IngramSpark: Is the Headache Really Worth It?

IngramSpark is the latest self-publishing craze. I have seen tons of posts talking about its benefits, IngramSpark vs. Amazon, and of course why you should use both. But I don't get paid by IngramSpark (or Amazon for that matter) to talk about how wonderful they are. I get paid by people who become completely frustrated with uploading their books to IngramSpark and who then turn to me for help because I walked them through the Amazon upload. I don't use IngramSpark, and these experiences do not make me feel like I should rush right out and put my books on that platform.

The first big turnoff is that IngramSpark does basically the same thing as Amazon but charges you a fee. Not cool. Well, it would be cool if they offered customer support as a part of that fee, but apparently they take your money and tell you to figure it out yourself. Not only do the forums support this idea, but I have been through the process second hand. Something tells me if they offered even decent customer support they would help people get their stuff uploaded and these people would not have to talk to me. 

Second--Amazon is the biggest book retailer in the world controlling almost a quarter of the field. If you publish through them, your book is automatically listed on their website and will come up in search results. If you publish through IngramSpark alone, someone will have to order your book through Amazon before it starts to become available there. You can get your book on Barnes and Nobles using IngramSpark, but again it will only be available through special order on their website. You are not going to get your book in a Barnes and Nobles store as an Indie writer unless you have a lot of really good connections and know-how. Just trust me--I have been in contact with my local B&N and I have truly thought about it, but if I realize the struggle and have decided that, no, that is not worth it, then you, too, should accept this fact. So, in short, IngramSpark is selling a pipe dream. Your book will not appear in-stock on the shelves of a major retailer simply by choosing IngramSpark.

IngramSpark (after paying your initial setup fee) requires you to register your ISBN yourself (which costs money). Once you do this, you need to set that ISBN up through Amazon if you are publishing both places, but then you lose Amazon's extended distribution option. I am not a fan of indie authors buying their ISBNs and trying to present themselves as an actually publishing business. 

Now, you can get a hardcover from IngramSpark--but their pricing means that you will have to charge a whole lot more for your book than what is competitive. A higher price means more money in your pocket per sale, but it also means fewer sales--maybe 0 sales if your book is too expensive. Granted, CreateSpace stopped their hardcover service a couple years before the Amazon move. I hope they will bring this service back, but I am looking for other options. IngramSpark is not something I would consider putting myself through at this point. I am currently leaning toward B&N. 

The biggest problem with IngramSpark is that it is not intuitive. People who have been doing it still do not understand everything they are doing and still end up having a lot of problems. So, no, I don't understand the novelty of paying for a headache. You should be able to upload a PDF to Amazon and then upload that same PDF to IngramSpark--many times you can't and that is a problem with the programming not with the user. 

Lulu (expensive) and Smashwords (only e-books) were also rages at one point in time. It seems these are dying off, but two major print-on-demand venues have stayed with it: Amazon and B&N. Considering the options these offer for free, it boggles my mind people would choose to pay someone to distribute their books. Granted, considering the ease of uploading to Amazon, it boggles me why anyone would choose a difficult to navigate platform that is quirky in what it accepts and what it doesn't. As a self-publisher, you need to save money where you can and spend it on important things like better editing, better cover design, better formatting, and better marketing. Feel free to leave me a comment about the reason you chose (or avoided) IngramSpark. I don't usually allow links in comments, but if you link one book as an example I will allow it on this post only.

Coronavirus Fake News

I haven't addressed this because most people reading my blog work from home, but the quarantines they are currently enacting to shut down the United States, state-by-state, are illegal, disproportionately affect the poor, and will increase infection rates as they expose healthy people to sick ones in confined areas. Research shows mass quarantines have not stopped the spread of any pandemic in the past 700 years. Even at the end of the Spanish Flu, it was determined that the mass quarantines enacted did not help nor did they prevent the spread.

This is confirmed by what we are seeing today. Currently, the three countries that have the highest number of cases are those who have enacted quarantine more than 14 days ago : Italy, France, and Spain. Since 97% of all Covid-19 cases show symptoms before 11.5 days after exposure, these countries should be decreasing in rates by this point, but their rates continue to jump upward. As more countries begin lock down, their numbers are also jumping higher. Mass quarantines hurt the economies of countries, disproportionately hurt the poor, and hurt healthcare efforts. But our nations are enacting them because they "worked" in China, without keeping in mind that China bore the brunt of the disease in a time when they did not even know what it was.

The mortality rate from Covid-19 is much lower than the mortality rate for the 2017-2018 flu. As we give up our rights, our jobs, and our other freedoms, are we doing it for a just cause or are we doing it because the media has managed to provide us with so much scary and false information that we are not thinking straight?

As writers, this affects us on multiple levels. We should be on the front-lines when it comes to protecting our freedom of speech. We will lose our jobs at the whims of other less scrupulous writers and the government; we will be confined and forced into situations that will render us more susceptible to the disease, and we will be pressured to write misleading copy.

Writing a Book Copyright Notice

What must you include in your copyright notice?

Copyright 2020 by Jennifer Reinoehl


Yep. That is all you must have. Still people like to write more. They feel that they must make it clear that no one else is allowed to copy their work. The problem is that the people who are writing these extended copyright notices are not lawyers and have not copied the notice word-for-word from a traditionally published book.

Now, I know what you are thinking with that last statement- Whoa, Jennifer, are you encouraging me to plagiarize!?!?!?! Guess what? General legal contracts cannot be copyrighted. There is a reason why the copyright statements look almost identical across traditional publishers. As long as it contains legal phrases with very specific meanings and is general in nature, you can copy it. Now, yes, I have a rather unique copyright statement in some of my educational books, so don't copy those (or any other copyright that looks non-traditional, especially those written from scratch by other authors), but in general, unless you are a copyright lawyer, you should not under any circumstances try to change the traditional notice.

