I is for Ingram Spark or Illustrators

Ingram Spark

I spoke with two people from Ingram Spark last Friday, conveniently enough, in terms of WriteMentor and potential collaborations and partnerships and it was quite interesting to put a human side to a company I’d never had a human interaction with. Similar to KDP, you’re unlikely to speak with someone unless there’s a problem, and then it’s not exactly a nice interaction as you’re usually trying to sort problems and between frustration and maybe miscommunication or no communication, it can dampen the relationship.

But speaking to real people, who work with them reminded of exactly that - my books being printed and distributed doesn’t just pay me, but it also pays the wages of all of these other people. A reminder of the human side of publishing that is often forgotten about.

Below is a post I wrote a while ago on the logistics of using Ingram Spark and I don’t have a massive amount to add to that, except the following.

Costs have risen a lot in the last couple of years, so when using a distributor like IS, then ensure you calculate the royalties carefully and ensure you price in a way that will ensure you make at least some profit.

It can be hard to resist the allure of getting your book into bookshops, but I’ve found that realistically the only way to price them, with the full discount for booksellers, is to make almost no money on royalties and it’s just not sensible to make no money just to have a book in a bookstore. And then if there’s small price changes, ie in the paper or printing costs, that can easily slide you over into OWING IS money from the sales of your books, so do be cautious on that front - but if you’re still keen, do read the post below and it will give a bit more detail.

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Illustrators

Below are a couple of extra resources to help you navigate this - the first is an interview I did with my illustrator Jennifer Jamieson for my podcast, the 1000/100 project. Followed by a sub stack post on working with cover artists more generally.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post and it’s still proving to be useful on this A-Z journey in self-publishing.

Let me know if you’re still reading along!

Until next time,

Stuart