- Are you thinking about publishing hardback books?
Would you like to add this to your back catalog?
Then, you may want to consider what I'm going to share
in today's Self-Published Book Unboxing video,
highlighting IngramSpark.
Stay tuned.
(energetic music)
This is Self-Publishing with Dale,
where you'll learn how to publish books that sell
and build an unstoppable author brand.
Today, we are coming back to the well once again
for Self-Published Book Unboxing.
And we're gonna visit the online distributor, IngramSpark.
Now, we saw their print books previously.
And you know I've remarked upon them highly.
And in a recent conversation with
my good buddy, Rob Archangel,
Rob said, "Well, it just so happens
"that I've got a friend and a person
"who's used our services before
"that uses IngramSpark for their hardback covers."
And I said, "Well, let's go ahead and take a look at it
"because I am very curious as to
"what their quality is gonna be like."
And if it's anything like their print books,
then I imagine I'm not gonna be disappointed.
Before we jump into the review of this product,
I wanna let you know ahead of time
that it's a review of the product,
and not necessarily the content,
or the author of the book.
We're gonna focus on, of course,
the quality, the delivery time, the shipping and handling,
and by popular demand, cost and profits.
After my conversation with Rob,
he went ahead and ordered a copy
through Amazon's Marketplace.
That means that IngramSpark fulfills through Amazon.
Big plus.
In fact, IngramSpark is owned by Ingram Content Group.
Oddly enough, I've already done a video
on Lightning Source which is another company
underneath the Ingram Content Group.
And another fun fact, Ingram Content Group
is largely responsible for expanded distribution
through KDP Print.
Oh, so that means that
if you're publishing through IngramSpark,
you're going to be getting a very,
very wide distribution of your print book,
be it, paperback, or even in this instance, hardback.
Under normal circumstances,
I would have these copies shipped to me
through the actual distributor, versus Amazon.
But I thought I would go ahead and test a theory.
Because what usually happens
when I order a book through Amazon,
Amazon will send it in a bubble wrap envelope.
Oh, yeah, I love bubble wrap envelopes.
I love ordering a product that is going
to be in danger of being bent, mangled,
or maimed in some way before it arrives on my doorstep.
And, yeah, Amazon didn't disappoint.
They did not send this book in a corrugated cardboard box.
They sent it in a bubble wrap envelope.
Shame, Amazon, shame.
People are ordering these books
and they wanna get them in stellar shape,
not less than stellar,
not less than average, not average shape.
They want it mint condition.
As if we were to go into the actual brick and mortar store,
and order the books ourself.
If we go into a bookstore,
and we see something that's dog-eared,
or chewed up, or kicked around,
do you think we're gonna buy it?
Probably not.
Amazon, I'm calling you out.
I think it's about time you upgrade
and put it into your policy that any books,
whether big or small,
are shipped in corrugated cardboard boxes.
Thankfully, this book by Jordan Ring,
literally came in meticulous shape.
So, I'm pretty darn happy about that.
As for the delivery time, it took a total of two days.
This was by far the best delivery I've seen yet by Amazon.
It got here in lightning fast time.
Now, not to be confused, it's not Lightning Source.
We're talking about IngramSpark.
But none the less, you get the idea.
So, great work on that one, Amazon.
If you just only get the corrugated cardboard box.
Am I repeating myself, maybe?
So, after receiving this,
I went ahead and got ahold of the author, Jordan Ring.
And Jordan is also another associate from Archangel Ink.
And we had a discussion about when he actually purchased
this book through IngramSpark.
And you're gonna be blown away.
Now, first of all, the retail cost of this book is $19.99.
The profit per book is about $5, he said.
But here's where it's going to blow you away.
When it comes to shipping and handling
directly through IngramSpark,
you would swear that they had it
fulfilled in the Sahara desert.
They had it put on a camel, taken to the ocean,
to where it was put on a kayak
that was taken all the way across.
Because here's the deal, you get the idea.
$17 and 66 freaking cents.
Yeah, that's right, I had to add that part.
Let's say this again.
Shipping and handling is $17.66 for this freaking book.
That is beyond ludicrous.
You are not shipping a Faberge egg.
You're not sending out a heavy dumbbell of some sort.
This is a stinking book.
So, I'm not sure how IngramSpark
is fulfilling their shipping and handling.
But if it's $17.66,
I think everybody can probably agree with me
that that is way too much, way freaking too much.
Now, the nice thing is,
is since this was fulfilled through Amazon,
obviously shipping and handling was zero dollars.
It was done through Prime.
So, of course, it got to my doorstep a lot quicker
than if it were brought by camelback, yeah.
