Why I Will Never Work With IngramSpark Again

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I gave IngramSpark a second chance and in this video, I tell you why I never plan on working with them again. I'll be going over all the confusion with my paperback pre-orders and how 25 copies of my book were possibly misprinted and everything that went wrong in between. I hope that by sharing my story and mistakes, I can prevent other authors from going through the same nightmare that I did.
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Mandi Lynn published her first novel when she was seventeen. The author of multiple books, Mandi spends her days continuing to write and creating RU-vid videos to help other writers achieve their dreams of seeing their books published. Mandi is the owner of Stone Ridge Books, a company that works to help authors bring their books to life through cover design and digital book marketing. She is also the creator of The Book Launch Planner, a planner designed to help authors publish and market their books. When she’s not creating, you can find Mandi exploring her backyard or getting lost in the woods.
#ingramspark #selfpublishing #bookpublishing
• Why I Will Never Work ...
DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links. By purchasing a linked product or service, Mandi Lynn will receive a small commission at no additional fee to you.

Опубликовано:

17 июн 2023

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Комментарии : 190

@DaleLRoberts 11 месяцев назад

Oof! This is BRUTAL! Thanks for sharing. I’ve always had nightmares like this, so I upload my final manuscript for every preorder. I just don’t trust any service to do it right for me.

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

That's more or less what I'm gathering, which is unfortunate because I don't typically have my final files ready until about a month before release, which isn't much time.

@darrylhughes7797 11 месяцев назад

I hear you, dude. If someone could fuse KDP's ease of use with Ingramsparks wide distribution/discount/returns reach it would be the perfect POD service.

@sharilhouston8916 8 месяцев назад

WOW! I was just getting ready to upload and release My first book on Amazon KDP. And I have been looking at IngramSparks that I'm wondering if I even want to publish. I'm definitely a lot older than you girl like probably 20 years or 30. That took me all the courage that I had to tell people I was going to do it by October 16th. Lol

@BethanyAtazadeh 11 месяцев назад

YES YES YES!!! You said everything I’m feeling about them, I 1,000% back this video and agree that there’s no safe way to use Ingramspark as an indie author without final files ready, which in 99% of situations won’t be the case! Not worth it.

@Captainzelda 10 месяцев назад

Bethany, your past experiences has been what’s held me back from any testing. I have waited to do anything with IngramSpark until I knew I had final files.

@ghouling1111 11 месяцев назад

That was not a rude email. You said a factual blunt email. Nothing rude about it.

@stefanielozinski 11 месяцев назад

I am so sorry this happened to you!! The day D2D/KDP gets jacketed hardcovers, I'm gone. It's like a running joke between my designer and I that the files will fail the first time, EVERY TIME. And I've been one of the lucky ones!

@factoryofdivisiveopinions 11 месяцев назад

💯 I really hope D2D gets hardcover books soon.

@taylorbrione 8 месяцев назад

I wonder if I'm the only one who doesn't want a jacketed hardcover? I want it printed on the hardcover. They look better to me.

@melindawolfUS 9 месяцев назад

"if you don't have good customer service, you aren't a good business". Preach girl, Amen! I'm a marketing consultant and I tell all my clients that if your customers don't have a good experience with customer service, that no matter how great I make their website, social media and TV commercials - that one angry customer will un-do thousands of dollars they've spent in advertising. On the other hand, when a customer is shown great service THAT'S where you develop your most loyal customers that insist their friends do business with you. Even if the company made a mistake, it's still an opportunity to show your brand values and show customers they're important. It's a priceless opportunity that most businesses overlook these days. It's sad and frustrating times to be a customer these days with so many companies making their phone numbers impossible to find.

@authorlacyhess 11 месяцев назад

For years, I've heard story after story of heartache and headache from authors who printed with IngramSpark and I've been stuck debating the pros and cons of publishing through them. After watching this video, I've finally made up my mind to steer clear of them. Enough is enough. They need to get serious and fix these problems. So sorry you had to deal with this, but I'm glad you shared what happened. You saved people a lot of stress by pointing out this new change.

@WriterandPhotographer 4 месяца назад

They are terrible. I have had a half-dozen problems with them and none of those problems are even related to what Mandi discusses.

@authorlacyhess 4 месяца назад

@@WriterandPhotographer It's such a shame that they don't seem to be taking customer complaints seriously. They're going to lose a lot more current and potential customers if they don't get their act together soon.

@alpha_alpha_male1363 4 месяца назад

Could you please make suggestion on who to go with that's user friendly, and more plug and play?

