Tag: how to self publish

Posted on

IngramSpark vs. KDP: Which Publishing Company is Best for You?

Last week, we talked about the dangers of vanity presses. This week, I want to discuss a couple of legitimate self-publishing companies.

There are many options, and I’m sure more crop up by the day. But KDP and Ingramspark seem to be the front runners. As they’re the two I have experience with, those are the two I’ll be going over.

That doesn’t mean they’re the only options, and it doesn’t mean they’re who you have to choose. There is no one size fits all option here. Everyone has different needs, different desires for their books. What’s best for one author may not be right for another.

All I can do is put my experiences out there for you so you have a little more information to make your choice.

Formats

Both offer ebook and paperback options.

Ingramspark also offers hardback. They even have a few different cover types: cloth with a dust jacket, case laminate, or case laminate with a dust jacket.

If you’ve never heard of it, case laminate means that an image is printed directly onto the binding of the book. You can have that with or without the dust jacket. If you get the dust jacket, it means that you can have a second piece of art on the case of the book (hidden beneath the dust jacket) or have the same cover so that readers can remove the dust jacket, leave it at home for safe keeping, and still show off that pretty cover art while reading on the go. Either way, this requires an additional file, in a different size, something that may incur extra charges with your cover designer.

Print quality

The books that Ingramspark produces are beautiful. They feel good in your hands, and they look stunning.

This isn’t to say that KDP doesn’t print good books, they do. Just not as good as Ingramspark.

Print speed

I can’t be sure, and of course time of year affects this (the time leading up to the holidays is always a longer print time), but it seems as though KDP is quicker.

Shipping of Author Copies

KDP charges normal Amazon shipping rates to send copies of your book to you. Ingramspark… *sigh* They have a basic, uninsured, no guarantee, “it’s not our responsibility” shipping option that starts at around $5. But if you want any kind of insurance or tracking at all, shipping (even for a single proof copy) is going to cost you about $20 or more.

Wholesale Distribution

Ingram is one of the biggest wholesale distributors in the world. They’re trusted by bookstores across the globe. Publishing with them does not guarantee that your book will end up in stores (you still have to approach them about carrying your book), but it gives you a chance.

KDP has an expanded distribution option, but what’s the point in taking the hit to royalties? They’re an Amazon subsidiary. Bookstores aren’t exactly likely to buy from their competitor.

Direct to Consumer Distribution

KDP (as part of Amazon) obviously has this. And with Prime shipping, readers could get your book quickly.

Ingramspark does not ship directly to consumers or handle sales directly. They print the books and ship them when a retailer like Amazon or Barnes and Noble places an order.

Tech support

KDP wins this, hands down. Ingramspark used to have passable tech support, but since last year (something I’ll cover more under the next category), they’ve taken a nose dive.

When I uploaded A Heart of Salt & Silver last November, I had nothing but problems, and getting anyone to actually address them was like pulling teeth.

KDP, however, is timely with their responses and makes uploading, fixing problems, or adjusting book listings very simple.

Ease of use

KDP wins this one, as well.

Early last year, it would have been a tie. But last summer, while the whole world was shut down and everyone that could work from home was doing so, Ingramspark did a major overhaul to their entire system in an attempt to make it more “user friendly.” But all it accomplished was breaking their system.

There were bugs.

A lot of them.

And since most people (especially tech people) were working from home on limited hours, the whole “fixing them” process dragged on and on. Meanwhile, tech support for authors was minimal and… rough. Long wait times to receive an email (7-10 days), long queue times for the online chat support (hour+), long wait times on hold (hours).

That is, until they did away with the phone option for support, making everyone use the email or chat, making wait times even longer. And the hours for the chat are highly inconsistent, not always lining up with the hours posted online.

I’ve had several issues with them since their “user friendly” update, several of which dragged out for weeks.

I’ll be uploading Allmother Rising to their site soon for that magnificent hardcover option, so we’ll see how much has been fixed.

Sales dashboard

KDP reports sales quickly and in an easy to read bar graph that shows how many copies sold each day.

Ingramspark can take up to 90 days to “gather” sales data, then reports it in a rather lackluster format. On the dashboard, it says how many of each book you’ve sold, but with no dates (which complicates the process of honing ads since you can’t get an accurate picture of their performance).

Even their monthly statements for royalties lack dates, showing only which book and which format sold. And you’ll get multiple statements. One for Apple ebooks, one for Amazon US, one for Amazon UK, one for the print distribution in the US and one for print in the UK. So the data is a bit… all over the place.

Royalties

This one really depends, honestly.

KDP offers a 70% royalty option (less print cost), but if you go with their expanded distribution (why?) you’re only eligible for 35% after the cost to print the book.

