IngramSpark Reviews 1,600

When my books seemed to have gone on a world tour in a box, Jackie’s perseverance and kindness, in helping me track down the order, restored my faith in human nature.

Well I do not know about IngramSpark as yet. I am new to this game of self publishing so am learning the ropes. Started using D2D but 2 of my books have been rejected by their supplier (I suspect it is Ingram Spark). D2D cannot give me reasons. Just one week into my journey I am grateful that I have discovered that D2D are the wrong company for me to partner with as I don't want headaches. Can someone help suggest a suitable replacement to D2D who will make my life simple ad not create unnecessary roadblocks.

Horrendous support. Terrible printing and delivery times.

I am adding my review to the nearly 2000 reviews that have given IngramSpark a poor rating. I have been a customer since 2017 - when things were good. The company was responsive. Because of their popularity in self-publishing, they have purchased more printing facilities - one in Tennessee - however, these new acquisitions have not been helpful. For the past few months, connecting with customer service and asking for a resolution to a complaint has been non-existent. Because they failed to resolve an issue I am stuck with poor quality, incorrectly printed books with an interior layout not based on the proof I approved. The book interior comes out reversed with the wider/binding margin on the outside rather than on the inside margin. Hard to explain but I have sent proof of this issue and they have yet to fix it. This has proven rather embarrassing and it reflects poorly on the author and not Ingram. Essentially, I have spent too much money with them for them not to be responsive. They need to get it together or continue to lose publishers and receive poor ratings.

I chose to self publish my children’s book with Amazon who without really informing me, passed me off to Ingramspark. My book went live on Amazon and Barnes & Noble but no one in Canada can seem to purchase my book through either distributor. We can put it in our cart but we can’t check out. We get a message telling us Amazon or Barnes & Noble can’t deliver to our address even though we regularly receive Amazon packages. After being on Amazon for 3 days all of a sudden the prices for my book changed drastically from 19.99 to $94.00!! I have spoken to 3 different people on my publishing team but so far none of them can correct the price nor the restrictions on delivery. I am beyond frustrated and disappointed and I hope someone
At Ingramspark will correct what had gone wrong and get the children’s book, KINDNESS MATTERS out to the people who are trying to purchase it!!! Thank you

I’ve always admired IngramSpark for its reputation as a leader in book distribution, which is why I chose their platform to publish my children’s journal—a project I spent over a year creating with immense care and dedication. As a former children’s book illustrator, I poured all my expertise, creativity, and heart into crafting this journal to inspire kids to dream big, build confidence, and unlock their potential.

Unfortunately, my journal was not approved for distribution, and while I understand the importance of maintaining quality standards, I feel the rejection was unjust. Every page of my journal is a blend of original hand-drawn artwork, thoughtful prompts, and engaging activities. It’s not just another generic product; it’s a unique tool designed to help kids thrive.

I attempted to clarify the situation by reaching out to their team, providing details about my process, my artwork, and my inspiration, but I still feel my efforts were dismissed without proper consideration. For someone who spent an entire year on this project, this experience has been disheartening.

I hope IngramSpark can improve their review process and offer creators more clarity and support when decisions are made. Independent authors and artists work hard to create meaningful content, and we need platforms that genuinely value that effort.

I dislike the time it takes to get issues resolved. Recently, it took 4 weeks, several emails, and being passed around from one customer service rep to another to get an answer—4 weeks is unacceptable.

Horrifying payment report structure. This is absolutely mindboggling.

I've worked with IngramSpark for a number of years and they provide a great service to authors, enabling them to expand their reach. Friendly, helpful, supportive team.

They hold your work hostage. Cannot remove my book, waiting for someone to help me to no avail.

They let books stores return books half a year later and charge you more than what you made from those sales. I got paid 90 cents profit and now I'm told I owe them 10 dollars and 60 cents.

I have deleted my account because of the extreme financial loss from Ingramspark. All of my books are now on Amazon KDP. In 2024, I have made more than $6,000 using KDP whereas on Ingram I have made NEGATIVE $700. Negative. By the way, I never got paid for any sold books, yet somehow I got charged for returned books. I have no way of proving that they are crooks, but they are. Stay away from them. They have zero customer support. They are rude when they finally do answer an email after 48 plus hours and they only send links to read articles as their answers. They might have started out as a good company, but now they are too big for their own good and they are a scam company They will reply some nonsense to my comments here. They absolutely do not care about customers. Please do not use them. Go with KDP. You will never be charged for returns. You will make a profit. And good news - you will have an immediate answer from their support team. They will even chat online with you or call you if you request it. All the opposite stuff you get with Ingram. I absolutely hate Ingramspark.