@Catrector 11 месяцев назад

Thank you for this. I had this issue with my current book, and they made me feel like I'd lost my mind. I had never had this issue with my previous books, but they were talking to me like I should have known better. Here I've been thinking that it was *MY* mistake, but they changed the policy?!? I thought I couldn't imagine being more frustrated with this but here I am... Thankfully mine was also only four copies that I now need to replace.

@JustFeathers 11 месяцев назад

Been waiting for this since your fb reel/story. Totally ready for the length of the vid

@AuthorDLTillery 11 месяцев назад

Thanks for sharing your experience Mandi. Sounds like a nightmare for sure. As someone who has only published with KDP and plans to publish with ingramspark and Barns & Nobles this year I need all critical information. I was waiting for your update, it is helpful to us all. Really appreciate you. And I'm glad you figured out a way to mostly fix your issue. I'll be sure to check out the new book! 🎉

@matthewhuntcrothers7491 5 месяцев назад

I would rather publish with kdp and Barnes and noble instead of Ingram spark.

@CreatedbySusanMontgomery 11 месяцев назад

What a nightmare! Thank you for sharing your experience. I've only published my books through KDP and I seem to be hearing about a lot of problems with Ingramspark. I think I'll stay where I'm at.

@storiesbydesirae 11 месяцев назад

Thank you for sharing, Mandi. Sorry for your stress, but I'm glad things worked out for your pre-order.

@authorkristinealyse 11 месяцев назад

thank you so much for sharing this, Mandi! Definitely saves the rest of us from the hassle

@supernaturalwriter 11 месяцев назад

Thanks for sharing your experience! Really helpful to know the problems that you may encounter with these companies.

@destresswithyoga 11 месяцев назад

I’m sorry you had to go through this fiasco. What a nightmare. Glad you were able to get it resolved. I can’t wait to get my copy.

@JustFeathers 11 месяцев назад

I've been sharing this in my various writing fb groups so I hope it helps others too! I've also been sharing your books in my reading groups :)

@ChristopherMTantillo 11 месяцев назад

This same thing happened to me in April, and I was utterly frustrated. I uploaded a file for preorders in January and would revise my interior maybe once a month as I fixed typos or ARC readers pointed things out to me. I didn't know about this process until someone from ALLi told me. But now anyone who preordered my book in January has the old files with some typos and some lines here and there I either changed or deleted I didn't want in the final files. And I had close to 400 preorders. I don't know who got what edition, but I know last month (after my book released) people who ordered from Amazon AFTER my book went live were still getting older books with some typos when they shouldn't have. I don't know what IS is even printing now cause I haven't ordered a copy to check. Very frustrated. This was my first book. I'm sorry this happened to you too. Now I don't even know if I'm going to do a preorder for my next book.

@Lesandira 11 месяцев назад

I've been following your story on social media, so sorry to hear about what happened.

@landonp629 11 месяцев назад

I don't think Ingram Spark is really designed for authors. They say it is, but more than anything I'd say its more useful for small presses who know the ins and outs of the platform.

@5Gburn 11 месяцев назад

Still not at all user friendly. I'm surprised at how many indie authors stuck with them for so long. Now that Barnes and Noble is an option to get hardback copies, I see a mass exodus on the horizon.

@landonp629 11 месяцев назад

@@5Gburn as for user friendliness - Ingram Spark to me feels more like lightening source than KDP or BN press, which always to me seemed much more author-focused and hand-holdy than the others.

@CS-uc2oh 2 месяца назад

Ingram Spark isn't for small presses. They have another program for small presses called Lightning Source. It used to awesome but it's as horrible as Ingram Spark now.

@Ggdivhjkjl 9 месяцев назад

@18:45 To answer your question, the "On Sale Date" is the date that retailers can sell your book. Wholesalers can buy it beforehand and hold it until the "On Sale Date".

@renepoggenpoel1711 10 месяцев назад

Thank you so much for the time and energy you spend on making these videos. I’m self-publishing my first book and I have a brain injury. I’m heading straight for KDP, it sounds like it’s a lot less trouble.

@instudios8294 11 месяцев назад

First, let me say that your book formatting program is fabulous! I published my first book around Christmas six months ago. I had followed all of your videos regarding pre-ordering, so I was confused when I saw some of the alerts pop up that books potentially might ship before final files were uploaded. I was nervous. In doing some googling the advice that I landed on was the same as you did. Don’t enable pre-ordering until you have your final files. Luckily, in my case no books shipped with the draft files. I think it’s a case where they do whatever they want to do. I was nervous though. I had a couple hundred pre-orders, which isn’t huge, but it was my first book so I wanted to make a professional impression. Anyway, I feel your pain.

