Transcription
If you're self-publishing a book, chances are you're debating between Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark. But which one actually makes sense for you and your book? Today, we're going to be breaking down the key differences: fees, royalties, print quality, distribution, and more so that you know exactly which one to choose. Plus, I'm going to uncover which platform has one pretty major drawback that could quietly sabotage your reach, credibility, and sales if you're not careful.
I'm Rachel Harrison Sunund and I help people turn simple book ideas into passive income streams. Now, account setup is pretty straightforward on both platforms and I've left links to each of those down in the description below. So, let's just get right into the fees.
So, for KDP, it's free to set up an account, free to publish a book, and it's also free to make any future revisions to that published book. Now, let's look at print cost. And we're going to look at an example here so that we can compare both platforms side by side. So, let's have a look at a 6x9 paperback. Black and white interior on 50 lb white stock, perfect bound, glossy cover, 100 pages. The print cost for that book on KDP is $2.30.
Now, jumping over to Ingram Spark. Again, it's free to set up an account. It's free to publish a book, but revisions are going to cost $25 each after the first 60 days. So, you will have a two-month grace period in case you want to make any revisions, but after that, every time you want to make any revisions, big or small, you're going to be dinged 25 bucks. They also have a market access fee for global distribution, which is 1% of the list price.
Now, for print cost, looking at that same 6x9 paperback example that we used for KDP, the cost is going to be $2.74. So, a little bit higher than KDP. Now, if you want to see a complete breakdown of the shipping costs associated with each platform, as well as the time it takes to receive your author copies and the print quality of both platforms, then I recommend watching the recent video that my friend Dale Roberts did over on his channel. I've linked down to that in the description below. But in general, KDP has fewer fees and lower print costs.
Now, let's talk about royalty rates. And I'm going to be talking only about the royalty rates for print books. So, for KDP, if your book is priced at $9.99 and over, you're going to receive a 60% royalty rate. If your book is priced at $9.98 or lower, you'll receive a 50% royalty rate. And if you want to enroll your book into expanded distribution, meaning it would be possible for other bookstores to order your book through Amazon, then your royalty rate is going to be 40%. So, in order to see what the actual dollar amount you'll receive for each book is, this is the formula. It's royalty rate times list price minus the printing cost. So for our example, let's assume that your list price is going to be $9.99. So you're receiving the 60% royalty rate. This means that your royalty for our example book is going to be $3.69. If you enroll it in expanded distribution, that drops to 40% and you'll receive $1.70.
Now things work a little bit differently over at Ingram Spark. A percentage of your list price after subtracting the wholesale discount and printing costs. That's how you're going to wind up for your royalty. Now, what the heck is a wholesale discount and why are we even talking about that? Now, Ingram offers access to their global distribution network, which we're going to get into in a second, but essentially what this means is that when stores that are a part of that distribution network decide to sell a book in their store, they're typically only going to do that if they can purchase that book at wholesale price. So, if you want your book to have a chance at getting into bookstores, you're going to want to offer a competitive wholesale discount. Now, you can set this discount at whatever you want. Typically, this ranges from about 30% to 55%. With higher discounts offering more favorable terms to retailers, but then that also on the flip sides results in a lower author royalty for you.
So, let's look at a couple example scenarios just to illustrate the point because it can be a little bit confusing. So again, we're going to go back to our example book where we've set the list price at $9.99. So if you decide to set your wholesale discount to zero, then you're going to get a royalty of $7.10. But that also means it's going to be very unlikely for any big chains, you know, Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores, libraries. That's not going to be very favorable to them. So that's really going to reduce your odds of getting into any of those retailers. Now, let's look at 45% as a discount. This is going to leave you with $2.60 as a royalty. Now, this discount is okay if your only goal is online sales. So, if you're publishing through Ingram Spark, but you want to also make your book available on Amazon or any other online retailers, then 45% is a decent discount. Now, if your goal is to get into physical bookstores like Barnes & Noble, um, any other big chains, indie bookstores, libraries, then you're going to want to set your discount at 55% because this is what they're used to paying. That's going to leave you with $1.61 in royalties. But remember, this is not a guarantee that you're going to get into any of those retailers.
