Using Ingram Spark - 5 Years Later
/It’s time for an update, friends. It’s been five years and, yanno, some stuff has happened since my first Ingram Spark post in 2018.
<waves at the general everything>
In case you don’t know to what posts I refer, feel free to check these out:
Using IngramSpark: My Experience and Mistakes - November 30, 2018
My First Time Using Ingram Spark for Preorders - December 09, 2019
I’m about to do a quick little update here, but you should definitely go back and read those two blog entries because they have a lot of really useful information that I won’t be repeating here.
Oh, also, this is only about print books. Ebooks are a completely different matter that will not be discussed here today (save for a quick note at the end).
What’s Stayed the Same?
Ingram is still one of the world’s largest book distributors, so it’s definitely wise to seriously consider using them for your print book distribution.
Amazon still doesn’t offer print book preorder options. And after all this time, I think it’s safe to say it’s clearly not a priority for them. Once you set up your print book, it’s on sale (though you can do what I do and enter in all the pertinent information and just wait to press the proverbial “go” button until just after midnight on your release day).
I still recommend using the guide Ingram provides because the process is still totally hella complicated.
What’s Changed?
Ingram’s got competition now for print book preorders. Draft2Digital now offers the ability to set up a print book for preorder. Essentially, they connect with Ingram for you.
I no longer find Ingram’s customer service more helpful than Amazon. Not by a long shot. More on that later.
Amazon now offers hardcover books as well… with caveats. Amazon only offers library binding, which I don’t personally love the look of. They don’t offer dust jackets like Ingram does.
Ingram has updated their user interface. It’s… fine, I guess. More on that later too.
Ingram has done away with book setup fees. Hooray!
I also have no idea if the title transfer is a thing you can do anymore. I hope so, as it is an easier option (or at least it used to be).
Right, so with all that said, lemme address my biggest issue with the changes that have happened. As I said, the IU has been updated and it’s serviceable. A little convoluted? Sure, but it’s pretty on par with D2D’s. Again, I recommend you use the guide Ingram provides. The customer service, however, has really tanked.
The response time are lousy and the information that is provided is lacking, to put it mildly. Also, is chat support even still available? I tried to find it and failed utterly, though I have heard other authors say it’s still a thing. I don’t know what dark rites they invoked to get access, but there it is.
Anyhoodles, here’s what happened. So You can purchase your universal ISBN thru Ingram. It’s about $80—I have no idea what it is outside of the US. Apologies. Or you can purchase universal ISBNs straight from Bowker—that’s the place folks in the US get their ISBNs from, and that should be the only place you, my fellow US residents, go for them. Beware of scams, y’all. But I digress. A pack of 10 universal ISBNs from Bowker cost me $295.
Math is not my best thing, and even I can see the benefits here. If you plan on continuing to publish books, this is something to seriously consider, especially as it’ll start saving you money with your fourth book release.
But beware that Ingram’s system may have an issue with those ISBNs. I got this error message when I tried to add that information into my book’s setup page (ignore the part about the book description length; that was easily fixed):
So, with dread in my heart, I went ahead and contacted Ingram’s customer service team. Here’s where I spill some tea.
Thusly is how my email thread with Ingram went:
Dana Fraedrich
Jul 24, 2023, 11:03 AM CDT
Hello Ingram Spark team,
I hope you're doing well today. I am emailing because I'm trying to set up my newest book in the system, but when I enter the ISBN, I get the message "The ISBN entered is not associated with your established Publisher account." I purchased a pack of ISBNs from Bowker/MyIdentifiers. Both my imprint name and organization name in the MyIdentifiers site is set to Goat Song Publishing, the same as the publisher name in the Ingram Spark system. The email address is the same in both sites. My name is the same in both sites. How do I make the Ingram Spark system see that the ISBN I purchased from Bowker is mine, please? As proof, I've attached a screenshot of the MyIdentifier's screen showing the same ISBN and the book title.
Thank you in advance for your help,
Dana Fraedrich
Attachment(s)
Screen Shot 2023-07-24 at 11.01.53 AM.png
[name] (IngramSpark Support)
Jul 26, 2023, 5:28 AM CDT
Hello Dana,
Thank you for reaching out to us.
We have received your request. Your inquiry requires additional support. We are sending your case to our next level of Customer Support to further assist you. Once reviewed, our team will be in contact with you.
Be advised that the IngramSpark Customer Support Team is currently experiencing a high volume of emails. We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as the IngramSpark team works diligently to assist you as soon as possible.