@MashAllahMari 10 месяцев назад

You are such a sweet person! Anyone would be very frustrated and upset in your situation. I think your email was well written and expressed how you were feeling the frustrations they need to hear it because they will never be any improvements if no one says anything just shows what a good person you are caring that you may be were upset when you wrote it.

@jsa-z1722 8 месяцев назад

Thank you for helping other indie publishers Mandi! It’s awful, what you had to go through.

@writercleavebourbon 11 месяцев назад

They have caused issues for me too. I was excited to try them when the fees were discontinued, but their distribution started causing me issues with Amazon because they made double entries. I am delisting with them.

@stealthuniversalproduction2729 7 месяцев назад

Thank you for sharing your input and sorry you have to go through all that mess. I'll take your advice and look elsewhere, I have a huge following globally. Wish you the best.

@DrCharlesParker 2 месяца назад

Excellent, businesslike explanation. The details you share here helped me to close that door. Timing matters, period.

@burningbranchpublishing 11 месяцев назад

This video was so helpful. Thanks for sharing this Mandi! :) I'm not going to publish through Ingram. This helped me make my mind about it. :)

@r.s.4672 11 месяцев назад

Thanks for this video, Mandi. I'm sorry you went through that terrible experience. My main takeaway is that Ingram Spark really doesn't care about the authors' ease of use of their platform, and the fact that they actually charge money for some undefined phone session (is it customer service? or like you speculated, simply for basic information?) is outrageous. I don't see myself using Ingram Spark now or ever.

@aleydireyes6679 11 месяцев назад

I published my first and only book for now with Etsy and I have not regret it. First, I am getting 90% of the sale commissions and it’s very user friendly. I know that a lot of people like using Amazon, but I don’t because of the insane amount of commission they earn. I love working with Etsy ❤️

@thequeenjess 11 месяцев назад

Etsy does book publishing?

@aleydireyes6679 11 месяцев назад

@@thequeenjess yes!

@Princess33 11 месяцев назад

Where do we find out more? I've not heard of etsy publishing books before!

@aleydireyes6679 11 месяцев назад

@@Princess33 mine is published right now just as an ebook but in their website it should have more information 😊

@bfreecity 11 месяцев назад

I cannot find anything online or on the Etsy site that says they offer self publishing 🤷🏼‍♂️ anyone have a link?

@mlbullbooks 11 месяцев назад

Wow! Thanks for the heads up. So sorry for your inconvenience. I’ve been skeptical with doing pre-orders myself. If I were to do one, I lean more towards ebooks, but only on sites like KDP. Never doing ebooks on Ingramspark again.

@Ruthie888 10 месяцев назад

Who would you use for wide distribution besides KDP (who bookstores don't like) and Ingramspark?

@alpha_alpha_male1363 4 месяца назад

I was curious about the companies you've decided to go with, thank you for your time.

@br6cevinyl 11 месяцев назад

You should do more storytimes this was hilarious to me 😂

@marvalaurie8760 6 месяцев назад

THANKS YOU’RE COURAGEOUS, DETERMINE, & SUCCESSFUL ABOUT YOUR WORK AS AN AUTHOR. THANKS FOR CARING FOR NEW AUTHORS. SO THANKS FOR CARING.

@cassie_hart 11 месяцев назад

I'm kind of pleased that I've always been too nervous to use them! I was considering it now that they dropped the fees associated with uploading and changes, but I might just wait a bit longer...

@ChristopherSadlowski 11 месяцев назад

Okay. Okay, I'm not a writer so maybe that's why I'm not getting this. Why in the hell is a book printer apparently shoving files directly into the printing press the second they receive them? Especially when it sounds like they tell you that they WON'T immediately start printing stuff, and they'll begin the process on a predetermined date in the future? Something's not clicking here for me at all.

