“Should I self-publish with Amazon KDP or IngramSpark for Print on Demand (POD)?”

This is a great question, and one we get a lot from our authors as we guide them through the self-publishing process. There isn’t a clear-cut answer, but in short we recommend using BOTH. There are a lot of factors to consider as well as pros and cons for each platform.

The Pros of IngramSpark

Wider distribution. IngramSpark is a wholesaler, not a retailer. They push your book to all the retailers, including Amazon, making your book accessible in more places than if you just publish with KDP.

The only way to get your books into libraries and bookstores as Ingram, which is IngramSpark’s parent company, is the owner of the book catalog from which most bookstores and libraries purchase their inventory. When you publish your book on IngramSpark, it puts your book automatically in the catalog, which makes it available for bookstores and libraries to buy.

It’s the only way to sell on Bookshop.org, who is becoming major player in online book buying industry. They entered the book market to give Amazon some competition, while giving back to local bookstores. You can shop for any book in their system and choose which bookshop you’d like to donate 10% of the proceeds to. If you’d like your book to be included in their catalog, you’ll have to publish with IngramSpark and then work with Bookshop to get it added.

The quality is good. IngramSpark offers 50lb or 70lb paper options and the books print at a slightly higher quality than KDP, but not enough for most readers to tell without a side-by-side comparison.

Dust jacket option if printing hard cover

The Cons of IngramSpark

It doesn’t jive well with Amazon. One of the reasons many authors choose IngramSpark is that it is a ‘middleman’ that will include your book on Amazon for distribution, so it should be a win-win, right?

Wrong. Unfortunately, we’ve discovered that Amazon punishes books that come from IngramSpark. They do this by:

->listing your book as out of stock

->increasing the price

->They’ll take forever to ship your book (3+ weeks)

It sounds absurd, but even IngramSpark’s mentions this in their FAQs. Sadly, Amazon holds all the power, and they’re not afraid to use it.

It’s more expensive to print your book. IngramSpark’s print costs are slightly higher on average ($1-$2 more), + they have a handling fee + shipping costs tend to be higher. These costs cut into your royalties even more.

Terrible customer service

IngramSpark has terrible customer service. Unfortunately, Ingram doesn’t offer phone support. You have to email their support team, and they can take up to a week to reply. This is incredibly frustrating for a self-publishing author that needed answers yesterday!

The user experience isn’t necessarily difficult, but in comparison to KDP it’s less user-friendly. There are dropdown boxes with unnecessary information; it’s confusing to figure out how to order a book; and the payment process at the end of set-up is rather odd.

The Pros of Amazon KDP

Most buyers buy from Amazon as they are a dominant player in the industry + if buyer has Amazon Prime, they get free shipping on your book. You’re reaching a majority of the market.

The quality is decent. Note: there are always going to be quality issues such as inconsistencies in publishing. That’s because they print a new book each time one is ordered, instead of printing a large batch at once, and depending on which Amazon platform you choose, printing facilities vary as they are located across the globe.

User-friendly, straightforward set-up (except for a few questions regarding whether you’re publishing as an individual or business, plus tax interview)

KDP’s customer support is easily accessible. You can request a call back, or use their email or chat functions

The Cons of Amazon KDP

Your book won’t likely be in libraries or bookstores, since most of these institutional buyers order from Ingram’s catalog. However, it’s very difficult for a self-published book to land on these shelves anyway. Usually, only bookstores where you’ve reached out directly will place your book on their shelves. And these stores will likely be willing to order your book from whichever source you prefer.

If printing a hardcover, there’s no dust jacket option. Up until 2022, you couldn’t print hardcover at all on KDP (only paperback & ebooks).

Conclusion: Use Both

Overall, based on our experience with our authors, KDP is the easiest to use, has the best customer support, and the most reliable experience for readers (they get fast, free shipping). However, we’ve started using a combination of the two for all of our authors. We use KDP to publish the paperback. We use IngramSpark to publish a hardcover (with a new ISBN), and we use Draft2Digital for the ebook (they offer a free ISBN) making it available on nearly every e-reader available, and easily accessible for libraries and bookstores should you require this. You could consider publishing your paperback on KDP and your ebook on IngramSpark (with separate ISBN). In the end, you want to ensure your book is available worldwide, easily accessible for all.

Do you have more questions regarding POD set-up? We’re happy to guide you through the process. Feel free to reach out!