The above--name, date, and copyright claim using the word "copyright" or its symbol, is all you need and that is the main thing I recommend. Copying a traditional, general copyright statement to further clarify is okay, but not required. Writing your own copyright notice that goes beyond either of these things is actually dangerous for you. For example, in one recent homemade copyright notice, the "author" assigned the rights of the book to me. That is right. It stated that all rights were given to the author, and since I was the actual author I got all my rights back the second that book was published. If I had not caught this and/or if I would be less scrupulous, I could have legally sued the person for publishing my work.

I have also seen authors write copyrights in such a way that the book could not be used in a library. I do not think they meant to do this, but they did. Legalese is a very specific area of writing that is best left to lawyers. If you are not the type of person who reads website terms of service and software terms of service every time you download something new or create a new user account on a website, then you should not try to write your own notice. Since a simple notice gives you the same protection as a detailed one, and since you can copy a detailed one from any traditionally published book you want, why try to create your own and risk destroying your own rights or the chance of your book being used in a library?

The Editing Process

The editing process should always be collaborative, but I think most writers do not understand what this means. It means that yes, I track changes. It also means that yes, you can accept or reject those changes. I also leave comments. Many of these are drawing your attention to something so you can change it when it is your turn--things like "I don't know what this means?" "Can you give me an example?" "Is this connected to that?"But some of my comments are notes "Don't panic--I didn't cut this I just moved it" (okay, so I actually just type "moved," but that doesn't look as cool), or "This is a dangling modifier" (If I have a lot of time I might actually explain what that is, but you won't even get a comment for stuff like this if I am short on time.

On your end, it is important that you address the comments an editor makes. This should come first. Once you have addressed them, feel free to delete them so the document doesn't fill up. If you don't understand why a change was made and you really do not think the new version is correct, you can always ask. An email with "On page 57, in paragraph 2, you changed "was" to "were" but I don't know why?" As long as you are flexible with time, I don't mind answering even grammar and spelling questions--as long as you don't question every single change.

The collaborative process means that some things are flexible. I have been known to occasionally change words out for better synonyms, but if you feel that takes away your voice, then you should reject the change by all means. But other times there are more serious issues that are not really flexible. For example, if I correct a misspelled word or if I divide one paragraph into two paragraphs. Will you get the chance to accept or reject the change--of course. Should you reject these changes? No. These are not flexible and I may or may not catch them the next time I go through it.

Editing also means flexible time. You should never plan to launch your book until it has been edited (and I recommend at least three different editors look at it). I know how long it will take me to edit your book, so when you see my 3 week estimate, you may get excited and want to launch in 4 weeks. But I have no way of predicting how long it will take you to get the book back to me when I send the changes to you for approval. I also, as I have said before, do not know what problems might arise that go beyond what I have planned to do. Now, once you send it for the final edit (the proofread) and formatting then you can plan the launch. Once the book has been formatted, you should not make any more changes to it. It should go straight from formatting to press. This is how it works for traditional publishers, too.

The Infamous Free Sample

I have recently talked about the "writing test." This is a "test" that employers invariably send me that takes time to complete and that frequently is filled with errors that cannot be corrected without a style manual. Similar to this atrocity is the free sample. Guru does not allow employers to request free samples. Like tests, any jobs that ask for samples I tend to avoid. Since employers cannot specifically ask for free mockups or free samples directly in their post because it goes against Guru policy, I do occasionally bid on a project and then get a request for a sample after the fact. 

In normal life, we only get free samples with new products. Most people do not like to try new products as a general rule. Giving them something free to try is one inexpensive way to give them something new that overcomes this. In addition, if they like your product they will tell others and you will get free advertising out of it. But people do not go to a company and say, I want you to make me a cookie that is low-fat and contains both chocolate and raisins, and I want a free sample before I decide if I am then going to buy that cookie from you. People have come to Guru looking for a very specific job to be done, and yet they are now asking for me to do free work on their job. Beta readers (who are not even close to being real editors, but who can catch some major flaws) do their work for free and enjoy it. Go to a website for beta readers if you want free work. 

Let's say I have a broken faucet in my bathroom and a clogged drain. Would I call a plumber and ask them to come out and fix the faucet for free before I decide to hire him to fix the drain? No. No one would do this because we all know plumbers charge you just to come out to your house and fix nothing. I had one plumber charge me for two hours of "work" while he sat in his van and waited for a plumbing apprentice to show up. 

Could you go to Office Depot and Staples with a paper you needed copied and ask them to make you a free copy as a sample? Well, you could, but I am going to bet they would laugh and tell the story to future workers for months. Would a lawn care company come out and do a free sample of their work on your lawn? Your doctor might give you free samples of medications (which she has received for free from businesses), but would any doctor see you for free so you could get a feel of how she diagnoses diseases? A mechanic might tell you what is wrong with your car for free, but he usually isn't going to tell you how to fix it yourself for free. 

The problem is that new freelancers (including myself when I was new) do free work. They are desperate for a customer base, for feedback, and for a variety of samples. Giving out free work encourages people to think they should be able to get free work. Beta readers do free work, so this also makes people think that editing should be free. The problem is that they have the wrong idea. Beta readers are not doing the work for free. The author of the work is actually giving a beta reader a free sample of their work to judge how an audience will receive it. The beta reader is paid for their time with a free book. A freelance editor is not an audience, but a professional who is going to fix your book's plumbing. Even new freelancers deserve to be paid for their work.