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

I'm as confused as you are

@SeedyJohnson 11 месяцев назад

When we first started using Ingram back in the day, that was for hard copy wholesale orders of our books. In fact, we still have a publisher's account with the main company (which comes with a support rep) even though we haven't used them in decades. IngramSpark came along later as a competitor to the then Createspace and emerging Lulu platforms. And it was clear from the start that they had no idea what they were doing. We only used them once for one book, and after that, it was more than apparent that they were nothing but a hot mess. And it looks as if that hasn't changed a bit. Ingram, that main company that only deals with publishing houses, has been around as a fulfillment company for a very long time. I'm pretty sure the people running IngramSpark are not the same people. I think they are licensing the name somehow. Probably some venture capitalist jokers who went to Ingram and said: "Hey, have you ever thought about getting into the print-on-demand business?" - And someone who clearly didn't have a clue signed off on what was a very bad idea. For future reference, no printing company, not even a POD, can legally print and sell your material without your permission, even if you initially gave them permission. In no way does Ingram assume publication rights for your book. If you inform them that you are not willing to print with them, even up to the minute before they started printing, they must cease activity on your product. Especially if you have informed them that there is something wrong with the product. Think of it this way... You produced a bunch of dresses to be sold at Macy's. (Old reference, I know.) Last minute, you discovered a seam was sown 2 inches too short. The moment you informed Macy's of the error, they have two choices: [1] Purposefully damage your brand by selling an inferior product. [2] Stop sales immediately. - The first one opens them up to damages. The second one saves theirs asses. Even if their so-called terms says they will start printing your books on their own say-so, that is not how copyright law works. The moment you inform them that you don't want them to print something, and they do it anyway, that is just grounds for your lawsuit going forward. It is entirely possible that they are so full of themselves that they don't expect to be sued. Probably because the parent company would flip the bill for that. But maybe the problem is they haven't been sued enough over the years.

@TheRealBronweN 10 месяцев назад

I am surprised that there isn't more interaction with your comment. Agree with this 100%. When a company is about to damage my brand, I begin talking legal and I get sent to someone who can fix the problem. I also would never upload any file that isn't ready for publication, because I don't want to create a digital record of anything less than perfection. But your take is bang on.

@SeedyJohnson 10 месяцев назад

@@TheRealBronweN I'm going to show my age here. Back in the day, and I mean like early 2000s, when POD started turning into larger platforms that catered to less professional independent publishers, you'd put all of your content on their servers because that was easier and their interface faster than your average clunky home computer, even though rather primitive at the time. HTML and javascript. Not everyone had top of the line hardware or software beyond Word or WordPerfect, and it wasn't like today were even an average PC is adequate. They even had ftp servers set up for uploading large files. PODs would expect users to make their corrections online through their user interface. And at the time, it was a pretty good idea. But it did put people in the habit of expecting their content to always be there. And when Createspace got eaten by Amazon, I remember a few creators complaining that some of their work in progress simply disappeared into the void, never to be seen again. Some of it with changes foolishly not backed up. I would never upload beta copies these days. Wouldn't really need to for any reason. But these platforms are rife with errors, even if not too often. I just spotted one with Lulu earlier this month where despite uploading an updated version of a file to correct an item for a contributor, the preview was still showing the old version a week later. I don't know if it was just a glitch or they somehow reverted back to the first file, but a third upload changed the preview. This, of course, is different than intentionally using a bad file. But you always have to double-check your work, and triple-check everyone else's. Especially the services you use because we all have a bias where we expect flawless performance from people we perceive as "experts" and "professionals". Most of the people working for these companies probably has less actual publishing experience than the average independent publisher. Their jobs are compartmentalized, and they basically just follow the instructions they are given by the actual engineers. Which is probably what happened here. The project went off script and no one on ground level knew enough to improvise and fix the issue. They eventually had to turn to the real experts for help behind the curtains. This reminds me of a funny story in which my first web hosting service ended up being secretly run by a couple of 14 year olds. They actually did pretty good... Until they didn't.

@KrymsonScale 6 месяцев назад

When you put it brand image terms, it is more of IngramSpark is less having an issue on customer support and updates on their service and more that care about profits above all else.

@DogmenHardcastle 11 месяцев назад

On paper there is a lot I like about Ingramspark, and these issues really don't relate to anything I would do. I don't really get what preorders even are and wouldn't try to do them. I also wouldn't upload until it's the entire thing very very finished. Bad customer service is always worrying, however.

@marlonappleton777 11 месяцев назад

Thanks Mandi. Your video saved me the pain. As a debut author, I think it's best if I avoid IngramSpark totally until they catch up to KDP.

@lesleybarklay798 11 месяцев назад

It seems like it's not really a pre-order, it's just publishing it. Or you can only do a pre-order if you have finalised your files.

@michaellightenpublisher 11 месяцев назад

Love the video. Sorry that happened to you. Lesson learned.

@kamelus2008 11 месяцев назад

Hello Mandy, first of all I would like to thank you for all these great videos that you make and which are so useful. and I'm sorry for what happened to you with Ingramfor my part I agree with your analysis but for my part, I am a photographer and I am tearing my hair out finding a self-publishing platform to print my photo book in A4 landscape format with a hard cover, so we can't avoid Ingram since Kdp doesn't do it yet. if you have an idea I will be interested and thank you again Mandi Bravo for your videos

@JoannaKimber 11 месяцев назад

This is crazy, as a debut author I think it’s smart to plan for error but you can’t do that if the information isnt there. $25!!?? Are they crazy?? I really wanted to try them but I may have to just do KDP.

