Updated February 7, 2025

A crucial element of your book marketing and sales strategy needs to be making your book easy to categorize and discover. You achieve this with good book metadata. Successful self-publishers know how to incorporate as much quality metadata as possible into their publishing strategy, and while you don't have to include all of the following elements, consider incorporating those that are applicable to your book and your potential audience. Following are the metadata components that impact book sales most.

Considering converting your print book into an ebook? Offering your book in multiple formats is one of the easiest ways to reach more readers. While some readers prefer to read in print, some prefer to read ebooks only. Not offering your book in ebook format is a guarantee your content will never reach them, so why limit your book's distribution?

Social media marketing is important for almost every industry. Consumers use it to make purchasing decisions and see what non-marketers are saying about a person, brand, or idea. Authors and publishers use social media marketing to direct consumer awareness in the online community.

Updated November 25, 2025

Your IngramSpark account setup is complete – now what? The first step on your publishing journey is to upload your book to your account, and we’re here to guide you through the process!

One thing many indie authors must come to terms with is that they’re not just publishing a book; they’re starting an author business. It is one thing to say you want to publish a book and become a published author but another to actually do it. And with advancements in technology and resources, many people can publish a book, but it takes a bit extra to start your own book publishing business, even more for it to be a successful one.

It has to be said that print on demand (POD) has changed the way the publishing industry does business. But before we talk about the wonders of POD, let’s define what it is. In a nutshell, it's the process by which a book is printed when an order for that book is received. With POD there’s no inventory being stored or anticipated demand being measured—get a book order, print a book, one at a time.

The author and publishing world has been abuzz with the recent news from Amazon that its CreateSpace print-on-demand business has now been folded into its Kindle Direct Publishing program that launched officially a few years ago. Whether or not this action will be a positive move for authors will inevitably be seen in time. But today, IngramSpark client support is blowing up more than usual with questions from authors asking us what it all means. The question we used to get most often was, "What's the difference between IngramSpark vs. CreateSpace?" Now it seems the question will be, "What's the difference between IngramSpark vs. KDP?" So, I will attempt to help clarify with as much information as I have.

The moment you’ve been waiting for! IngramSpark just got personal. Now you can personalize any book order for just $1 per book! Keep reading for details and ideas of how to use this awesome new feature to customize your book orders!

While choosing a paperback format is the most common route for self-publishers when releasing a new title or edition, it is important to remember the merits of hardback books as well. Here are a few reasons to consider printing a hardback book.

You've written a great book, set up your printing and distribution, made it available online, and—good news—it's selling! Now you want to sell it to brick-and-mortar stores but aren't sure how to get it on their shelves. You might also be wondering about the difference between independent vs chain bookstores. Is there a difference in how you should approach them? Here's what you need to know.