Ingramspark does 60% (I think) of the profit. But since bookstores demand a discount (a hefty 55% is preferred, but you can lower it to 30 or 35% depending on the market), you’re getting 60% of what’s left after that massive discount and the print cost.

Start-up Cost

KDP is completely free. There are no up-front costs or fees. They make their money off their portion of the profit when a book sells.

Ingramspark charges $49 for a thing they call “Title Setup,” which is basically the fee they charge to list your book in their massive wholesale distribution channels. It irritates me that it’s a thing. But as discussed above, their distribution channels are very widely used, so they can get away with it.

You have to pay that for each print format, but you can pair your ebook with one of them for no additional charge. If you’re only releasing an ebook, you still have to pay the $49.

You can revise and resubmit your files as many times as you need until you’re happy with them and hit approve. However, if you wish to do any additional revisions after approving all the files, there’s a $25 fee. Per revision.

So if you want to change the cover and have an ebook, paperback, and hardback version of the book, that means $75 to fix all three covers, even if the ebook is linked to one of the print formats.

The good thing is that they frequently release discount codes to waive these fees in their Facebook group, release some for Nanowrimo, and often provide these codes at writing conventions. (20booksto50k on Facebook has a convention coming up with a code associated)

Advertising

Ingramspark has an option to promote your book by listing it in their catalog. I think it’s under $100, but I’m not sure. I’ve never done it, so I have no idea how effective it might be.

KDP is part of Amazon, and we’ve all seen the sponsored product ads when looking for books on Amazon. They have their own marketing thing, linked to- but separate from- KDP. Many authors have found success with Amazon ads. I’m not one of them. I’ve tried a few, but since I’m still learning about ads, I haven’t gotten an Amazon ad to actually be profitable yet.

As with any type of advertising, there are a lot of metrics and a lot of things to experiment with, a lot of demographic research and keyword research to be done. Ads need honed in, and of course, it’s easier to turn a profit advertising a series than it is advertising a standalone.

(You can afford to lose a bit of money advertising book one with a higher cost per click, so long as your series hooks readers and pulls them to book two and three and ten. Standalones… you can’t afford to lose on book one because it’s only one book. This is another problem for me, as I usually write standalones.)

Kindle Unlimited

Obviously, this is a strictly Amazon thing, thus only KDP has it. If you upload your ebook ONLY to KDP and enroll in KDP select or kindle select (I forget the name, it’s a little check box during the upload process), that puts your book into the Kindle Unlimited program. People who pay monthly can read as many KU books as they want, and the authors get paid per page read.

If you don’t have many books in the program or don’t get a lot of reads, it might not add up to anything. But there are several full-time authors in the 20booksto50k group on Facebook who attribute half their earnings to KU.

That doesn’t guarantee that you’ll go full-time or be a best-seller, but the vast majority of ebooks are read on Kindles or in the Kindle app. And KU is a massive market.

Now, as I said above, there is no one size fits all publishing solution. Authors have different skill sets, resources, and needs. So, it’s natural that not every author will choose the same publishing path.

You can use either of these publishers. You can use neither.

If you purchase your own ISBN, you can use both.

I do. My ebooks are slowly being moved to KDP to take advantage of the higher royalty and the Kindle Unlimited program. My paperbacks are split between the two, and of course, I will always have hardbacks. Which is only available through Ingramspark.

The blessing (and curse) of being an indie author is that you can pick and choose whatever methodology you want. Don’t be afraid to play around with this to see which one you like best.

This is a process, not an instant, get it right the first time, always be satisfied with the first thing you try type of dream/hobby/career.

Mistakes happen. Things don’t always work.

But as long as you keep trying, you’ll find what works for you.

Check out my gritty, literary sci-fi and fantasy books here.

Want to fund this blog and my writing efforts? You can support me directly here.

Subscribe for sneak peeks and updates on my upcoming books (and get a free short story).

Posted on

The Hidden Dangers of Vanity Presses: Warnings for New Authors

The publishing world is a minefield with all our dreams waiting for us on the other side. High stakes, tension, and a lot of intricate details mean that there’s a lot to take in, a lot to learn.

And unfortunately, there are people out there who know this… and take advantage.

Vanity presses, I’m looking at you.

I had a run-in with one of these beasts when publishing my first novel, and if I can spare even just one other author from that mess, then this post will have been WELL worth it.

So, for all the writers who don’t know, and thus are at the greatest risk of falling into this very effective (and very legal) scam, let’s talk about what a vanity press even is.