@idonotcare3198 4 месяца назад

You saved me a giant headache! I was going to use Ingramspark, but after this video and several others like it, I dodged a huge bullet!

@GodsUnrulyFriends 10 месяцев назад

I can't thank you enough for making the video. I signed up with Ingramspark. I only got as far as buying ISBN numbers for my book. Thanks to your recommendation, I will explore other options. Also, expect to hear from me on your website regarding your book formatting services. I have a question. Since I bought the ISBN numbers for both the print and ebook versions of my upcoming book. Am I correct in my assumption that I can use these numbers with pother services?

@swordablaze9259 10 месяцев назад

This is so bad!! I was watching this while cooking and just told my partner that, when I publish, I'm steering clear of IS. I work in customer services for a company and am appalled by their lack of customer service! Oh, and I'd say this is definitely their fault - not yours! Why on earth would you not put the directions of uploading in the uploading section instead where you have to go through searching for them?? Thank you for the time you've put into this. I hope IS learn their lesson.

@paulguyot9318 11 месяцев назад

Mandi, I was all set to use IS for my first book... until I found your videos. THANK YOU! So, can you give me your opinion on what I should do -- my book is nonfiction, and probably 80% of my readership will want print and audio rather than ebooks. I was going to use KDP for my ebooks and IS for my PODs. Now what??? :) If you have an opinion on how best for me to move forward, please let me know. I understand it's only an opinion, but you have an INFORMED opinion! Thank you again for all you do.

@Ruthie888 10 месяцев назад

I have the same questions!

@jenniferlane9029 23 дня назад

I've never had a good experience with IS. How on earth do you get a customer service contact so you can get anything done? After I reported a case of piracy (someone bought an ISBN and published a pirated copy of my book with a new cover, author name, blurb, and edited first chapter), they took down my work and gave it to the book pirate. I, like others, had to take to social media to get someone to talk to me. I lost out on big opportunities as a result of my work going out of print for so long. It was so traumatic that I stopped publishing for a few years. I finally decided to publish again, but they've pulled my book for more stringent manual review, and it's been stuck there for 10 days. I'm pretty sure it's just retribution for having been vocal about their incompetency. But there's no other way for authors to get the basic services IS claims to make available to customers. Ugh. If anyone has tips for getting them to function, I could use the help.

@thewellnessseeker-official7695 11 месяцев назад

Thanks for this video....

@anastasiasmith374 11 месяцев назад

I would find all this frustrating as well. I don't know if it helps you with information gathering but I had pre-ordered the Trail to You and Me on May 29th through Amazon, so KDP from what I can gather and initially they said I would get my order from anytime from the 26th of June to early July. Later on probably around the 13th of June they said my estimated delivery date changed and I received it a few days ago on the 16th. Everything looks fine and has the dedication page and newsletter page in it all the headers. At the last page it does look like you say the KDP page prints their barcode and says the date it was printed was 6/13/23. I don't know if this helps with information gathering at to what is going on but I thought I'd let you know in case it does. I look forward to reading it soon.

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

How odd! But so glad the copy you got was the final copy!

@robertadautoiii9579 11 месяцев назад

who do you recommend for book distribution if we leave Ingram?

@claramatson357 10 месяцев назад

Can you go wide through KDP? Who do you now plan to publish with?

@alpha_alpha_male1363 4 месяца назад

Thank you for your review! I was about to attempt to use this service, and after the first several steps forward I was like... I think I need to check out some videos, because this is NOT user friendly. Would you happen to have any suggestions for better publication options?

@Ggdivhjkjl 9 месяцев назад

Depending on which location (country) an Ingram book was printed at, the information on the last page may be different, but I believe they always put the barcode in the lower right.

@mikaylaruth2081 10 месяцев назад

I signed up for them and my continue button for submitting a title won’t work. I’ve had an account since May and they responded saying it would be fixed in 3 days. Here I am three weeks later and no help. 😅

@elizaluckey5334 11 месяцев назад

No, you should be proud of your email to them 😂😂 their customer support is not appropriate and they deserve to know it. Thank you for sharing this experience. I am sticking clear of IS

@LisaMarieFord 11 месяцев назад

This sounds like a lot of… “fun”. Geesh. I’ve been printing with KDP for several years. Their knowledge base does have a bunch and it’s grown over the years from Createspace. Sometimes getting a response is soso there too. Yours is the first negative review I’ve seen for IS, but I also haven’t delved into it much. I was considering going with them for publishing a second edition of my children’s books so I could have better size options, but I might have to plan differently. Any time I have considered using them the interface seemed tricksy, but I thought maybe it was because I had read everything at KDP and familiarized myself with their system. I was also considering for the pre-order option, but I am spoiled in being able to update my books at any time. I’m doing it again for most of my books to update my website. To be fair traditional publishers would have a print run and books can’t be updated, but they also have teams to try to ensure things are set. I’m definitely not keen to give up the control though to try that route.