I'm an independent publisher/author on Amazon kdp. I have published 24 books and wish them all to be on expanded distribution. Two of my books have the word 'Writing' in the title and my request for expanded distribution has been refused by Amazon's distributor - who I'm told is IngramSpark. Amazon have appealed on my behalf but they still refuse without any explanation. I have checked and re-checked the eligibility rules and both books satisfy them all.

The reason for two stars is that my 'handler' eventually sorted out part of my problem, but it took days of emails whereas a phone call would have had it sorted in 20 minutes. I have used Spark extensively and encountered one or two procedural problems along the way, mostly resolvable or ignoreable (such as text containing embedded colour profiles when they don't) but GO NOWHERE NEAR BOOK BUILDER. Files that were uploaded by myself and the author I was helping were inflated beyond belief (15" x 8" image) became 3,330 inches by whatever I can't recall. Similarly, text files at 1mb. were reported as being 1.3Gb. I had to fight to get Book Builder's interest removed from this author's book and I'm still fighting to get the cover on the ebook re-instated properly.

Pretty bad While they do respond quickly they don’t respond with any meaningful help and they refuse to pick up the phone and help you which would allow an issue to be resolved in a about five minutes but they’l email back and forth with you 100 times and waste your time as a customer they have absolutely no respect for a customers time. And each time you email on the same issue you get a different rep. I don’t know how we have become a society that has become so inefficient where customer service will only respond with email and not by telephone it takes up their resources it takes up the customers resources and it takes 50 times longer to solve an issue then if they would just pick up the damn phone. It’s a nightmare. Stay away.

What Idon't love - the platform itself is clunky. The book builder has issues, ordering is sometimes difficult. Often when i am building a book the sections I have completed wipe out entirely if I upload an updated manuscript which means I need to go back and complete all of the meta data and book details every single time I update a manuscript for proof.
It's the same with the cover builder, if I make a change, I then need to go and redo the fonts etc. Its literally starting afresh every time, the original data doesn't save. Other platforms are as easy as dropping in images, dropping in the manuscript file and pressing finish.
Also some of the pages take an eternity to load and sometimes 'time out' taking it back to the beginning. If you can be patient with the clunkiness of the platform it is worth it.
What I love - the print quality with the printers that Ingram uses is beautful. I have chosen two different cover types, gloss and matt and both are lovely. The book size is nice and the colours are really standing out. All of my questions are answered politely and patiently even in time when I have been really frustrated. The customer service does seem to have a bit of a line up, but when they reply it is every time courteous, frienldy and helpful. Also Ingram provides loads of 'how to' info on their website, training type information and I was emailed and offered a phone call to help with promoting my book. I think they really do want to see authors successful, which is nice.

I would love someone from Ingram to contact me, regarding publishing my books. I have an issue that is urgent, An email has been sent and no response as yet.
Jan
Further to this email, Ingram has reached out and solved my issue. Very happy with service. Thank you

My publisher used Ingram Spark (Ingram) so when my contracts (3 books) expired, I decided to stay with Ingram and simply transfer the titles. The publisher was uncooperative and the transfer process took many weeks. I suspect that Ingram doesn't follow up when they don't get a response. I kept waiting and waiting. Ingram won't (can't?) do anything until the publisher releases the titles, despite me furnishing a copy of the signed contract cancellations. Finally my publisher sent something and the titles were transferred. I was told to purchase new ISBN numbers which I did. I got the publisher info, ISBN numbers, and cover art updated. I also fixed some typos. The updated version was uploaded. I got a Catalog Integrity Violation error on the ebook but not the print book. Apparently the title closely matched another title. Of course it did, it was an update! I successfully appealed the violation. But, the ebook is still in process, nearly a month after submission. Now I got the same Violation notice on my second book. I appealed but will have to wait 2-3 weeks for a decision. I expect the same problem when my third book's revision is submitted in a few weeks.

Ingram doesn't have a toll free number so all of your communications will be by email. The live chat always seems to be offline. I've emailed my phone number and literally begged for someone to call me. Nothing. If you are in a hurry, don't be. I've been working on this for eight months and it's still not resolved.

I Love IngraSpark. Its great.
The only thing I wish my books sell more ;)

I’ve been using IngramSpark for about 9 years. Overall my experience is very good. I like it that they are reliable, keep printing cost low while maintain good quality, their wide distribution channels, abundant choices for book sizes, etc. Also, their online chat customer service are real people that helps solving problems,

Things I hope they can improve: more choices of paper for colored book. I also wish their online customer service are always online, or at least have a regular online time schedule.

Generally good, but they unduly censor certain historical works for no obvious reasons. And their delivery service from LS-UK is appalling -- numerous customer "returns" for no obvious reasons.