Publishing Your Book on CreateSpace vs IngramSpark, Which Way Should I Go?

Learn How to Print, Sell and Distribute Your Book with IngramSpark from Bruce Jones on Vimeo.

We received this question from a follower on my Vimeo page and this video, thought I would answer it here

I have a couple of questions. I am publishing children's picture books which will be a series. I've been working through CreateSpace and I'm in the process of ordering a physical proof, but now that I've seen this video I'm not sure if I should be doing everything through Ingram Sparks instead.

 1)Which one do you recommend Bruce? 
I am a huge fan of CreateSpaceAmazon, it is easy to use and they do a great job. They have a couple of limitations, they don't have hardcover, or a real horizontal format for children's books and they don't distribute to bookstores. But for what they do, they are excellent and I like them a lot. If bookstores aren't really in your mix and you are just staying on Amazon and with paperback then CreateSpace is a great choice.

 2) Is it too late to go with Ingram Sparks if I already assigned a free ISBN to my book in CreateSpace? 
It really comes down to if you see your book in stores then your want to buy your own ISBN and if you want to use CreateSpace for Amazon then that is ok, but don't click Expanded Distribution. The you can also print on Ingram using the same ISBN number and use them for book store distribution. You can also just go with IngramSpark and use their distribution system to send your book to Amazon. Many people use both, CreateSpace and Kindle for selling on Amazon and Ingram for the rest but as I said Ingram can do it all.

 3) I was planning to sell my books on my own website as well as Amazon. Which one would be better for this? I do this and CreateSpace works very well for doing this, you can set up a book selling page on your site and have a link that sends people right over to the Amazon sales page for that book. Ingram isn't really set up for doing this. You could set up an order page but you or someone would have to then transfer the info to Ingram for ordering the book. They can take single orders but you have to kind of do it. As I said I do this on my AcousticMusicTV.com website and sell my book from the site. It works great. here is one of the pages, http://www.acousticmusictv.com/html/BookStore/EssentialChordsRight.html

 4) I was also planning to go personally to my local library, bookstores, and schools to see if they would be interested in carrying my books. Would that not work? Is Ingram Sparks the only way to get into bookstores, libraries, and schools? 
I guess yes, CreateSpace has a distribution channel to libraries but I am not sure anyone buys it. Bookstores don't really buy from CreateSpace because their books can't be returned. That is a key for bookstores, the books need to be able to be returned. Ingram is a real distributor and the books can go back or be destroyed if they don't sell. But CreateSpace. I think also libraries only really want hardcover, so you can use Ingram to make the hardcover, remember that is a different ISBN number. If you are using IngramSpark select destroy instead of return for unsold books, otherwise you are paying the shipping back.

 5) Does Ingram Sparks also distribute to schools? 
I don't know, but I would assume yes because they are the world's largest distributor and that is what they do, distribute books. You would probably want to be in the Ingram catalog, (an extra $85) so books can be ordered easily.

6) Is it true that if you have your books available through Ingram Sparks you won't make that much money at all because of the hefty discounts given to bookstores? I was reading some comments in which people were saying that you shouldn't go with Ingram Sparks because of this, so would love to hear your opinion on this.
I would assume yes, but it is just any product, each step in the distribution chain has markups and discounts. Most authors with publishing houses receive about $.70-$1.00 per book, with CreateSpace I get $2.50-$3.50 per book unless I am in the expanded distribution and then it is in the lower range. You aren't going to get rich publishing books. Want more money make more books or raise the price. You are dealing with a under $20.00 product which includes printing and storage and two markups, so yes it will be low. Don't let that discourage you, but once you add distributors in the mix the return goes down. That is one reason to keep the CreateSpace channel, there is no distributor.

My advice, just staying on Amazon then use CreateSpace and also put your book on Kindle. Use the new Kindle Create app. If you want to be in stores then look at IngramSpark. If you are using Ingram then you will have to decide if you want to CreateSpace or just go with Ingram for everything.


Connection and Learning
Bruce Jones is the author and creator of over 40 self-published books.

If you want to learn how to create your own book visit Publishing Mastery 101 and see my courses: https://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/

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