How to use both IngramSpark and Amazon KDP

Author, publisher and youtuber Laura Helmling gives a straightforward and useful explanation as to why independent authors should upload to both Amazon KDP and to IngramSpark.

“The secret weapon every author should be using is a printing and distribution company called Ingram Spark. The authors who think otherwise are leaving readers and opportunities behind.”

“Amazon wants you KDP only. That's more control for them. And honestly, if they could control the entire publishing industry, they would love that because then they can charge 99 cents for every book and have people come on there and buy televisions. Okay? So basically, in my view, they want authors to be their slave army. And they're not interested in books. They're not interested in filling the world full of great information. They are interested in selling high ticket items and as many aspossible. That's what they're interested in. Whereas IngramSpark, they're interested in books, publishing. This is what they're interested in. Bookstores are interested in books. This is what they do. And so, this is really important.”

IngramSpark Premium Colour Hardback book

To give authors an idea of the print quality of IngramSpark’s hardbacks, here are several images kindly supplied by Louise Nash.

This is a hardback without a dust jacket. The interior is printed at premium colour setting. Here’s a summary of the quality levels:

1. Black & White: The most economical option. Uses inkjet technology on crème or white paper. [1]

2. Standard Color: Standard quality, printed on white paper using inkjet technology. Best for books that feature occasional color elements. [1]

3. Premium Color: Uses higher-quality inkjet printing on white paper to produce vibrant, crisp colors. Ideal for children's books and image-heavy publications. [1]

4. Ultra-Premium Color: The highest quality level. Printed with laser toner on white paper, it provides a satin finish, light sheen, and highly vivid colors. Best suited for photography or coffee table books. [1]

Ever the Twain Shall Meet: Using IngramSpark and Amazon KDP together

The Alliance of Independent Authors has published a useful (and up-to-date) guide to the benefits of uploading books to both IngramSpark and Amazon KDP. Both services have their strengths, and combining them makes a lot of sense. Neither service has up-front charges or charges for updating book files (they make plenty from each book sold!)

One of the key quotes from the article:

Why You Must NOT Tick Expanded Distribution

This is one of the most common mistakes authors make. If you tick “Expanded Distribution” on KDP, Amazon makes your paperback available to bookstores and libraries through Ingram's network — but at a lower royalty rate (40% instead of 60%), and it will block you from publishing the same ISBN on IngramSpark.

If you plan to use both platforms: do not tick Expanded Distribution on KDP. Leave that box unchecked. IngramSpark will handle the bookstore and library distribution far more effectively, and you'll keep the higher KDP royalty rate for Amazon sales.

Thomas McMahon's Search for Fame

Max Quanchi, author of Thomas McMahon’s Search for Fame, has been active on the promotional front…

I have been busy posting it around and my McMahon book has been getting an airing in the Newsletters of:

• International Association for Small island Studies (ISISA)

• Pacific History Association (PHA)

• Pacific Arts Association (PAA)

And I sent copies for review to the following journals

• History of Photography

• Journal of Australian Studies

• Australian Historical Studies

• Journal of Pacific History

• Journal of NZ and Pacific Studies. 

• Pacific Arts. 

• and to newspaper review editors (The Australian, The  Age, SMH,and Courier- Mail) 

ISBN: 978-1-922958-94-5

Blurb: Thomas McMahon’s photographs and reports from the southwest Pacific appeared in capital city and provincial newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, and globally in pictorial encyclopedia, books, magazines and postcards and in his own lantern slide lectures. He visited Papua and German New Guinea, the Solomons, Vanuatu, Fiji, Nauru, Banaba, Norfolk, Lord Howe Island, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands but the thousand photographs of the Islands that he published between 1915 and 1925, after self-funded expeditions across the region, failed to attract the coveted Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society that he wanted. In 1922, he turned to another career, this time as a paid journalist with a Brisbane newspaper, as their travelling back-country reporter and photographer.

He was probably the most recognized photographer of his day for both his Pacific and Queensland, Torres Strait and Northern Territory photography and certainly one of the best-informed journalists of the day who could say “I was there” when boosting Australia’s trade and commercial potential in the Islands, and in his later career, in Northern Australia.

After his death in Brisbane in 1934 he was forgotten and was rarely cited in studies of photography, journalism or Australia’s Imperial posturing after WWI. His published photographs can now be found in the bound periodicals section of libraries, and digitally through Trove, and in the works of colleagues who borrowed his images for their own books and articles. Thanks Tom, as he was known, for a wonderful archive of Australia and the Pacific in the early twentieth century.

Balwyn Remembered

Marion Weir explores her memories of Balwyn in the years following World War II, when children had a freedom to rove and explore that is unimaginable today.

“Although there was no sense of abundance so far as items for sale, this was made up for by the friendly exchanges between shopkeeper and customers. People were addressed by their names and enquiries made after each other’s families. I don’t believe it was just my youth that led me to feel that, above all, there was no hurry, just a feeling of limitless time.”

— Reclaiming Balwyn

And a paean to the centrality of sport to Melbourne life in the 1950s:

“The sporting arena was the perfect place to lift the spirits of the locals. For a few hours on a Saturday arvo they could forget the grind of meaningless, poorly paid jobs, of unemployment and living in overcrowded, often slum like housing with little hope of bettering their circumstances. The honour of the community was at stake and the on-ground rivalry was their supporters’ Culloden, their battle of Bosworth Field. ”

— Reclaiming Balwyn

Available here.

Nominate Yourself for an IngramSpark Curated List

From IngramSpark, a service that may be of some interest to authors using their POD and ebook distribution service:

Nominate Your Book Today

Promote your book as part of curated lists sent to retailers, librarians, wholesalers, consumer-facing read and review sites, and more!

Upcoming promotional opportunities from IngramSpark Distribution

Click on the “Nominate” button to submit your books for consideration to be included in that month’s promotion.

IngramSpark Distribution will review all nominations. Not all nominations will be selected for inclusion in that month’s publication. 

Regional Content & Authors

Nominate your book to be considered for regionally targeted promotions by author and content. Please specify the corresponding city/state to be considered, and note if your book is set in the specified area, the content relates to that area, and/or if the author is from that area.

Amazon lowers its royalties ... naturally

They may have got their start selling books online, but that doesn’t mean Amazon have any love in their hard little algorithmically animated hearts for antediluvian scribblers. Kindlepreneur details the latest squeeze on defenceless authors…

If you sell paperback or hardcover books on Amazon KDP, this affects you. On June 10, Amazon lowered the royalty rate for certain print books. Specifically: Books priced at $9.98 or less (USD) now earn 50% royalties instead of 60%. (This applies to both paperback and hardcover formats — but not ebooks.)

So if your print books are priced under $9.99, you’re now earning less per sale. Not exactly great news... but it actually gets worse: Books that moved to the 50% royalty rate also have a higher minimum list price. If your current price falls below that new threshold, you could earn nothing at all per sale.

That’s not hyperbole either. Amazon spells it out: A “regular trim size paperback with 300 pages, black and white ink, sold on Amazon for $8.00” now earns zero royalties. That’s the bad news.

The good news? We’ve updated our KDP Royalty Calculator to reflect these changes, so you can check your pricing and avoid nasty surprises. If you haven’t run the numbers yet, now’s the time.

https://kindlepreneur.com/kdp-royalty-calculator/​

As always, we’ll keep you informed when Amazon changes the rules (and make sure you have the tools to respond).

When you’re pretty much the only game in town, there is not much restraining your behaviour… See First Mover theory — with Amazon as a case study.