@authorvivian.o.2387 11 месяцев назад

I am having the same experience and I only ordered one proof copy just to see how the physical book will look like. I have emailed them and I got a response saying they will take to a hire up no response. I just sent another email expressing how upset I am. And this is my first time using them. My book is coming out on the 6th. Like this is both annoying and disappointing. Thanks for this video

@oldtownpublishing5158 10 месяцев назад

Do you or do you know where I can find the number to IngramSpark paid support. They've rejected for distribution several of my books and I cannot for the life of me understand why. Thank you. And thank you for your great videos. They help.

@CS-uc2oh 2 месяца назад

BTW, they don't have their accounts setup for a single publisher running completely separate publishing companies that are NOT imprints of a larger company but they won't let you open multiple accounts for each of those companies, forcing you to operate like an imprint. That's wrong on so many levels. I just found that out the hard way. The lunacy of that is that a publisher doing as such only has to just register a new account with a different name and then there's no issues ... how does that serve anyone? Ingram as a whole is awful.

@captaindeadpool313 11 месяцев назад

God I hope Ingramspark sees this and opens their eyes.

@5Gburn 11 месяцев назад

When they see sales drop significantly and current customers yank their titles off their site, they *might* pay attention. I hate to say it, but it sounds like Ingram Spark hired abroad and English is not the native language of the people they hired. A lot of companies do this, thinking it's cheaper, but foreign hires often drag out conversations to either increase their company's payment for the call (if billed by the minute plus a per-call initial charge) or in order to prevent receiving another call. I'd certainly be wary of the video call scam. I can definitely see the CSR drag out a half-hour call to an hour, or if an hour were paid for, solve the issue in 35 minutes. Ugh.

@captaindeadpool313 11 месяцев назад

@@5Gburn I can see that as a possibility, but I don't think them hiring abroad who don't use English as their main language is an issue. I think the bigger issue is to hire incompetent people.

@PeterGarrett-nv6co Месяц назад

Ingram Sparks instructed DHL to deliver the order I placed with Ingram Sparks. DHL could not achieve delivery and returned the book. Five days later it was destroyed on instruction by Ingram Sparks. Later I was notified of the non-delivery and the destruction of the book. Ingram Sparks said it was up to me to track the delivery and not up to them to advise me. No compensation, no apology, no interest and (duirng 40 mins online finding out what had happened) no politeness. A loss of $50 for me, What kind of company is this? 👎

@gonnadanceagain 7 месяцев назад

So, if I already have my my ISBN and haven't uploaded yet, but have signed the paperwork/tax stuff am I stuck there? I started with CompletelyNovel who went out of business but they did transfer me to IngramSpark. Now I just don't know. This part is harder than the writing was.

@Ggdivhjkjl 9 месяцев назад

You're correct that they just send copy and paste emails until you demonstrate that you're upset with them. Be as clear as possible in explaining what you already understand and what you want to know.

@PaintingMeJosh 11 месяцев назад

Wait I'm so confused. How can they prohibit updated files when orders are pending? What if, say, your book is doing so well in sales that's there's literally always at least one pending order. How are you ever supposed to cut in and update the files before more copies are printed??? This is insane. I myself am still years away from my first book being ready for publishing, so maybe things will be different then, but your story (and several other AuthorTubers' stories) has me terrified to even attempt using IngramSpark.

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

I was thinking the same thing. So if you keep selling, you can never update your files? It didn't make sense.

@modernbuys 11 месяцев назад

It makes zero sense. An author should be able to update their books whenever they want. It literally affects nothing on their end as long as they print from whatever final version is last updated. They behave like this very archaic company that doesn't know how to move with the times.

@carlosdanielsantos3280 11 месяцев назад

Instead of Ingramspark, what do you think would be best for physical distribution? All I can think of is Draft2Digital but even then, it has it's cons.

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

I've had the best luck with Kindle Direct Publishing

@carlosdanielsantos3280 11 месяцев назад

@@MandiLynnWrites Have you ever tried Expanded Distribution with KDP?

@immortalmindz-conversation7021 11 месяцев назад

Is there an advantage of uploading a temp file instead of just waiting on the final to be completed?

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

You can start collecting pre-orders for your book sooner. But in IngramSpark's case, I know now that you should NEVER upload files unless they are the final files.

