PG has received several emails from visitors to TPV after his post of Mike Shatzkin’s article about Ingram Spark.
While the emails are are in no way a reflection of Ingram Spark’s performance pro or con, each of the emails PG has received describe in detail unsatisfactory experiences of indie authors/small presses with Ingram.
Feel free to share your experiences, good or bad, in the comments or, on a non-public basis with PG via the Contact PG link at the top of the blog.
A lot of self-pubbed authors may not be aware that if they choose expanded distribution on KDP, any bookstore can order their book. However, the bookstore will likely only do that if a customer orders and prepays because there are no returns. If one has their heart set on a bookstore stocking their book, Ingram Spark allows returns. The reality of a bookstore discovering and stocking that author’s book is another discussion.
There are plenty of KDP vs. Ingram Spark comparisons out there like this one:
https://selfpublishingadvice.org/use-both-kdp-print-and-ingram-spark-together/
Can’t speak to their retail operations, but I have printed several hardcovers with dust jackets for special projects and they came out quite nicely and shipped in reasonable time-frames. I’ll be interested to hear other experiences pro or con.