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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Where Do I Publish My Photo Book? a Look At the Popular Sites

I just recently finished creating a thank you book for a medical client that would be given to one of their largest donnors for all the support over the years. The book highlighted 20 years of support to this organization. The book is mostly photos from events and needed to be hardcover and of excellent quality. I used Blurb.com to publish and print the book. I created the book using InDesign and the Blurb InDesign plugin. It works great. They asked me the question below on my thoughts about using Blurb

Question: Can you please do me a favor when you have a chance and provide your feedback on working on Blurb? One of my colleagues at work has experience publishing books with a different service. He is looking for an alternative service curious if you had any feedback positive or negative for Blurb’s design tools, customer service, and end product.

Answer: I have been very pleased with Blurb, the quality is great, the issue with them is the per book cost. Blurb is great if you are doing projects like we did where cost isn't quite so important and we aren't selling the book to the public. But really hard to sell a book that cost $75.00. Even the cheapest 24 page book is about $35.00.

There are two ways to create Blurb books. There is an InDesign plug-in which I used for this book. I could just stay in Adobe InDesign, super easy to work on and I can easily create pdfs for proofing. Being able to make pdfs is important to me and I think essential for connecting with the client. Sizes are a little more limited but being able to work in InDesign is a huge plus.

The other way the work is a software that they have that allows you to build your book on line called BookWrite. It is kind of like iBooks in iPhoto on the Mac. you build your book on line, upload pictures, edit, move elements around when done you push publish. It actually works very well. Tougher to get a pdf for client proofing. But if you don't have InDesign this is a good alternative.


Other Print on Demand Sites
I am all in with CreateSpace.com for books on Amazon, CreateSpace is the print-on-demand side of Amazon. I have created over 40 books there. There are different ways to make the books, I use InDesign, the quality is fine but only paperback. Set up to sell on Amazon.

If they want hardcover and don't want to deal with Blurb then Lulu.com is a great option. You have all kinds of different binding options, paperback to hardcover and spiral. Kind of in-between CreateSpace and Blurb on quality.

Selling to the world and bookstores, also hardcover then IngramSpark.com is where you want to look. Quality is similar to CreateSpace, both print on demand. In-fact all of these sites are print on demand. There is a little bit of cost but it the best way to get out to the world and the bookstore market. You are in their catalog

Customer Service
I have never talked to customer service at Blurb or Lulu so don't know. CreateSpace customer service is excellent and very helpful.

I think it comes down to how are you selling your book and what are you doing with it. Selling to the world through Amazon but not bookstores, easy peasy then CreateSpace, can't go wrong. Wanting a high quality, hard cover, coffee table book and you don't care about ever selling because the price is to high then Blurb. Selling to bookstores and Amazon, hard cover or paperback then Ingramspark.com.  Lulu kind of fits in around the edges.

There are other services like BookBaby and Draft2Digitial and others, but I think the above is where to look

J. Bruce Jones Is the author and publisher of over 40 books and I love teaching other people how to make and publish their own books. There is nothing like seeing an author hold their own new book in their hands.

Come over and join over 2,000 authors in our Publishing Facebook group, learn from all our active engaged authors  https://www.facebook.com/groups/HowToPublishYourBook

Learn more about how to publish your own book, check out my online course called 7 Steps to Publishing Your Book

Selling Your Books in Bookstores, KDP.Amazon, IngramSpark, ISBN Numbers, What Do We Do?

How do we sell books in bookstores? What do we do with KDP, IngramSparks, Bookstores, ISBN numbers it is all confusing?



How do we work with bookstores and KDP.Amazon and print on demand. Even though there is a book store option in KDP.Amazon I have never had a store order books from KDP.Amazon. They just won't do it. It doesn't fit into their world, they work with distributors. Books need to be able to be returned if they don't sell and you can't return books to KDP.Amazon. All those books you see in a bookstore, they are there on consignment. They didn't buy them.

I have had festivals and workshops order my books. In that case they came through me and I gave them a good discount and used KDP.Amazon as my printer and shipper. It worked great but these weren't really bookstores.  I also sold them outright with no return. I gave them a really good discount, like 50% off with free shipping if they ordered 20 or more. I don't want anything coming back.

If you want to be in the bookstore business then you will need to go through IngramSpark.com. Ingram is the world largest book distributor. They are all over the planet. IngramSpark is their print on demand side and is the leading company for self-publishers who want to be in the bookstore world. I learned a little more about how to set this up thanks to Daniel Hall of RealFastResults.com

Basically what you will do is have two accounts, KDP.Amazon for dealing with Amazon and IngramSpark for the rest of the world.

1. All print books are managed by an ISBN number, that is the bar code you see on the back. This is how books are ordered in the distribution system. You will need to buy your own ISBN number for your book, they cost $125.00 each. These are bought from the Bowker company MyIdentifiers.com. Bowker manages all ISBN numbers. The free ISBN number you get from KDP.Amazon will not work for bookstores. If you are just staying with KDP.Amazon and Amazon then use their free one, but if you are going to sell in bookstores then you need to buy one. KDP.Amazon and Ingram use this new number

2. Work with KDP.Amazon for your Amazon sales, but turn off expanded sales and library sales in KDP.Amazon. Use your own ISBN number for your KDP.Amazon books. You will also need to buy the high res artwork for the back cover and build it into your cover file.

3. Manage your own Kindle/Amazon ebook sales. Kindles don't need ISBN numbers.

4. Use IngramSparks for everything else. Ingram puts you in their book catalog and that is how bookstores will order yourbook. Use the same ISBN number that you bought for KDP.Amazon and IngramSpark. You will need to act more like a publishing company, there are some costs involved in this. Ingram has fees. You also need to think like a publisher, reaching out to bookstores. Set up a page on your website about distribution and ordering.

An Option for Selling Books
5. If you are dealing with just a couple of stores in your local area and you have a personal relationship and want to drive around and manage them then you could do that using KDP.Amazon and just order the books yourself and collect the money yourself. But anything beyond that, IngramSparks is the way to go.

For me personally I just stay with KDP.Amazon, it is free and easy to manage and I just don't worry about bookstores. Amazon is universally accepted and everyone loves it and I don't have to deal with all that other stuff. It is just a choice.

To learn more about how to publish your book check out my book publishing courses at http://bruce-the-book-guy.usefedora.com/

Check out this video on working with IngramSparks.