Please note, emails are answered in the order in which they are received. Please wait for a response. Continuous emails will push your request back into the queue and could cause further delays.
Regards,
[name]
Client Support Coordinator
Dana Fraedrich
Aug 2, 2023, 1:00 PM CDT
Hello IS team,
I wanted to ask as to the progress of this ticket. It's been a week and I haven't received any updates. Please let me know the status of this ticket as well as when I can expect a solution.
Thank you,
Dana Fraedrich
Okay, so here’s where I tried something new and different. On July 27th, I had the opportunity to actually go to Ingram’s HQ and participate in a focus group designed to improve Ingram’s user experience. Unsurprisingly, the biggest complaint was, you guessed it, the difficulty with customer service. While I was there, though, one of the sales managers handed out his card and told us attendees to reach out if we had any issues. Well, I waited two days for a response to the above email and, when none came, I reached out to Mister Sales Manager.
Ticket Update Problems
Fri, Aug 4, 1:34 PM
Hello [name],
I hope you're doing well today. We met at Ingram Spark's 10 year celebration last week. You said to contact you if we had any problems, and I'm afraid I do have a problem.
This is in regards to ticket number [ABC]
Account number [XYZ]
EAN/ISBN 9798987843604
I first submitted the ticket on 7/24 and on 7/26, I received a message saying it was being sent to a different level of customer support. And then I didn't hear anything about it for a week. I emailed two days ago to request a status update and haven't heard back at all.
As you can see from the ticket that the issue centers around the ISBN number, which I purchased in a bundle from Bowker, as it was cheaper in the long run to buy them in bulk. I can't imagine I'm the only person who did the cost comparison and made that choice. I know technology sometimes just glitches for no reason, and If I need to just delete the title setup entirely and start from scratch, I'm fine with that. But this radio silence is leaving me in limbo. Any assistance you can provide would be much appreciated.
Thank you and have a wonderful day,
Dana Fraedrich
We had a few back and forth emails wherein Mister Sales Manager asked me some questions regarding when I purchased the ISBN, can I confirm that Bowker has all my up-to-date information (I sent screenshots back showing the information), and I let him know when I made a change in my account and the details. At last, I got this:
RE: [External] Ticket Update Problems
[name]
Aug 10, 2023, 2:59 PM
We’re sending this to our IT department for further review.
Best,
[name]
Key Accounts Sales Manager
Siiiiiigh 😑 .
In the meantime, the Ingram customer support sent this:
[name] (IngramSpark Support)
Aug 9, 2023, 5:20 PM CDT
Hello Dana,
Thank you for reaching out. I have contacted our team regarding this ISBN error message, and will follow up with you when I hear back from them with additional information.
Best,
[name]
Client Support Coordinator
And finally, I got this last email:
[name] (IngramSpark Support)
Aug 11, 2023, 1:22 PM CDT
Hello Dana,
We appreciate your patience as our team worked to resolve this error message. The error message has been cleared and you should now be able to proceed with your title setup.
Best,
[name]
Client Support Coordinator
…
Sooooooo was it an internal error that’s been fixed? Is it going to happen again? Am I going to have to do this song and dance every time I upload a new book? Is this system-wide with directly-bought-Bowker ISBNs or is it just me?
I do want to say that I don’t think the fault for this lies at the ground level. An organization’s culture is set from the top down. Look at two of the most famously customer-service-focused companies: Trader Joe’s and Chick-fil-A (the latter’s crappy politics notwithstanding). They both make customer experience a major tenet of the business. You can’t swing a dead cat in either of those places without hitting someone available and ready to help. Ace Hardware is the same. For online companies, Zappos. My point is, Ingram could fix it so that their culture prioritizes customer experience, but no one can do that except them, and it starts at the top.
So there’s my updated experience working with Ingram to distribute my print books. For the record, Death Cults and Taxes is now available to purchase in both ebook and print formats wherever you get books. I am going to continue to use Ingram, but begrudgingly so and with the experienced expectation that it’s going to go poorly.
As for ebooks, I have less than no interest in distributing ebooks thru Ingram because it’s so dang troublesome and there are better options with better customer service—D2D is my current favorite for everywhere besides Amazon and I use Amazon’s KDP platform for setting up both ebooks and printed books to sell on Amazon. I also order my author copies to handsell thru Amazon as well—even with the rise in their prices recently (about $0.15 per book in an order), they’re still the best price as far as I know.
As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and/or questions below 👇. And thanks for reading!
