Podcast episode (Hit Splits) in which Shelley Hitz explains that authors can now self-publish hardcover books via KDP and IngramSpark. She notes trade-offs (lower royalties/profit margins, different formatting and extra expenses), shares a real example (her children's book Broken Crayons Still Color published via IngramSpark), and points listeners to resources and the Christian Book Academy specialty-books module for guidance.
Chapters
Hey friends, welcome back to the Hit Splits podcast. My name is Shelly Hits, your mentor inside ChristianBookAcademy.com and today I just wanted to mention that you can self publish a hardcover book. I know that this was not possible previously, and so you may not even realize that these options exist, but in kdp.
You can now publish a hardcover book. There are some specifications, there are different things that you have to look at, like the royalties and the profit margins. They're going to be a lot smaller than your regular print book. And so you have to decide if that's what you want. Now, with IngramSpark, you can also publish hardcover books and you can even do the dust cover jacket for your book cover. And I just had a Christian Book Academy member asking about this today and I was looking up the information for her and so I just thought, you know, I wonder if all of our Hit Splits listeners know that this option is available. Now, I don't necessarily recommend publishing a hardcover copy all the time just because the profit margins do tend to be quite a bit lower. However, you might consider publishing it alongside of your regular print book as an option. You know, it may require different formatting. You know, the book cover may require some different things, and so there may be some extra expenses in it, but there's just something really cool about having a hard cover copy of your book. Now we did create a hardcover book for our children's book, Broken Crayons Still Color, and it turned out great. I did it through IngramSpark, but that's the only one that we have done thus far. So it's an option. And the thing is, inside Christian Book Academy in the specialty books module, we cover almost every different kind of book you can think of. Audiobooks, translations, you know, journals, all sorts. And just because there are so many options that are available to you now. And so just dream with God, dream with Him. Like, what is it that he has for you for your book and your message? And if there's a hardcover book in there, you know, feel free to check it out. There's a lot of information. You can just look on KDP Amazon.com just google hardcover KDP or hardcover IngramSpark. You'll find all the information just there within a Google search. And you can see for yourself if that might be an option for you. Just wanted to mention it today.