Now, as far as quality,
IngramSpark delivers yet again.
Keeping in mind that the book had sent to me
was fulfilled by way of Amazon,
so the printers might be slightly different than say
that of the ones that are fulfilled over on IngramSpark
if it were ordered directly through them.
None the less, the quality.
There's no difference when it comes to quality.
And also, bear in mind,
if this was fulfilled through Amazon printers,
KDP Print doesn't have hardbacks yet.
Food for thought, something to think about.
Will we see that eventually on KDP Print?
It remains to be seen.
But I think that it'll soon definitely be a good addition.
Do you agree with me?
Drop your thoughts inside the comments.
So, for Jordan's book,
I think this roughly comes about six by nine,
maybe a little larger.
And it's a matte cover, so it's really nice.
Nice and soft.
It reminds me so much of the print book
that I got from Gary McPherson.
And the matte cover, ah, it's stellar.
You can't fingerprint it up.
And even then, we have the glossy covers
of the print books.
So, here is one that actually
was fulfilled through Lightning Source,
which is Ingram Content Company.
And here's one from IngramSpark.
Both of these glossy covers just have
just a delicate amount of sheen on it
to where it's not overwhelming
and you can't paw it up with your fingerprints.
Now, when it comes to the actual interior,
the print is second to none.
Once again, we're not gonna look
so much at the layout of the book.
But more so, just the print quality.
And one thing I discovered was,
Jordan's book is not print heavy.
We didn't see any kind of warping
like we did with say, Lulu.com,
or the ones with Barnes and Noble Press.
And you can always go back and see
why I thought that this was a little bit
of a ridiculous thing that was available.
But again, Jordan's book, it's not print heavy.
It's not a bunch of text.
It's not a bunch of headers that have
a thick color to it or images within it.
So, I would be curious to see how a picture heavy book
would look through say IngramSpark.
And as a big reminder, when it comes to IngramSpark,
this is a little bit of a turnoff to some indie authors.
And especially those of you
that are working on a fixed budget.
IngramSpark has a higher barrier of entry
versus their counterparts in someone like KDP Print
or another hardback distributor in Lulu.com
or Barnes and Noble Press.
Those other ones, it doesn't cost you a dime to upload.
However, on IngramSpark, it does cost you a $49 fee.
There are some coupons online that you can look up,
just in a simple Google search,
and you can apply it towards that.
But keep in mind that any iteration that you re-upload,
it's an addition upload fee,
which off the top of my head, I can't remember.
It's about 25, $29.
It's not quite the full amount.
And as I'd shared in the previous video about IngramSpark,
Michael La Ronn actually shared
that the alliance of independent authors
has a little bit of a partnership
slash deal with IngramSpark,
in that, if you are a member of Ally,
you can actually get all
of your upload fees waived completely.
But it doesn't stop there.
If you are used to getting the free ISBNs
assigned to you from Amazon,
you're not gonna get that on IngramSpark.
So, you need to actually come to IngramSpark
with your own purchased ISBN.
So, this means you can't go over to KDP Print.
You can't swipe one of their ISBNs,
and just put it over onto your IngramSpark's hardcover.
And not to mention,
a hard cover is completely different than a print cover.
So, that should be noted that if
you publish one of either one of those, let's say,
I've got the 90-Day Home Workout Plan over on hardback
and I've got it on paperback,
those are gonna require two different ISBNs
since they are two different types of products
in hardback and print book.
However, if you're outside of the United States,
this is not gonna be so much of an issue
since some places actually, for instance, Canada,
you're actually able to get your ISBN completely free.
There is a little asterisk next to it.
I would just recommend that you just go ahead
and search that up and find out
how to get your own free ISBNs
to utilize IngramSpark's distribution.
All in all, when it comes
to IngramSpark's hardcover option,
I think this is pretty freaking stellar.
And this actually literally seals deal when it comes
to me considering IngramSpark for future publishing needs
when it comes to hardback covers.
This is pretty nice, I like it.
Overall to me, when it comes to comparison of this book
say versus Lulu or Barnes and Noble Press,
I find that this one is pretty darn nice.
I wanna test it out myself, but remembering,
I need to get my own ISBN.
I need to get the cover layout just right.
And I need to kind of figure out
the whole IngramSpark upload process.
If you wanna check out some more content
when it comes to IngramSpark,
you may wanna check out the other video that I have
where I do the unboxing of their print paperbacks.
So, just check it out over in that video.
And I'll see you over there.
It was fantastic and I really raved about it.
But unfortunately, I wasn't able to really show you
a behind the scenes look at IngramSpark's paperback books.