As a new author and still learning, I published my only book with Amazon. The excitement to finally publish a book was overwhelming, little did I know there is more to just publishing. Once my book was published, I could not wait to hold a printed version of the book and this is where the reality of printing the book became a nightmare.
I started the journey of getting my book printed by Amazon. I am going to share my experience on how this whole journey went and it might help other new authors on how to deal with such in case they are caught off guard like myself.
I failed to research before I went for self-publishing and I was blind-sided by the excitement of becoming a published author. Before publishing my book, I knew Amazon was available in Australia and everything else was going to be easy but I was wrong.
Publishing with Amazon
Publishing a book with Amazon is easy, if the book is internally well designed the only thing required by Amazon is to put the book into PDF format and follow the prompts provided on their website to upload your manuscript. The e-book is accepted in terms of document version.
Amazon has made it very easy for indie publishers as long as one can follow the steps as articulated on their website. Amazon also has its book designing software which can be used for interior and cover design. I am not familiar with this software since I never used it.
Once I completed the process of uploading the book, my book was LIVE which is an indication that anyone can view and purchase the book and there is no other satisfaction of an author like this achievement. I went to order author books and the price of the printing was a little bit higher since my book had a few coloured pictures.
The postage price to Australia made no sense to me and when I started doing my calculations it was going to cost a lot of money just to get hard copy books on my doorstep. The time it took to order and receive the books was way too long, a month to be precise.
I commenced researching on printing books here in Australia through Amazon. Unfortunately, Amazon does not offer printing in Australia and my dreams were crushed. There was no information on the website which highlighted that Amazon had no printing plant here. Therefore, before publishing your book ensure that Amazon does print books on your location, and if not, they can offer a different pathway for you to print your books.
I had already had a pre-sale of books through friends, colleagues, and potential clients but I could not deliver those books to them with the indicated prices which were offered by Amazon. I ordered very few books to satisfy myself and to examine the quality of printing. I also sold those books without making any profit but to satisfy my clients.
Transfer from Amazon to IngramSpark
After a lot of research and overwhelming information from websites which can be confusing, I decided to get in touch with IngramSpark here in Australia and find out what it takes to transfer my title from Amazon to them. This was going to enable the printing of books easier and a little bit cheaper. The following are the steps I undertook to get my title transferred from Amazon.
• IngramSpark sent out the application form indicating my interest to transfer to their organisation
• Filled up all the forms and returned to IngramSpark
• Wrote to Amazon to request the release of book title to IngramSpark
• The book must be removed from expanded distribution from Amazon to enable the transfer of title
• The e-book must not be enrolled in KDP select program. In case it is enrolled with KDP select one has to wait for it to complete its course then remove it.
Once these demands are met Amazon does not take long to release the book title to IngramSpark. Your book continues to be listed on Amazon since IngramSpark has them as one of their expanded distribution. I did transfer both paperback and e-book to IngramSpark. IngramSpark has a wider expanded distribution however I have not seen any advantage in terms of book sales.
Apart from sales, I get my book printed at a cheaper price from that of Amazon. The quality of prints from IngramSpark is far much better than the Amazon prints and the delivery is very fast. I also save from the shipping prices and shorter time of delivery. It took one full month for Amazon to send the books from USA to Australia. This waiting period can be frustrating particularly if customers are involved.
I am happy with IngramSpark in terms of my paperback quality, due to this experience, when I publish my next book, I will leave the e-book with Amazon and publish the paperback with Ingramspark. I am still on the learning journey.