@JustFeathers 11 месяцев назад

I wish I could support to preorder! But that's pay day so I can't buy until payday anyway.

@oldtownpublishing5158 10 месяцев назад

Here's the response I received from IngramSpark Customer Support: To better assist you, our live phone support and chat options will be temporarily unavailable for United States (Do you think they understand the irony in this?)

@modernbuys 11 месяцев назад

The solution was clear. They needed to add an "updated" distribution notification next to the distribution option for at least a couple of months being as the original rule was there for years. Unless they are saying they expect users to constantly have to read and read their rules every time they use their site. Talk about an unfriendly interface.

@Smar-rc4ce 3 месяца назад

What is the alternative to Ingram so that you can get books into stores and libraries?

@sandra_nomoto 11 месяцев назад

Would you allow me to use a transcription of your video as a blog post? Would love to share the experience with others and will embed the original video into the blog. TY either way!

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

As long as you credit and link to the original video :)

@sandra_nomoto 11 месяцев назад

@@MandiLynnWrites Will do, thank you!

@tragicsimmer 7 месяцев назад

"If you don't have good customer service, you don't have good business" YES

@kc-jm3cd 11 месяцев назад

What was the total cost for soft cover from each

@bfitzger2 11 месяцев назад

You can share emails where you are the sender or recipient, absolutely.

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

From what I found online, it sounded like I couldn't share an email someone wrote to me unless I got their permission. I'd rather be cautious, especially since I told IngramSpark I'd be making this video.

@heartlandauthor 11 месяцев назад

Looks like I'll be using Draft2Digital as my primary self-publishing distribution service going forward. Also, Mandi, I reported a spam account here on RU-vid that is clearly impersonating you and using a former profile picture of yours.

@FablestoneSeries 10 месяцев назад

I wish i saw this video two weeks ago. Ingramspark is not worth the stress. After 2 weeks they haven't progressed by submission. It is frozen but in order to fix the issue they want me to send them an update, but i can't update because the edit function is turned off, and now they just sent me an email telling me they were going to unlist my books because they were the same as another book already listed. You know what book that was? My book. They can't tell the difference between a book released in UK english and its counterpart released in US english. What kind of publishing company are they? Are they run by monkeys? They are overpriced too. Stay away from them.

@factoryofdivisiveopinions 11 месяцев назад

Are you going to use Lulu for global distribution now? If so, Can you do some tutorials on Lulu? I've heard about that platform but can't find that many tutorials on it.

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

They are very expensive and you’d have to price your books super high to make a decent amount

@factoryofdivisiveopinions 11 месяцев назад

@@MandiLynnWrites how about blurb then? It has less print trim options but I hear it has global distribution too. Which platform will you use now for global distribution?

@MaryLovesJesus 11 месяцев назад

Sin shortens life, because of our sins we are separated from God.There is nothing in this world worth going to hellfire for. Repent of your sins and be born again, Jesus Christ is coming back everyone. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ NOT religion/denomination. We have a relationship with Jesus Christ by repenting of all of our sins, praying and reading the Bible everyday, believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and be born again.

@factoryofdivisiveopinions 11 месяцев назад

@MaryLovesGod2 Jesus Christ will be disappointed that his followers are starting to become more and more like a marketing team, promoting his brand.

@MaryLovesJesus 11 месяцев назад

@@factoryofdivisiveopinions The word of God said we are to go the world and preach the good news. OPEN YOUR BIBLE AND READ IT CORRECTLY BEFORE COMING TO RU-vid AND SAYING WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW.

@trevorthompson330 7 месяцев назад

I find getting angry or angry emails never work, it may help temporarily to help you feel better.

@DeborahChapin День назад

Wow, I'm going through something with Amazon and I think we need to gear up it is only going to get worse. AI answering with cut and paste emails and really really really poor customer service even it you can call it customer service.

@annee3158 10 месяцев назад

Not me finding this video after I legit just uploaded a paperback file with them. 😂 Well...here we go I guess.

@ahmads.1055 7 месяцев назад

How are you doing with them?

@SisterSherryDoingStuff 10 месяцев назад

Righteous RANT! I have no clue if my book is even available on IngramSpark. I can't find answers. Feel like I've been duped.

