Self-aware authors know they’re taking on a challenge when they choose to publish their own work, a rewarding and exciting challenge, but a challenge nonetheless. If your goal is to sell as many copies of your book(s) as possible, it’s important to have a realistic understanding of the effort that entails. With the advancement of technology and opportunity, increase of indie publishing and small presses, and lessening of the bias against self-publishers, every author has a chance to succeed in the publishing space. Making your book available is a necessary step to achieving sales, but commitment and know-how on your part is essential to making it succeed.

There are many factors that go into making a printed product look ideal, and your files are important elements in the printing process. Ensuring that your files are print-ready is key. Knowing what IngramSpark's file specifications are and making sure your titles meet them will allow for a smooth review process and bring you one step closer to printing your book. Once you press submit on that file upload, you want to see your title approved, and so do we!

Are you using metadata correctly to market your book and boost your sales? Ingram’s Director of Metadata, Margaret Harrison, lays out the role of metadata in book discovery and sales and some best practices and actionable tips for getting your work into readers’ hands.

BookExpo was this past weekend which means the second day of Indie Author Fringe also took place. Indie Author Fringe is a 3-day, 24 hours per day indie author conference packed with advice on self-publishing. Every session is available online and 100% free; perfect for aspiring authors and experienced, small to mid-level publishers alike; basically anyone looking for professional advice on how to publish a book. And we're offering a special promotion code to go with it.

One of the most important elements of your book marketing plan is your book metadata and how you use it. Whether you are self-publishing your own work or publishing someone else's, you need to understand how critical it is to use the appropriate language in the title metadata fields. 

Historically, publishers grant booksellers the right to return overstocked copies of books. These books are considered “returnable”. Although, online retailers are less selective than brick and mortar stores in regards to whether a book is returnable, typically, brick and mortar stores will not order a book unless it is returnable, so IngramSpark supports standard industry conventions by allowing publishers to designate whether or not their titles can be returned. 

In the past decade alone, opportunities to self-publish a book have become vast and plentiful. We’ve been incredibly blessed to play a role in the continued growth of the self-publishing industry, are happy to see it thriving, and are making efforts to continually push it forward every day. And while it’s wonderful to get props for our efforts, what drives us is helping people across the globe share their stories, dreams, and passions.

Book metadata is important to your book's categorization, discovery and overall book sales. It should be part of any author's overall book marketing strategy, and successful self-publishers know how to incorporate as much quality metadata as possible into their sales plans. Following are seven facts about book metadata to keep in mind.

The ebooks vs print books debate is a very popular one within the publishing industry. There are loyalists on both sides. There are people who believe that print books are dead (which they've said for years now . . . definitely not dead; very far from dead). And with a normalization in ebook sales, some are saying it's time to ditch the digital format (also false). We believe in both formats and here's why.