So, in general, looking at both platforms, KDP offers a higher royalty rate if you plan on selling your book on Amazon. Through Ingram Spark, KDP also offers a higher royalty rate for the expanded distribution at $1.70, whereas you'd only get a $1.61 using the 55% wholesale discount recommended to get into bookstores and libraries through Ingram Spark's network.
Now, let's look at the print options offered by both. But before we do, if you'd like to learn how to generate passive income creating and selling really simple books like journals, planners, workbooks, things of that nature, then please download my free guide, three steps to publishing your first low content book in less than a day. I have linked to that down in the description below. All right, let's get back to print options.
So, for KDP, you've got paperback and hardcover options. Now, for paper, there's a white option, and the paper weight is between 50 lb and 71 lb, depending on your ink type. And for the cream option, it's between 50 and 61 lb. Now, the other reason for the range of paper weights is because it depends which location your book is going to be printed on. They use printers all over the world. So, some of them you're going to get printed at 60 lb, some of them at 70. Now, for ink, you've got black and white, standard color, and premium color options. And then for trim sizes, you've got 16 trim sizes for paperback and six for hardcover.
Now for Ingram Spark, you've got paperback, hardcover, but you've also got hardcover with dust jackets. So for paper, you've got white offered in 50 lb and 70 lb. Their cream is 50 and their groundwood is their most economical option. That's 38 lb. For ink, you've got black and white, color, premium color, and ultra premium color. Now, for trim sizes, they have 41 different trim sizes, and they even offer custom trim sizes, but not all of them are going to be available in hardcover. I couldn't find a list, so you're going to have to just kind of go through and see whichever trim size you want if it's available in hardcover if you want to print with hardcover. As you can see here, Ingram Spark has many more options, but also much more high-quality premium options.
Next, let's talk about their distribution and how it works. Now, for KDP, you get access to the Amazon marketplace. And Amazon accounts for roughly 40% to 60% of all print books sold, depending on the stats that you reference. I came across several, so I could not find a definitive answer, but this makes it the most important retailer to have your book sold on. And when you publish through KDP, it's going to automatically list your book on all of Amazon's sites worldwide. You'll also have access to their expanded distribution which allows bookstores, libraries, and whatnot to purchase your books through them, but it is quite limited. And Amazon, from what I've heard, has fairly unfavorable terms for the members of their expanded distribution. So, it's fairly unlikely that you're going to get huge amounts of sales through their expanded distribution. And again, the expanded distribution royalty rate is 40% of the book's list price minus printing costs, applicable fees, and taxes. Going back to our example, that would have been $1.70.
Now, for Ingram Spark, they distribute through the Ingram Book Group, which is the go-to distributor for most bookstores and libraries. Books are available to order through thousands and thousands of retailers, both online and brick-and-mortar. They are the largest book distribution network in the world. So, publishing through them makes your books more likely to get picked up by Barnes & Noble, um, other chain stores, indie bookstores, libraries, universities, etc. Again, it's not a guarantee that your book is going to be available in any of those stores. Typically speaking, unless you're a fairly well-known author, you're going to be more likely to get discovered through Amazon, as it accounts for roughly half of all print books sold worldwide. And your chances of getting picked up through various retailers through Ingram Spark kind of seems relatively low.
All right. Now, for shipping, KDP typically varies fast, especially for customers that use Amazon Prime. Books are printed and shipped on demand directly from Amazon's network. This is great for the US major markets, but international shipping can vary depending on where you are. Ingram Spark, similarly, they have global print partners, so your book might be printed locally depending on the country, which can reduce your shipping costs. It can be slower than Amazon. Tracking isn't always as smooth, and some authors have reported longer print and shipping times, especially during peak seasons. But again, for a more detailed comparison of the shipping experience for both Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark, watch Dale's video. I was actually kind of surprised with the results of that video.