Obviously, it’s a publishing company. They typically offer various packages (watch out for that word on publisher sites) of services they’ll provide in exchange for a set amount of money. Many have additional services you can tack on, at an extra cost.

They’ll print your book, usually print-on-demand, a feature that they’ll be sure to sell you on because it’s less wasteful and doesn’t run the risk of having extra books lying around. (Which is fair. That’s the method legitimate self-publishing companies use, too.)

They’ll list your book and distribute it, then they’ll give you a cut of the profits made off the books.

Which all sounds perfectly fine.

Unless you know that no reputable self-publishing company (and certainly no traditional publishing company) charges the author money.

*Exception: Ingramspark (definitely not a vanity press) charges $50 for “title setup,” a thing they explain as being the cost incurred by placing your book in their wholesale distribution channels. And since those channels are used by the cast majority of bookstores, they can get away with that. But they frequently release coupon codes to waive that fee.

But the point is, vanity/subsidy presses make their money off the author. Not off the books sold.

Legitimate publishing companies, be they indie, traditional, or self, make their money off the books.

The cost of each book sold accounts for the print cost, automatically keeping them out of the red. Then, they get a cut of the profit. How much depends on the publisher and the royalty they offer their authors, but no matter what, self-publishing companies should not lose money on a printed book. (Note: Traditional publishers keep higher amounts of the profit for themselves because they edit, format, design covers, etc.)

There’s absolutely no reason for self-publishing companies to charge an author (who typically has their book edited and their cover designed ahead of time) thousands of dollars to publish it. And yes, vanity presses do indeed charge thousands of dollars. (With convenient monthly payment options and *limited time* deals to pressure you into buying.)

IF covers, formatting, or editing are included in a package offered by these vanity presses, they’re usually done at cut rates and turn out very poorly. That round of editing in the package may even turn out to be that YOU find the typos and grammatical errors and tell them where they’re at so they can “edit” them. (That’s what the one I got fooled by did.)

If they try to say that formatting and file conversion are included, and thus justify thousands of dollars, formatting can be done on any computer with a simple how-to guide online. If you want it fancy and don’t want to mess with it yourself (because it is very tedious and fiddly), there are many graphic designers who do interior design/formatting, some of whom charge only $49 (or less if you find a reputable one on fiverr). Not thousands.

And file conversion to EPUB and MOBI can be done with free programs that you can get off the internet. (I use Calibre.)

Now, of course, vanity presses are not going to miss the opportunity to exploit an uninformed writer when it comes to our (almost) universal weak point: marketing. They will undoubtedly offer marketing packages, as well, but they tend to be underwhelming at best, if not downright rip-offs.

Especially when you consider the exorbitant prices they charge.

Even more so if you consider the paltry royalties they extend to the authors, like crumbs fallen off a loaf of bread. Literal pennies per printed book, maybe a quarter for an ebook.

When I fell prey to one of these beasts 7 years ago, they literally wrote in the press release that I was running a marketing campaign which… is pretty self-explanatory and wastes words in the press release that could’ve been spent on the book or me as an author.

As if that weren’t enough, add the constant phone calls trying to get you to give them more money for things that will garner little to no sales. (That press release wasn’t run by a single newspaper, but they sent it, so obviously that was worth nearly a thousand dollars.)

I was working a weird shift (half overnights and half days) at the time and told them very specific hours that I could be contacted… which were of course disregarded. Their people talked over me constantly, trying to bully me into paying more. If I didn’t answer, they called again. If I blocked the number, they called from a different one.

They called while I was supposed to be asleep for my night shifts. They called while I was at work. They called while normal people would be eating dinner.

They called ALL THE TIME.

My account was shuffled from one person to another when someone failed to get money from me. (One even went so far as to say that his teammate had read my book and thought it had promise, which of course was a lie. No one there read my book.)

After the day that I signed with them, every single person I spoke to had the same hard to pin down accent coupled with an overly-American name (doubtless an attempt to make the dumb American feel more comfortable with them).

And not a single one of them gave a shit about me or my book or the fact that I was broke as fuck working part-time, earning minimum wage, eating $0.12 ramen and $1 canned ravioli to get by.

They didn’t care that I wanted my book (and future books) to be taken seriously.

They wanted my money. That was it.

Shame blossomed within me, growing up alongside years of anger, when I realized that I’d fallen into a carefully contracted scam made especially for new, uninformed writers.

I hid it from friends and family because I didn’t feel like a real author. I shied away from questions about my writing because I didn’t know what to do with the rest of the books I was working on. I stayed quiet in writing groups, unsure how to contribute if I was such a fool.

I even stopped promoting my book, out of spite toward them and out of humiliation for myself.

