Step by step guide to self publishing with Ingram Spark - Uploading your files

This blog is the second part of a two part blog. If you would like to follow from the beginning, you can read part one here; Preparing your Ingram Spark account

In this blog post, I will go through a step by step process to preparing your files and uploading them to Ingram Spark's website ready to publish and distribute.

Before you can upload your files, you need to make sure that they are formatted correctly. Ingram Spark have strict specifications that you need to abide by, so if you are not familiar with formatting and design, it might be best to hire a professional to ensure you end up with files that will be accepted. If you have hired an illustrator, it's worth asking to see if they offer this as part of the illustration package.

Ingram Spark expects you to upload your book as two files; the exterior as one file, and your full interior as the other. The process is similar, but not identical, depending on what kind of book you are publishing but I am going to assume you are uploading a full colour book with pictures or illustrations and if your book is different you will still be able to follow the process. Let's start with the exterior file.

Exterior file

Your exterior file includes the front of your book, the back of your book and the spine. Depending on your personal preference, you might have a combination of text and illustrations. Your exterior should be one, continuous file that has the front of the book on the right and the back on the left. Here are the specifications that Ingram Spark requires;

- A PDF which is PDF/X-1a:2001 or PDF/X-3:2002 compliant
- CMYK
- At least 300 dpi
- A 100% black only barcode on a white box / background
- A 3mm bleed on all four sides
- A 6mm margin on all four sides

The size of the file is the front cover, plus the back cover, plus the spine. The spine size depends on many factors, such as how many pages it has, what kind of paper you use and what kind of cover you select. You can calculate this through Ingram Spark's spine calculator here; Ingram Spark - Spine calculator

Here is an example of one exterior file I created for a recent project;

Interior file

Here are the specifications that Ingram Spark requires;

- A PDF which is PDF/X-1a:2001 or PDF/X-3:2002 compliant
- Single page PDF only (all double spreads should be split)
- CMYK
- At least 300 dpi
- A 3mm bleed on three outer sides
- A 13mm margin on all four sides

If you have  9" tall by 6" wide book, this is how you work work out the bleed;

The size of the book in mm -  228.6mm x 152.4mm
WIDTH = Add 3mm bleed on the outer trim edge - 228.6mm x 155.4mm
HEIGHT = Add 3mm bleed on both the top and bottom outer trim edges - 234.6mm x 155.4mm

Below is an example of one page from an interior PDF that I created for a recent project. note that you can't tell where the bleed or trim end, as the illustration flows all the way to the end of the paper. The outer edge around the illustration contains little valuable information because that will risk being cut off when the book is manufactured.

Once you have the two files correctly formatted and ready to upload, login in your Ingram Spark account and navigate to your Dashboard by clicking on the tab at the top of the page. From here, click on the title of your book and you should see your metadata and information you have already filled in. Keep clicking on continue (checking the information is correct) until you get to the end, where you will see two sections to upload files; one for your interior and one for your exterior.

Uploading can take some time if you have a large book or high resolution files and I sometimes find the upload times out if you don't have a good enough internet connection. Once the file has finished uploading, you'll see a spinning wheel as the software automatically checks that the file meets their initial requirements. This is not human controlled, so if you receive any errors at all, read them carefully and double check you have calculated the exact size and trim.

Once your files have been accepted, you will be able to submit the book for review by an Ingram Spark employee and your work here is done. As long as you've followed the steps properly and met the requirements, you will have your files accepted and be able to distribute your book. Good luck!

If you found this guide helpful, please share it and let others know!

Izzy Bean's guide to self publishing your ebook - a breakdown!

I know it's been a while since I lasted made a blog post. I'm busy illustrating for some really great projects that I'll share with you all soon! In the meantime, I thought it might be handy to write a little bit about ebook publishing.

I know there's a lot to get your head around if you're new to ebooks and what everything means. In the last few years I'd say 80% of the books I illustrate are ebook only. We'll not get into why this is right now, but safe to say if you're thinking about writing or have written a book - you've thought about ebooks.

It's not as complicated as it first looks. And if you have a bit of know-how, you can do it on a very tight budget too. So what options do you have?

Well, you've written your script, you've commissioned an illustrator to provide some amazing illustrations ( Or are you looking for one? ) and you're ready to go! But where on earth do you start? Who is the cheapest? Who offers the most revenue from sales? Who takes the biggest cut? 