@darrylhughes7797 11 месяцев назад

BRAVO!!! OH-MY-GOD Ingramspark has the world's worst customer service. I have to deal with them at least once every two weeks or so because any time I update or change my metadata (change a keyword, add a review quote, etc) I get stuck "revision incomplete" hell where my title says "revision incomplete", but the "title status" shows that my changes were accepted and that the book is available, but for some reason their website hasn't switched over from "revision incomplete" to "title available" for some reason (it's supposed to take 2-5 minutes) and your book shows "revision incomplete". And then when you email Ingramspark about it the get bacl to you in 3-4 days with a copy-n-paste response about just press "undo revision". But the changes were accepted, so there's nothing to undo, so pressing "undo revision" does absolutely nothing to change "revision incomplete" to "title available". It becomes a situation that only an Ingramspark customer service rep or tech can fix. But Ingramsparks customer service reps seem only able to read off of a prepared checklist of answers to FAQ and anything more then that that needs to be done has to be kicked to a different department. The whole process start to finish usually takes 10-12 days to play out with all of the back and forth emails and cut-n-paste responses from an Ingramsparks customer service rep writing to you as if you have brain damage. Now contrast this with the last time I dealt with an Ingramspark customer service rep when you could still talk to a live person. That young lady punched up my account while I told her about the problem, saw the problem, and fixed the problem in 10 minutes. God, those were the days.

@gonnadanceagain 7 месяцев назад

I was trying to schedule a phone contact because I'm ready to upload. I received an email that that service is no longer available, just email. I am pulling my hair out!

@nikkik2648 11 месяцев назад

So weird. So, do they mail to customer in advance too or just print them? Doesn't make sense

@MandiLynnWrites 11 месяцев назад

Honestly? I have no clue anymore 😅

@JustFeathers 11 месяцев назад

@@MandiLynnWrites you have a spam bot that took your info ptetending to be you in the commentd

@lorieovalle4288 8 месяцев назад

I dont even want to deal with ingram sparks. I dont need that stress. I am already having issues with collins ghostwriting. Even though I wrote 100%, they were going to publish my book. Aug 16 the book went live, it was a mess. We took it dwn, for a small children's book, its still not ready. Its now October. My lawyer will now get involved. I dont recommend Collins ghostwriting.

@RKIF1 11 месяцев назад

How can i contact with you?

@hjkluoijljoiu 11 месяцев назад

My slogan for IngramSpark: “We’re IngramSpark and we don’t care!”

@nextinstitute7824 5 месяцев назад

Pay for customer service, terms of serivice that change without notice, copy-pasted emails 😱 Isn't Lulu a better deal?

@momo_genX 11 месяцев назад

So, this is an advertisement for Amazon Kindle Unlimited? They are the heros for saving me from Ingrid Sparx?

@momo_genX 11 месяцев назад

I hear you have typos. Was.wondering why. I write in WordPad because I have nothing else. I like it now because it makes me read the text more often and deeper in revisions

@articulatemadness 5 месяцев назад

Fuck no. Amazon is shit. Period. They are far worse.

@authorjdnichols 11 месяцев назад

i went with D2DP and B&N Press on my novel JUST to avoid Ingram Spark.

@articulatemadness 5 месяцев назад

B&N Press is terrible. You only can make a total of 10 cents a book once you go with all of their deductions.

@blkidslearning 9 месяцев назад

It is day 10, and I'm still waiting on a response from them 😢

@pioneerpicker 9 месяцев назад

Their customer service sounds like going to the drive through and them asking for a tip 😂NOPE

@Peacelovejoy1111 11 месяцев назад

You have to pay for customer service??!! What?

@nextinstitute7824 5 месяцев назад

Why don't these guys just clean up their act... I've read so many negative reviews by now. Any other, company would have been bankrupt.

@articulatemadness 5 месяцев назад

Barnes and Noble owns them.

@ragingmailbox5985 12 дней назад

@@articulatemadnessthat is not true.

@articulatemadness 10 дней назад

@@ragingmailbox5985 Yes it is. Barnes and Noble acquired controlling interest of them during the pandemic. Ingram Group has minor interest. This was their way to hedge against Kdp.

@paulguyot9318 11 месяцев назад

Yes, you are 100% legally allowed to share emails.

@Ggdivhjkjl 9 месяцев назад

In which jurisdiction?

@CraigHines13 11 месяцев назад

@MandiLynnWrites I truly do feel sorry for your bad experience with this, and I agree that Ingram's customer service has tremendous room for improvement. However, I've been using them for over 15 years (originally as Lightning Source) and have never had any print or distribution problems with my small publishing imprint. I have watched many of your lessons and the book formatting course (because I'm always interested to see what I can learn from others and add to my knowledge), and I feel there are many areas that I could offer you some advice and tips to avoid and prevent problems like this. If you are receptive to my advice and areas for improvement, let me know. I keep a very busy schedule, but I'd be willing to provide some help if you want it. Either way, best of luck and I hope you have more success in the future.

@CS-uc2oh 2 месяца назад

It sounds like Ingram is circling the drain with paid customer service...