IngramSpark: All Your Burning Questions Answered! | IBPA Podcast

Want to learn how to get the most out of IngramSpark (Ingram Content Group’s publish-on-demand platform)? IBPA invited IngramSpark’s Business Development Manager Josh Floyd to "Inside Independent Publishing (with IBPA)" to answer some of the most common questions publishers have about the popular platform, such as: When posting books onto the platform, should publishers make their books returnable or non-returnable? How does IngramSpark give publishers access to bookstores and libraries? Get answers to these questions and much more on this podcast episode!
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New episodes of "Inside Independent Publishing (with IBPA)" are posted on the last Thursday of every month wherever you download podcasts and on KZbin. Learn more about IBPA at www.ibpa-onlin....

[@blasterbooks9282]

Love you podcast I was looking into Ingramspark

[@Zuytdorp]

How is a returned book a 'negative for everyone' in the process, apart from the publisher??? I don't see it. I see the publisher being done over and Ingram winning: no matter what.

[@authortommcauliffe3692]

I might’ve missed it but is there a time limit on returns that is to say 90 days or can they come to us a year from now and say hey we didn’t sell 50 of the hundred heres 50 back?

[@AnnaMaledonPictureBookAuthor]

They never mentioned but that is a good question. I do not allow returns anyway though as it is too risky.

[@Zuytdorp]

'Nobody' likes returns? I am sure as sure can be that Ingram are more than happy for a seller to buy 1,000 copies and return 900. WIN! WIN! WIN! for Ingram.

[@authorannalowe1751]

Thank you. This was helpful!

[@Zuytdorp]

"A penalty fee for returns", where a store may return large quantities of books, yet, from my experience in reaching out it seems that the publisher still has to pay the full wholesale price for that returned book [no protection for the publisher if the book seller was to order 1000 books in error and then return 900 of them]. I guess this means that Ingram makes money out of returns too: as I am sure that they already take a chunk of the 55% discount. This is a business platform and the publisher comes last. Am I wrong in my perspective?

[@Zuytdorp]

Advise here is for the author/publisher to retain 30-40% of income to cover returns, yet the average for returned books is 1-3%. I can understand having the security of income there to fall back upon, but the figures seem a little out of whack.

[@hampshireoak]

I believe that with a return you have to refund much more than just your royalty. Printing cost, postage. What about wholesale discount does that also need to be covered by the publisher?

[@AnnaMaledonPictureBookAuthor]

The publisher will pay the wholesale price, but I am not sure if we would also need to cover the fees associated with distribution. Plus we need to pay for shipping back to us or fees for destroying the books. I do not allow returns, as it is too risky.@@hampshireoak

[@KathleenShieldsBooks]

What is the difference between Ingram Spark and Lightning Source?

[@AbbeRolnick]

Can ingram Spark do children's illustrated books?

[@ibpavideo]

Thanks for checking out the podcast! You'll see on the following page under the "Self Publishing For Any Genre," there's a section about posting children's books on IngramSpark: www.ingramspark.com/plan-your-book

[@SpeakTruth-zi9nx]

why my books are not getting enabled for distribution i appealed in Category integrity appeal but they give no specific reason and simply says violation of policy. i have my own content good cover and valid isbn bought from bowker. am us based in june 2023 they used to take my books but after that something changed. kindly help. i price my book 30 usd for 200 pages black and white 6x9 size paperback. no opensource content. copyrighted and build as per ingrams file creation guidelines.

[@pennyledbetter4837]

What if returned books are damaged?

[@ibpavideo]

Hi Penny - Thanks for checking out the podcast! IngramSpark will be able to answer this question, so we recommend that you reach out to them directly. All the best with your publishing!

[@AnnaMaledonPictureBookAuthor]

There is no guarantee that the returned books are in a new condition, so there is that.