Welcome to the monthly Ask a Self-Publishing Expert column, where editor and publisher Sarah Kolb-Williams answers common questions from independent authors. Today, she’s looking at whether KDP or IngramSpark is the best choice for your book.
KDP or IngramSpark: Two POD Giants
Whether to use KDP or IngramSpark is a common question among new authors. These two print-on-demand platforms have plenty of similarities:
- Both use a print-on-demand (POD) model in which books are stored as digital files (not physical copies that need to be stored somewhere).
- Both are free to use while letting authors keep their legal rights to their books.
- Both offer multiple paperback finishes (glossy or matte) and page colors (cream or white).
- Both offer custom trim sizes.
- Both offer multiple formats, including hardcover and full-color interiors.
- Both distribute to multiple retailers.
But it’s not as simple as choosing the company you like best or have heard the best things about. The right choice for you depends on your goals for your book and your author career.
Before you publish your book with KDP or IngramSpark (or both!), let’s consider some of the most important aspects of each company and how each might play into your publishing strategy.
KDP Overview and Main Benefits
KDP, or Kindle Direct Publishing, is Amazon’s self-publishing platform. Some of you may remember the POD company called CreateSpace; it was acquired by Amazon years ago and absorbed into KDP.
Through your KDP account, you can publish directly to Amazon and Kindle. (KDP also offers expanded distribution, but its network pales in comparison to IngramSpark’s—more on that later.) Yes, IngramSpark technically distributes to Amazon along with its other retailers. But there are good reasons to cut out the middleman and reach Amazon through your own KDP account.
First, the most obvious: royalties. Selling your book on Amazon directly through KDP nets you the highest possible royalties per Amazon sale: 60% of list price minus production costs for paperbacks, up to 70% minus delivery costs for eBooks.
Another huge benefit of using KDP is your ability to optimize your sales pages for Amazon’s ecosystem. Since Amazon makes up such a huge chunk of the print and eBook market, targeting those shoppers directly is an important sales strategy you shouldn’t overlook.
Find more infographics at Statista.
The sales experience is another benefit of having your own KDP account. Publishing directly through KDP makes your book available for Prime, which means no shipping cost and speedy delivery for Prime users. On the author side, you can easily order copies of your book at production cost plus shipping.
Finally, publishing to Kindle through KDP makes your book eligible for programs like Kindle Unlimited and related promotional opportunities.
IngramSpark Overview and Main Benefits
Unlike KDP, IngramSpark is not a retailer. The company now offers direct book links that authors can share on their website and social media—but at its core, IngramSpark remains a distribution platform. IngramSpark makes your book “available to tens of thousands” of outlets via its global distribution network.
So what does “available” mean? For most authors, the main benefit of IngramSpark is having sales pages on barnesandnoble.com, target.com, walmart.com, and thousands of other major and minor online retailers around the world. For authors “publishing wide”—targeting readers outside of Amazon—this is a huge benefit.
That said, it’s important to understand what this doesn’t mean. With almost 11,000 books published every day, your book has little to no chance of organically finding its way onto a physical bookshelf. (Sorry.) But if a reader goes into a store and asks—or if you form good relationships with local libraries and independent bookstores, or if you have an extremely robust marketing plan—retailers can, technically, order copies of your book the same way they order any other book.
But while IngramSpark lets you cast a wide net, there are drawbacks. Depending on the retailer, books printed and shipped from IngramSpark take longer to reach buyers than books sold directly from KDP/Amazon, as do author copies. And because your metadata is sent to all retailers in IngramSpark’s network, you can’t optimize for individual retailers (including Amazon).
Further, IngramSpark and its retailers all take a cut of your profits—and IngramSpark requires US publishers to set a wholesale discount between 40 and 55%. This means you’ll earn less per unit (and have a higher minimum list price) than you would with. But you can order copies of your own books from IngramSpark at cost plus shipping, whether or not you use IngramSpark’s distribution.
Is KDP or IngramSpark Right for You?
It would take a much longer post to outline every individual difference between these two POD heavy-hitters. Instead, here’s a quick rundown at some of the factors that might influence whether you go with KDP or IngramSpark.
KDP might be best for your book if you:
- Want to focus your optimization and advertisement efforts exclusively on Amazon
- Want to try out Kindle Unlimited
- Want the highest royalties per unit (or the lowest possible list price)
- Aren’t looking for a hardcover with a dust jacket
- Plan to set up a Kindle preorder (though you should think carefully before doing so!)
- Don’t need to order saleable copies before you publish (they’ll be marked “NOT FOR RESALE”)
- Want to start small and publish on Amazon before moving to a wider distribution model
IngramSpark may be the right choice if you:
- Want to “publish wide” and target more retailers than just Amazon
- Prefer to keep things administratively simple by using a single publisher account
- Plan to market directly to bookstores and libraries
- Are publishing a very short print book (IngramSpark’s page limit for spine text is 48, while Amazon’s KDP’s is 79)
- Don’t plan to make frequent updates to your book (or don’t mind paying the $25 fee to upload new files after 60 days of publication)
- Plan to set up a preorder for your print book (Amazon currently offers preorders only for eBooks)
- Want to order copies to sell or give away without distributing your book first
Tough choice, right? Well, there’s good news…
The “Best of Both Worlds” Approach
Not to bury the lede, but you don’t have to choose between KDP and IngramSpark. I typically advise my clients to publish to both KDP and IngramSpark. This might be right for you if you:
- Plan to purchase your own ISBN to use on both platforms
- Don’t mind managing two publisher account
- Want to optimize for Amazon while also taking advantage of IngramSpark’s extensive distribution network
Self-publishers are not a monolith; what’s right for my book might not be what’s right for yours. I hope this post helps you decide whether to use KDP or IngramSpark (or both!) so you can make the distribution plan that will be help you reach your goals.
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If you have questions about POD, independent publishing, or anything else, send them to questions@independentpublishing.com and we might feature them in our Ask a Self-Publishing Expert column!
