Yes, Ingram is a huge company and it’s difficult for them to turn the ship quickly in response to user needs. They remain the only company that allows indie authors to change discounting from 40% to 30% or 55% and RETURNS though, so they are necessary. They were born as a publisher tool, for publishing companies, and they still suffer from that perspective. I like D2D and PublishDrive and etc. They’re easy, and for most indie authors, there’s no reason to change that 40% discount model. Thanks!

Check out your specific royalties with stores using the royalty calculators I provided in this post. Distribution companies do charge to distribute your books. You’re welcome to upload individually to the various stores if you like, but it’s a hassle. Remember you should only use Amazon as a store. Not as a distribution service. Yes, IngramSpark can distribute your book to Amazon. No, IngramSpark does not use Amazon’s Extended Distribution – Extended Distribution should NOT be used. Don’t! Use IngramSpark or Draft2Digital to distribute everywhere, including Amazon. But you can use Amazon KDP to get your book into the Amazon store. I hope that helps!

Am I right in thinking that extended distribution is bad news in terms of royalties because instead of 60-70% royalties with Amazon or IngramSpark, you only get something like 10-20% if you sell on Barnes & Noble (a big player) via Amazon or Ingram Spark? Have you got a list of royalty percentages for extended distribution selling on (a) Amazon KDP, (b) IngramSpark and (c) Lulu?

Many thanks

Hi Clare, D2D is a great company and much easier to use than IngramSpark. Though IS is getting more user-friendly they do offer much more flexiblity in discounting. So if you are hell-bent on marketing to bookshops then market your heart out and set your discount to 53% and RETURNS. Note that this is NOT a good strategy for most self-publishing authors. So you may want to stick to D2D and Amazon. Yes, you should choose between D2D and IS. D2D is easier and uses IS distribution. Using IS directly is the more flexible option if you want to play with discounting. I hope that helps!

The Alliance of Independent Authors clearly shills for IngramSpark, but Reedsy seems to be telling it like it is: https://blog.reedsy.com/print-on-demand-books/

Draft2Digital (reviewed in the Reedsy article above) seems like a much better company than IngramSpark and uses the same global distribution channels for POD books, but so far they only offer paperbacks. Once D2D starts producing other print formats, maybe they’ll become the “go-to” for wide distribution of POD indy-published books.

No, it’s no problem to have one book with two ISBNs… that’s the way it has to be in your case!

Over a million books are released per year and if you have not cultivated fans who will give you five-star reviews on book launch week then your book will indeed be lost. Which is why it’s best to cultivate fans from the very beginning by beta publishing. Beta readers can also let you know if your book is good. Take their feedback to heart! This is all early marketing (market research, competitive analysis, beta publishing). If you haven’t done that, try a new platform that sells your book for $0 until it gets star ratings. For more, listen to my Author Friendly podcast episode with Colin Higbie of Scribl https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-author-friendly-podcast/id1411738274 Good luck, Kirsten!

Hi Elizabeth,
Friesen is a good printer. But if your contract is non-exclusive you are free to print, publish, and distribute any way you like. I can’t imagine there would be antagonization or repercussions. It’s like any other business. If you’d care to elaborate privately please use the Contact tab to email me directly.