Now, for customer service, KDP is definitely a mixed bag. In my own personal experience, they are generally responsive. You can contact via chat or email. Sometimes you can have access to a real person on a telephone button, but it doesn't seem to be available for everyone. So, it can be really difficult to talk to a human even when you really need to. Biggest issue I hear about and one that I've experienced many many times is you send an email and you get a canned email response that really doesn't answer the question. Then you get caught in this ridiculous email loop and days go by and you keep getting these canned responses and the issue never seems to be fully resolved. This is super frustrating if you receive some sort of an account warning or a copyright dispute or something like that and you can't actually figure out what the actual problem is. They tell you that there's some issue. You try and investigate to find out what the issue is so you can rectify it, but they won't actually tell you what the issue is. So, super frustrating.
Now, for Ingram Spark, they work on an email ticket system. So, no live chat. I don't think you can get anyone on the phone. Now, I personally have not used Ingram Spark customer service, so I can't speak to it from firsthand experience, but here are some things that other authors have reported. So, authors have often reported waiting five up to 10 plus business days for a reply, listing delays, errors, things like that. So, I think in both departments, the customer service is not super super great.
Now, let's get into the pros and cons of each platform. But before we do, if you're enjoying this video, please do hit the subscribe button. Really helps me out, but it also helps put this video out to more and more people that might find it useful.
So, KDP pros: fewer fees, lower print costs, really easy to make updates, revisions, higher royalties, massive reach on Amazon. For cons, their expanded distribution, a little bit weak, there's no premium print options, and customer service can be kind of frustrating.
Now, Ingram Spark pros: you've got more print options and more premium quality print options. They're the largest global distribution network in the world, and you've got more control over your discounts and your pricing strategy.
Now, for cons, you can't print low content books like journals or planners. So, if that's what you're looking to print, you're not going to be able to do it with Ingram Spark. You have to pay for revisions after that initial 60-day grace period. And again, kind of frustrating customer service experience.
Now, this is the biggest con and it's what I referenced at the beginning of this video. Now, important to note, this is anecdotal. I have not experienced this, but I have heard other authors talking about this and this is going to make a direct impact on which platform you choose. Anecdotally, it seems that Amazon penalizes Ingram Spark publishers who publish on Ingram Spark and then make their book available on Amazon through their global distribution network. And these are a few ways that Amazon seems to penalize those authors. So, they show delayed shipping estimates. So, books listed on Amazon that have been published through Ingram Spark will often show long shipping times saying, you know, usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks. Now, this is because Amazon doesn't print the book themselves. They have to order it from Ingram, wait for it to ship, then fulfill. But that delay can kill impulse buys, especially if you're a casual Amazon shopper who's used to, you know, one or two day Prime shipping. Authors have also reported seeing out of stock or unavailable messages on their Amazon book listing. So, it might say currently unavailable even if they're fully available in Ingram's catalog. All right? And this might be when Amazon, you know, they don't want to fulfill third party print on demand books or they're just trying to nudge you towards using KDP instead. It's not an official policy, but this has been widely observed in the indie publishing community.
So, knowing that, who is each platform best suited for? So, KDP is great for low content books, journals, planners, workbooks, that sort of a thing. Great for fiction and non-fiction authors who are looking to get discovered and they want to focus on Amazon sales and any author who wants quick, cost-effective access to this massive market.
Ingram Spark is really great for fiction and non-fiction authors who want premium hardcover options and more of a traditionally published look for their book. Also, if you're publishing books that you want to sell in bulk or you want to gift to people or you want to pitch to bookstores.
So, ultimately, my recommendation here, unless you're just focused on low content books, most pros use both. They use KDP for Amazon sales and for discoverability, and they use Ingram Spark for everywhere else, especially if you're looking for a more premium feel. Now, to do this, you're just going to need to make sure you are purchasing your own ISBN. Don't use the free ISBN that both Ingram Spark and KDP offer. You want to purchase your own from Bowker in the United States. If you're in Canada like me, you're lucky. You get them for free. But when you have your own ISBN, you can publish your book to any and all platforms. Just make sure that if you are publishing to both platforms, when you're publishing to Amazon, do not check the expanded distribution because just by virtue of publishing through Ingram Spark, you're already going to have access to their global distribution network.
So, now that you've decided which print on demand platform to publish your book through, it's time to talk launch strategy. And there are some mistakes that you're going to want to avoid when you're launching your book. To find out what those are, check out this video right here. If you like this video, please give it a like. Please subscribe. And thanks for watching. I'll see you next week.