There are some big names out there in the self publishing world, and I've worked with most of them. Let's break down and compare the market leaders to see exactly what your options are.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

One of the big-hitters, Amazon offer their very own publishing platform called Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, or KDP for short.

Of course, the first thing to remember is Amazon have the power of the KINDLE - their own ebook reader which is highly popular and dominates the market. Publishing with Amazon will mean all those Kindle readers have access to your book - and that's a lot of people... 

- Amazon's ebook format is AZW, or .mobi - you'll have to convert your book into this format or pay someone else to do it. If you're looking to do this yourself, checkout Calibre or Mobi-pocket Creator

- Amazon offer a 70% royalty rate, with some rules which are listed on their website.

- The Kindle App is available on almost all devices, phones, PCs, Macs and Android. Even if your fans don't have a Kindle, they can still read Kindle books on other devices too.

- Amazon offers KDP select; a feature that, if eligible, can give you access to promotional tools whilst making your book part of the Kindle Owner lending library. In short, an annual fund will mean you get some of that money, but people can view your book for free for a limited time - getting you more reviews and fans. This also means you'll be exclusive to Kindle and so can't upload your book anywhere else.

- It's worth noting too, that some of the Kindles don't have full colour screens - so if you have beautiful illustrations make sure they look good in greyscale too!

iBooks author

ibooks author, if you didn't already guess is Apple's publishing software.

Books from the iBookstore are only readable on Apple's devices such as the iPad, iPhone, etc. However considering how many people own some sort of Apple device, this isn't a low number. 

- The ibooks author software is free to download and use, and comes with pre-made templates to make it easier to create your ebook (you can also use templates made by 3rd parties...)

- ibooks author offers the opportunity to do more with your ebook, such as make it interactive or add a soundtrack

- 70% royalty rate the same as Amazon

- Retain 100% of the rights to your ebook, but you have to 'register' and fill out an application which can take some time

Smashwords

Smashwords is an ebook distributor that lets you distribute your books to the largest ebook retailers.

- Smashwords is fast, free and easy. They take small royalties (you earn 85% of the net profit) but don't charge you for their service unless you sign up for their 'premium' service

- You can use their 'meat grinder' tool to do all the hard work for you, simply upload your word file and get your ebook in many different formats!

- You can sell on Smashwords itself as well as exporting to other sites, and Smashwords will take care of the distribution for you

Barnes & Noble Pub-it

Pub-it is Barnes & Noble's publishing service. Barnes and Noble are the creators of the Nook - a popular ebook reader. 

- Pub It offers a free conversion tool

- Work on a % without any upfront fees and get paid monthly rather than the 60 days Smashwords offer

- Your book will not only be available on the Nook, but also on the Barnes & Noble website - a very popular and well respected bookstore

Lulu

Lulu is a web-based self publishing service, 

which also boasts an online community including forums. 

Lulu, like other companies I've mentioned above, offer to publish and distribute your book 

for no charge - instead taking a percentage of royalties.

- Lulu has a store which gives you the option to order paperback printed copies of your book as well as the ebook version, although the high price of doing this to order means you likely won't sell many

- You will get 80% of the net profit and get paid monthly through Paypal

- Keep the copyright to all your work

- You can get a Lulu ISBN number for free - some of the above companies require you to buy this (ibooks)

- Can be listed on Amazon, although it does take some time for this to be processed

Createspace

Createspace, created by Amazon, is very similar to Lulu - but seemingly a lot cheaper. Not only do they offer book service but also CDs and DVDs too. They have both free and paid services. 

- Free to create and distribute your ebook, you only pay a % when you start seeing sales

- Can create paperback printed copies at a lower price than Lulu.com - you can proofs sent at a low price too

- Create Kindle ebooks

- Fast and easy to work with, but limited on choices of covers and spine art. You'd probably be best spending the money you've saved using Createspace in hiring a decent artist or designer to make your book stand out.

So, which one fits your requirements?

Only you can make that choice, but I hope this little guide helped somewhat to breaking down each companies' pros and cons in an easy to understand way.

There are, of course, other options out there. However I've listed the most popular and well known companies. 

Please leave a comment, share, like or follow me if you like what you've read!

You can visit my website, at www.izzybean.co.uk

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