Experiences of POD with Ingramspark/Lightning Source?

[Brian G Turner]

Does anyone here have much experience with Ingramspark/Lightning Source for POD?

I was reasonably happy with Createspace - once I got used to their system - but since I migrated to Amazon KDP Print I've been anything but happy.

It's reached the point where I'm thinking of deleting my paperbacks from Amazon Print, and going elsewhere. I could just go back to Createspace, but I suspect they are on the way out to being integrated anyway into Amazon, so Ingramspark should be worth a look.

However, there's little on their website, other than general promotional information. I've also no idea how well it would integrate into Amazon's systems to link up to the ebook version.

Anyone any experience here? And just for the record, I'm not looking at handling any paperbacks myself.

 

[tinkerdan]

A note of interest in their online partner page.

*If you have provided any e-books to Amazon for the Kindle in the past 12 months we will not be able to provide service to Kindle through the IngramSpark program.

**If you currently have e-book content available on Apple, you will need to remove those e-books from the iBook store prior to uploading those same titles into IngramSpark. Also note that any reviews or ratings of that content will not transfer when your titles reappear in the iBook store.



I have no idea about Amazon but when I did the e-book with smashwords and it was distributed out to Barnes and Noble they were able to make the link without any coaxing to my hard copies.

 

[pambaddeley]

No experience sorry but just suggesting, as not a lot of people have piled in here, that the kboards site has a lot of discussion about the pros and cons of IngramSpark.

 

[E.Maree]

Hi Brian, was listening to The Creative Penn podcast by UK writer Joanna Penn and remembered this thread!

Her recommended system is Createspace for Amazon distribution, and IngramSpark for everything else -- do not select 'expanded distribution' on CreateSpace, use the IngramSpark distribution advantages instead. It's fiddlier to set-up but she finds it well worth it to ensure readers can order her books in bookshops, and she gets increased control of pricing.

 

[Stable]

I don't self-publish, but I work with a publisher that uses Lightning Source POD (and has used Createspace in the past). The books are made well enough and the distribution is amazing. Except when it comes to Amazon. Amazon seem to strangle the introduction of Ingram books, they will often be listed as "not in stock" until they get sufficient orders (and possibly not even then), which can take weeks or months. Obviously that's ludicrous for a POD book, but we've been told it's their policy. It's less bad in the US store, but the .co.uk store and others are where we've seen the biggest delays.

So, for now at least, I recommend going back to Createspace.

 

[FibonacciEddie]

Hi Brian.

My experience is the same as "Stable"

In Nov 2014, I set up with IngramSpark for my POD (paperback and hardback) for Emergence (with industry standard ISBNs from Neilson) - both Paperback and Hardback versions ... so I had all the infrastructure in place to sell the books; as of then I (or anyone) could make real orders for Paperback/Hardback copies via a host of online Bookshops

However, Amazon pages constantly showed by book as "not in stock" ... so what I did was order 3 of them for 3 days in a row using Amazon ... and that seemed to trigger Amazon 'warehouse' ... bringing a few more in ... and since then it has been "in stock"

that said... I don't actually sell any... of my sales >99% have been Kindle

In terms of excellent resources for discussions on POD in SelfPublishing... try here
Print on demand

For Book 2, I am likely to follow The Creative Penn and do both.

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