Upload the files and click continue. IngramSpark is going to check your metadata and the content files to make sure they're all correct without error. It usually doesn't take too long. Once everything is green, you'll be done!
Purchase
Now it's time to purchase. It was $49. Sometimes IngramSpark has a code they may give out via their emails — so make sure you sign up to ensure you don't miss out. They don't give them out as much as they used to, but every now and then there's a good one! Always look for a code before uploading.
You also have the option of joining an independent author organization like Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). For the price of about 2 uploads, you get in return 5 FREE UPLOADS A MONTH! It's a wonderful benefit, and ALLi has a ton of resources, training, discounts, and more to offer independent authors.
If you don't have a code, you'll pay for the upload and click that you agree you have the correct and final edits (because if you don't, you'll have to submit new files for $25 per file — or FREE if you have an ALLi membership). Once the payment is processed, IngramSpark will send you an email within 48–72 hours letting you know that everything is okay, or that they have found some errors that need correcting.
After that — you're good and ready to go! Congratulations! Your book will be available for you to order. If your publishing date hasn't come yet, you'll still be able to order copies. If you want to do pre-orders, you can. Or you can just let it sit there while waiting for your publication date.
There you have it, Brilliant Author! This is How You Upload Your Book To Bookstores like IngramSpark!