When I learned that no traditional publisher would take it, even if I could get it back, since it had already been published and (since it had basically no promotion) sold almost no copies, I was heartbroken.

But eventually, I learned about legitimate self-publishing. Then, I learned how to get my book back. I could fix it, edit it properly, and rerelease it.

I cancelled everything with the vanity press and instructed them never to contact me again, though that process in and of itself took a ridiculous amount of time considering their continuous hesitation and obstacles in sending me a copy of the contract to begin with.

The copyright had been registered in my name, thank god, and they didn’t require exclusive publishing. (Why would they, since they already had my money?)

I rereleased The Gem of Meruna with a reputable self-publishing company. But even today, that poor book has been tainted in my memory, because every time I think about it, I think of them and the stress and shame and heartache of dealing with them.

So please, don’t put yourself through the years of torment and disappointment I endured. If a self-proclaimed self-publishing company (or hybrid company) asks for money upfront, run as fast as you can.

They should make their money off the books sold, not off you.

There are reputable self-publishing companies out there, ready and willing to help you publish your books. (I’ll do a post later about Ingramspark and KDP, the two I’ve worked with). There are freelance editors and graphic designers, ready and willing to make your book as beautiful as it should be.

Trust them. Work with them.

Not a vanity press armored with jargon to legalize their scam and sucker in the unsuspecting.

Want to check fund this blog and my writing efforts? You can support me directly here.

Check out my gritty, literary sci-fi and fantasy books here.

Subscribe for sneak peeks and updates on my upcoming books (and get a free short story).

Posted on

How to Streamline Your Self-Publishing Experience: Metadata, Copyrights, and ISBNs

Hi, guys!

I dedicated a big part of last week to metadata, copyright registration, and ISBNs.

I got a lot of writing done, as well, but I told you all on social media that I was breaking my characters’ hearts, so I’m not going to give a word count. So let’s just say…all the words necessary to make their hopes and dreams seem basically unreachable.

Now, back to the publishing stuff.

I’ll be talking primarily about IngramSpark, since that’s the only self-publishing company I’ve worked with recently. I used KDP about 5 years ago, so my memory there is rusty. But I’ll tell you what I know about it.

Now, when publishing with Ingramspark, you have the option to buy your ISBNs through them. I have yet to find an instance where buying anything direct costs more than buying through someone else, though. So, I opted to buy my ISBNs from Bowker.

They’re not cheap. I’ll be honest. It’s $125 for one, but they have bulk packages, too. You can get 10 for $295 or 100 for $575. There’s also a package of 1,000, but that’s like…small publishing house level shit.

You’ll need one for every format you intend to publish your book in (hardback, paperback, ebook, audiobook). Since I had 5 novels in varying stages of editing when I bought ISBNs, I bought a huge batch of them because it was more cost effective.

If you go through KDP, you can have them generate a free ISBN, but they’re not registered with Bowker and mark your book as an Amazon book.

Quick tip…bookstores probably won’t carry a KDP book. Why would they? Amazon is their biggest competitor. It’s probably a better bet to buy your own, especially since that means YOU control the metadata.

Btw, Ingram just so happens to be one of the most widely used distribution channels (if not THE most widely used channel) for bookstores. So, where KDP offers the option of Expanded Distribution, Ingram focuses on it quite a bit more. That doesn’t guarantee that your book will be in bookstores, but if you approach a store about carrying your book, your chances are better with IngramSpark.

As for copyrights, you have the copyright as soon as you write something. BUT in the United States, you have to register it if you want to pursue a lawsuit in the event of theft. (Hooray…another instance of paying the government…lol.) For a novel, the registration is $55 on copyright.gov.

Not terrible. Not great.

Ingramspark charges $49 for title setup (aka…for listing it in that database I mentioned earlier) for each format. They offer hardback, paperback, and ebook options. Yes, they offer hardback! I was freaking pumped about that. KDP doesn’t have that. (KDP print quality also lacks compared to IngramSpark. Just saying.)

You can group a print format with the ebook. If you do that, then you only pay the title setup fee twice to do all three formats. Basically, it saves you $49 to bundle your ebook with one of your print formats.

Also, they’re running a promotion right now, since they just introduced a new cover option for hardbacks. If you choose Jacketed case laminate and use the code JACKET at checkout, they waive the title setup fee. That option requires an additional cover size, though. (Template. Highly recommend.)

If you want to upload your ebook to KDP separately (higher royalties), you just deny IngramSpark the rights to put your stuff on Amazon during the title setup process.

Now, the ISBN asks about the copyright, the copyright needs the ISBN, and the title setup process with IngramSpark requires needs both of those. So it’s kinda like the whole “I need job experience to get a job, but I need a job to get job experience” thing.

