How much does it cost to self-publish a book? This is one question every indie publisher asks and one for which the answer varies. First of all, there are two types of costs associated with self-publishing a book: intangible (your time and effort) and tangible (that's the money part). For now let's focus on the tangible: how much money it takes to publish your book independently.

Your interior book design is critical when it comes to making your book presentable and, even more important, readable. Some of the most common mistakes authors and publishers make when it comes to interior book design include omitting hyphens, incorrect margin size, imperfect justification, and allowing widow/orphan lines of text. Designing a book's interior might not seem like as much fun as choosing a book cover design, but it can be if you approach it in steps and follow a few practical guidelines.

If you want to write a truly chilling horror story that scares the bejeebers out of readers, there are a few key elements that need careful consideration. It can be easy to assume that all you need to do is push the limits. However, if you read some of the best authors in the genre, you will see that more gore is not always the key to writing great horror.

You've heard the terms: traditional, hybrid, independent, entrepreneurial, co-publishing, self-publishing. But what do they all mean? And is one better than another?

Do you know how to create impressions for your book? It's an important part of marketing your book. Traditional publishing houses use multiple impressions to create buzz about the books they publish. You, too, can create impressions that will generate interest in your book and increase sales. The goal is to get as much attention as possible in a variety of ways, and here are a few tips on how.

Have you ever found yourself waiting for the next book in a series to come out? And the next one after that? Book series tend to sell a lot of books and they can also help build an author's platform. When compelling characters are engaged in exciting storylines, readers look forward to finding out what happens to them even if they have to wait for another book. If you haven't already thought about writing a book series, consider why you might want to and how to do it. 

Updated September 17, 2025

Your book is finished, and hopefully, the orders are ready to start rolling in, but you aren't sure how the ordering process works. Well, there are two ways you can order your book yourself, either specifically for you or for your customers. And the third way your book can be ordered is by booksellers, retailers, and libraries directly from Ingram to sell on your behalf.

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.

Updated December 19, 2024

BISAC subject codes are essentially genre codes. These codes guide shelving, categorization, merchandising, and marketing efforts. BISAC codes help signal to potential buyers, retailers, distributors, and search engines what your book is about – the primary genre(s), topic(s), and theme(s) that matter in regard to your book. Without these codes, readers and those within the industry cannot identify what your book is about or if they'd like to stock or read it. 

On this day, internationally recognized as a day dedicated to expressing our love for one another, we on the IngramSpark team would like to write a little love note to our first love: books. And you can't have books without authors, so this one's for you too, authors! We love books so much that we decided to make careers out of helping authors create them and share them with the world through our book distribution services. We believe in the power and value of books (above all) and the magic that authors create every time they publish one, but on a more personal level, this is why we love books and authors: