KDP vs. Ingram Spark

[Carole]

How do you move your book off KDP and into Ingram Spark?
What is your e book platform of choice and why?

[Alexis]

First question: no idea.
Second question: I chose KDP to submit my book to Kindle Unlimited.

[Carole]

I know. All our books are that way. I bought my own ISBN's today and I will be putting my books on Ingram for mass distribution. I'm leaving them on CS with the CS's ISBN and essentially republishing on Ingram so they will be distributed more widely. I read an interesting article on having your own ISBN on Bookworks that decided me today. https://www.bookworks.com/2017/04/ind...
I am curious about taking our books out of KDP and putting them on Ingram for more wide distribution (Kobo, Nook, etc.)

[Marie Silk]

Carole, you can keep your ebooks on KDP for only Amazon (just make sure your Select enrollment period is over and you uncheck the box to auto renew Select). Then publish your ebooks to Ingram but don't select Amazon. When I go wide, I'm going to publish directly to Kobo and possibly Draft2Digital and/or Smash. I don't know many authors who have published their ebooks to Ingram.

[C.L.]

I don't think there's much benefit to taking your ebooks off of KDP. You can use Draft2Digital to upload your ebook to other platforms like Kobo, Nook etc but the only way to have your ebook available on Amazon is to have it on KDP.

If you mean taking it out of KDP Select, just wait your your term to expire and don't renew.

[Carole]

Thanks for the help. The kids handle all the electronic stuff and they never want to try anything new or do the research.
So, I'll keep them where they are and just deselect the KDP thing. Then I can use Draft to Digital to upload on other platforms. Did I understand everything?

[Marie Silk]

KDP is the name of Amazon's publishing service, Select is the enrollment that puts your book on the 90 day exclusivity contract. So you need to go to Bookshelf, then the ... button and click on "KDP Select Info". The default settings will auto-renew you for another 90 days so you will want to uncheck this box on the popup or click on "Manage KDP Select Enrollment" and uncheck the box there :). Then you need to wait for your enrollment to end before you publish to another digital platform.

[Erica]

Are you still having trouble with createspace or did you just decide to widen your platform?

[Carole]

They have been very nice on the phone but didn't give me any answers.
They said Amazon now has a book box program. Anyone with a cheaper price can sell the book and they think by saying only one left in stock makes it feel more urgent for buyers to buy it.. I explained, it makes the book look old and out of print.
I didn't get an answer on royalties, but my gut tells me we aren't getting those-
I published Oh Susannah last week. They put it us for sale with 8 used copies available the day I published. I don't know how that was possible, since I didn't even have a copy of the book.
Bookworks had an interesting article about ISBN's- https://www.bookworks.com/2017/04/ind...
I bought a block of them and think it's safer to diversify at this point.
It will be interesting to see if I sell more paperbacks with Ingram. There is a promotion going on now- so loading a book is free. It will be just in time for our mailing. I just have to put something on my brochures indicating the books are going to be available through Ingram.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Thank you for keeping us posted on this, Carole. I'm terribly sorry for the trouble you are going through to obtain this information.

Question - Are your books currently in libraries? We know bookstores don't order from Amazon, but do libraries? If not, moving to Ingram would have another positive outcome for your books. Good luck! Hugs!!

[Alexis]

Carole wrote: "They have been very nice on the phone but didn't give me any answers.
They said Amazon now has a book box program. Anyone with a cheaper price can sell the book and they think by saying only one l..."

Is Amazon lying to its customers to get them to buy books? It's starting to sound like it to mean.

[Carole]

Thanks, Sue. Yes, my books can be found in libraries as well as bookstores. I have sent out instructions on how to order from Amazon and it has worked. I have been actively tying to get them into those venues for years. I do have distributions sales every month. However, I think Ingram has a wider reach. I also liked what the article said about owning your ISBN. I never worried about Createspace's future or what they would do with the books if they closed, but I now believe it's safer to get your own ISBN. Ingram is running a special where it's free to download right now- so I will spend next week loading all 70 of our books.

[Carole]

Here's Stillwell. My son's bestselling book.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...

I think anyone looking at that thinks the book is out of print and won't buy it. Last week it reached 16 in the ghost rank and I didn't sell a single paperback. We used to sell a bunch each month.
I can't figure out what they are trying to do, Alexis. I just know it's less sales.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Ooh, good timing for you, Carole!! Hugs!!

Regarding ISBN's and ebooks, can you use the same ISBN for KDP and Kobo just as you can use the same ISBN for your paperback with Createspace and Ingram? Thank you.

[R.L.]

Wow. And ramseybooks is selling it for 1.92 in paperback. Something smells fishy for sure

[Carole]

We'll have to all learn as we go on. I have liked being supportive and consolidating everything under one roof. I love to be supportive of vendors I work with. I believe in networking. I am annoyed that I have to do all this. It's almost like launching all over again- and I have so many of them.

[Erica]

Can you use the same PDF files for Ingram that you used for createspace (for paperback) or do you have to resize your files?

[Carole]

Nope- all I have to do is put in the new ISBN.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Carole,
Sending you energy vibes for your busy week ahead. I truly feel bad for what you're going through. It isn't right. Honestly, sometimes I think Amazon is getting too big for themselves.
Healing Hugs

[Carole]

Thanks Sue. You are sweet. It's just a bump in the road more of an inconvience. I can't do spell check on my phone.

[Marie Silk]

Carole wrote: "Here's Stillwell. My son's bestselling book.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...

I think anyone looking at that thinks the book is out..."

Bummer :( it shows as "only 1 left in stock", and you're right, that looks bad on the author/book. Hopefully this gets resolved asap.

[Marie Silk]

Sam (Rescue Dog Mom & Writer) wrote: "Ooh, good timing for you, Carole!! Hugs!!

Regarding ISBN's and ebooks, can you use the same ISBN for KDP and Kobo just as you can use the same ISBN for your paperback with Createspace and Ingram? ..."

The file formats for Kobo and KDP are different. When you upload to KDP, the file is converted to a mobi so that should have its own ISBN for the mobi format. Then when you upload to digital platforms that are not KDP, the file will be an epub. That one will have its own ISBN but it will be the same across all epub platforms (Nook, ibooks, Kobo, Draft2Digital). Smashwords requires some further tweaking to epub files so I think you need a separate ISBN for that.

[Carole]

Thanks Marie- Have to give this to the younguns so they can figure out what to do.

Yeah- it is a bummer. The book sold well in Kindle last week- Whenever I've done promotions, we sell paperbacks too- now nada. I think it makes the book look out and out of print.

[Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger)]

Marie, Thank you for the info. That really eats up the ISBN's! Hugs!!

[Sandy]

Since we're comparing KDP to IngramSpark, maybe someone can "translate" this for me, because I'm confused. At the following link -

http://www.ingramspark.com/plan-your-...

It says (and I'm quoting) - "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."

I'm asking because as soon as my cover is done, I have a book ready for release. My first release - a novella - was though KDP and ebook only. This next release will be ebook and paperback since it's a full-sized novel. So I'm not sure how to interpret the above statement from IngramSpark. They can do the paperback, but not the ebook? They can do both, just not to Amazon? They can do the paperback to Amazon, but not the ebook? I'm likely overthinking.

[Thomas]

Sandy wrote: "They can do both, just not to Amazon?"

This. They can still do the e-book format and distribute it, except to Amazon if you uploaded your own within the past 12 months. If you're outside of the 12 month window, it should work for Amazon.

[Sandy]

Thomas wrote: This. They can still do the e-book format and distribute it, except to Amazon if you uploaded your own within the past 12 months. If you're out..."

So, since my novella ebook was released last November through KDP, I'd have to wait a year to release my new ebook to Amazon via Ingram OR just not distribute it to Amazon (via Ingram).

[Thomas]

Yeah. You'd have to wait until next November to have Ingram distribute it to Amazon. I'm not sure if there would be an automatic thing, an opt-in option at that point, or if you'd have to resubmit through the whole process. You'd want to contact IS for that one.

If they have the option to not distribute to Amazon right away, I assume they'd allow for an opt-in later, but I haven't done my e-books through IS, so my experience there is zero.