I’m pleased to announce, to bookstores everywhere, that Thumbs Up: Memoir of a Joyful Organizer is now available on IngramSpark with the standard 55 percent discount and the right to return books. Making it so was a major adventure that included long email discussions with IT and HR representatives from Draft2Digital and IngramSpark.
If you’re an independent publisher, this blog is for you.
Here’s what happened.
Azenphony Press Uploads “Thumbs Up” to Draft2Digital
Azenphony Press, my publishing house, uploaded the book files to Draft2Digital (D2D), the digital distribution platform I have been using since I discovered them. Among the many advantages of using D2D is, they distribute books through most of the major platforms so you don’t have to, saving publishers from having to individually upload files to every single platform individually.
Add to that is one unique benefit, D2D’s Universal Book Link (UBL), a URL that leads to one web page that includes links to all the platforms where your book may be purchased. Readers can choose the bookstore of their choice. For example, here is the UBL for Thumbs Up.
IngramSpark never showed up there, maybe, I guessed, because it’s used mainly by bookstores, who use their own link to get there.
A Horrifying Discovery about IngramSpark
So I had to verify that D2D did make my book available to users of IngramSpark, mostly bookstores. In my research, I was pleased to discover that they did. But I was horrified to learn that bookstores only received a 20 percent discount.
This can’t be. In the pre-digital age, Ingram was the distributor used by bookstores. Their traditional discount was 40 to 55 percent. In the digital age, Ingram became IngramSpark, the electronic book distributor. Bookstores buy their books from IngramSpark, but they expect the same discount, and with the right to return books they don’t sell.
Draft2Digital gave less than half that.
I needed Draft2Digital to release my right to distribute to IngramSpark back to me.
There appears to be no standard set of instructions for this procedure.
I told D2D I wanted the right to distribute directly to IngramSpark from Azenphony Press instead of indirectly through D2D. They said I should ask IngramSpark.
I asked IngramSpark. The representative said they had to receive that request directly from the publisher. I said I was the publisher.
Two Side Rants
Side rant #1: Don’t ever let an electronic distribution network say they are your publisher. Draft2Digital is a distributor, and a good one at that—but only you are the publisher. Remember: It’s called independent publishing. You are an independent publisher.
IngramSpark was treating D2D as the publisher. That distinction might have been true in the pre-digital age but it no longer is. This confusion can be easily eliminated if IngramSpark would include fields for both publisher and distributor in their metadata
Side rant #2: In the same way, they need a field for edition so publishers can distinguish when they publish new editions.
Back to My Story, and the Lesson
Back to my story: I brought the representative from D2D into the conversation, and we got to know each other because I didn’t let the issue rest. Finally, IngramSpark gave into my argument, accepted my updated file listing Azenphony Press as publisher, and even helped me iron out a few electronic glitches so it could go live.
I’m grateful to them both for helping me through those apparently uncharted waters.
The lesson to independent publishers is, when you upload to Draft2Digital, upload first to IngramSpark so you can control the discount and return policy. When you then upload your file to D2D (because no reputable distribution network demands exclusivity), they will see that a book with the same ISBN already is available to IngramSpark and take it out of their distribution network.
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Ken Wachsberger is an author, editor, speaker, and book coach. His memoir, Thumbs Up: Memoir of a Joyful Organizer, was released this summer and is available for purchase here.