Solution? Multiple tabs, do them all side by side in one session.

So make sure you block out a bit of time, when you get to that point.

But we’re not there, yet.

There are some things that you have to come up with for title setup, and it goes way smoother if you have that shit prepped ahead of time.

I keep a separate document on my computer for all my metadata. Each book gets its own section (separated by page breaks). Book titles are put in as headings so I can find them easier when I need them. Each of the things I have to prep get their own sections within the book sections.

Because apparently, even though I’m super disorganized with my writing, I’m organized with my metadata.

Here’s what you need to have prepped before you start this process.

Keywords. Take the time. Do your research. These are terms that people search which could lead them to your book. (AKA…important as fuck.) Choose them wisely, because you only get seven. Separate them with semicolons.

You need an author bio.

Yep, I know. I hate bios, too. But it’s a necessary evil.

You’ll need a short description of your book and a long description.

The short description is limited to 350 bytes. Not words. Not characters. Bytes. That includes punctuation (yes, apostrophes, too), spaces, and when you drop to a new line. It’s basically an elevator pitch.

Do not try to chop up your blurb, it will do nothing but aggravate the shit out of you. The blurb is perfectly crafted for the length it’s at (hopefully somewhere around 150 words), and that’s way longer than the short description.

Here’s the one I went with for World for the Broken, to give you an idea.

Christian has one hope to rescue his sister-in-law and nephew from a violent thug. Trust the stranger who just saved him from a snowy grave. Not exactly smart after the apocalypse.
After all, Chloe has a past of her own and plenty of reservations. Now, she must choose. Condemn his family to a slow death or risk her own life to help save them?

That’s 345 bytes, so I had 5 to spare. This is the part that usually takes me the longest, because I suck at elevator pitches. Lol. If you also suck at elevator pitches, prepare this ahead of time, for sure.

The long description is roughly 900-4,000 characters. Heading (aka tagline/thing to really draw readers in to make them want to finish reading the description), blurb, end clause (Fans of… or Gift for…).

You’ll also need to know the prices you want to go with. IngramSpark has a price calculator, just type in how many pages, trim size, paper type, etc., and it’ll tell you the cost to print a copy. Decide if you want to offer a retail/wholesale discount or the option for bookstores to return unsold copies.

You can play with the price with discounts when inputting it to see what price range/discount/royalty works for you. It helps to research the cost of other books in your genre and trim size.

You need to have your interior files formatted appropriately (I may do a blog on that later, I’m not sure. You can also pay someone to format them for your chosen trim sizes.). For print, they should be exported as PDF files at 330 ppi and images that have not been compressed. (Word>options>advanced) For ebook, IngramSpark requires epub files.

You also need your cover properly sized for each format. Use the template generator. Then, use the template.

If you don’t have a photo editing program that will allow you to lay the proof over the cover or vice versa, download GIMP. It’s a free photo editing program, readily available online. It’s more than sufficient for this. The pink and blue areas of the template should be covered by your cover. The blue area is trim area though, so don’t put anything important (title, author name, tagline, etc.) in the blue area.

Taking care of the size for each trim size can be done by your cover artist, though.

Print covers need to be PDF (again, 330 ppi and not compressed) whereas ebook covers should be jpg files.

If you don’t have a barcode ahead of time (they can be bought from Bowker), IngramSpark provides one on the cover template. Crop that bitch out of there and lay that shit on your cover. Or leave it off, and they’ll add it for you.

Once you have all that, load your copyright application in one tab, title setup in another, and your (already purchased) ISBNs in another. Then, just fill in the blanks and copy/paste. Except the long description. That can’t be pasted in the normal way. You have to click in the box, then press CTRL and v to paste that.

During title setup, you’ll be prompted to choose BISAC codes and Thema (I recommend copy/pasting these letter/number combinations of the ones that fit your book into your metadata document, same with the Thema), and if your particular genre isn’t listed exactly, you can put that as a keyword.

There’s also a place for review quotes in the title setup. If you don’t have them yet, you can edit your metadata for free later.

If you approve the eproofs they send you of the print copies, and later need to upload a revised file (or if you need so revise the ebook at all, as there is no eproof for that) there is a $25 fee for each revised file. So get those right before you approve it. Look over the eproof carefully.

Before ordering a ton of copies, order one of each print format, and look them over for any errors you may have missed.

And now, you’re ready to go.

I promise, it sounds worse than it actually is when it’s all laid out.

If you have any questions, IngramSpark has a ton of resources (as does KDP). Ingram also has the option of chat support, which is incredibly helpful.

Keep reading. Keep writing.

Later.