Julie Broad weighs IngramSpark against Amazon KDP for indie authors in 2025. IngramSpark still gets books into bookstores and libraries, but new fees and higher wholesale discounts have made it pricier and buggier. She breaks down which authors actually need it and when KDP alone is enough.
Chapters
Are Amazon and IngramSpark in a feud? It sure feels that way these days. You've uploaded to IngramSpark, but Amazon doesn't show your book as available. Or the hardcover version isn't showing. Or it says it's going to ship in one to three weeks. But what'd you think? I wasn't going to find out? I don't even know what you're talking about, Nick. No. Meanwhile, you upload your ebook to KDP and boom, it's there and shipped right away. I didn't do anything. So why bother with ingramspark? Is it time to stop including them in your publishing plans? And if you're wondering about ingramspark, if they're still worth the hassle, this video is for you. Hi, I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and your host here at Book Launchers tv. Book Launchers is your first choice for all things related to writing, publishing, and promoting a nonfiction book. Now, I'm not going to make you watch any more of this video to find out the answer. Is ingramspark still worth it? My firm belief is yes, but maybe not for every author because it comes with a growing list of fees and frustrations. But let's keep in mind, it also offers authors something truly publisher level. Distribution. That's right. So many people think self publishing means only published on Amazon. But thanks to IngramSpark and aggregators like Draft2, Digital and Publish Drive, you can reach everywhere a traditionally published author can reach. Well, almost. Costco and cvs, they're a little elusive, but really, is that going to change your life? Not being in Costco or CVS? I think you'll be okay. So IngramSpark is a pretty important player for many authors. What IngramSpark does best? Well, IngramSpark has long been the great equalizer for indie authors. Hardcover with dust jacket, Check. Pre orders for print books, check. Access to bookstores and libraries, check. And check distribution that rivals traditional publishers. Double check. It sounds like a dream, but for one book or occasionally publishing authors, it can be an expensive and maybe complicated dream. And now that Amazon and IngramSpark are not playing so nice together, it is a dream with some nightmares mixed in. For the last year, it's become our nightmare at Book Launchers because we assist authors with the whole process and we're constantly running into new errors and surprise issues. My personal guess, and I've heard others say something similar, is that KDP is getting ready to be able to offer print pre sales. I mean, why wouldn't they? Many authors sell thousands of copies on pre sale. And because they don't offer it, that's business that's going straight to ingramspark and not to them. Sure, they're still getting a little cut of it when it's sold on the Amazon platform, but it's not the same as being the one that prints the book. So maybe even by the time you're watching this video, KDP will be doing pre sales for print books. And that will likely simplify this whole experience. But there's more than glitches to consider when you're deciding whether you should use Ingram or not. Let's talk about costs. There's some hidden math that you may not be aware of. In 2023, IngramSpark raised its minimum wholesale discount from 30% to 40%. Want to sell to bookstores? Well, that's 55%. Now, to be fair, that 55% isn't an Ingram rule. It's for bookstores because they have a lot of overhead and they have to recoup those costs. And it's why books at Barnes and Noble are almost always selling for more than books on Amazon. But 15% of that 55% is still going to Ingram, and 40% goes to the bookstore. Then there's the new fee, the 1.5% of your book's retail price added to every sale that started in April 2025. When you combine that fee with increased paper costs, the profit on a six by nine paperback, which is what most nonfiction authors are using, has dropped nearly 29% in two years, according to a post by David Wogan. He does the math on a $20 book, and he said a $20 book netted $8.55 in 2022. Today, just $6.10. So if you're thinking more sales equals more profit, but you're paying everyone except yourself, it's time to pause and reconsider what's best for you. But wait. You also might be making some costly assumptions. So before you make your decision, let's make sure you've got all the facts. Here are some of the assumptions I find authors make. Assumption 1. You must offer a 55% wholesale discount. But that's not true. Most bookstores won't stock your book unless you're local or bringing an event. If you're not pursuing physical distribution for your book, you do not need to make your book's discount 55%. Unfortunately, there's no way to say 40% for you online retailer and 55% for you physical bookstore. You have to Set it all at 55% if you want physical bookstore distribution now at Book Launchers with our clients, we generally don't set the wholesale discount to 55% in pre sale unless we know an author is actively pursuing a list like USA Today or they're going to be doing a lot of bookstore outreach in pre launch or in the first month of launch. We collect the highest we can for them on presale and then we switch it after. If physical bookstore distribution is a part of their strategy now, you can't change it today and reach out to the bookstore same day and think you're okay. The system takes time to update, so you do need to set this well in advance of your outreach. That said, I just want you to know that it's not a blanket requirement that you have to have 55% to be sold online through your favorite bookstore. It's only to get it on that shelf. The second assumption many make is print presale is required for a great launch. If you do what we call at Book Launchers load to launch, you can scale skip the loading on Ingram for print pre sale and just focus on getting everything looking and functioning right for your launch. Pre orders do help with rankings and can help with media outreach, but really only if you're doing a big push. If you're not doing a big push, I would just load your print book to IngramSpark on launch so you can get bookstore distribution online, but you can focus on your promotional efforts on launch week on a 99 cent ebook sale to get momentum going and start to get reviews. There's no rule that pre sale has to be a print book push. That said, I do want to note that many nonfiction authors are surprised to learn that the most popular format of their book is in fact print book followed by audio and then followed by ebook. So you really should plan a coordinated launch, or as close to coordinated so that all of your book's formats are releasing at the same time. The third assumption is you can revise your book whenever you want before launch or after we have stopped allowing authors to make changes anytime they want. Yes, IngramSpark gives you 60 days of free revisions, but any revision could temporarily remove your book from distribution, and that's a headache most authors don't expect. And it can be a real problem if you're in the middle of doing a bunch of promotion and then boom, you make a change and suddenly people can't buy your book like you expected. We will make changes a few weeks after the book launches, but we try to avoid anything within a few weeks of launch because it could mean your book isn't actually available for sale when you're launching and promoting and talking about it. And that's not fun. Fourth assumption, you must have a hardcover. I get it. Hardcovers make you feel like a legitimate author. But guess what? You wrote a book. You are a legitimate author whether your book is in hardcover or not. And here's the kicker. With hardcover, you're not going to make money on it. They cost a lot more to produce, and readers don't want to pay that much more for them. Personally, I would rather do a special print run of hardcover books through a printer like our friends at Print Nation and have those on hand for your media or clients or special occasions versus having a hardcover book for sale on the market giving you.
