Pricing and Global Distribution

What to do

Set your list price and wholesale discount, and understand how IngramSpark's distribution network reaches retailers and libraries in a way KDP's Expanded Distribution doesn't fully replicate.

Why it matters

This is the other half of why authors add IngramSpark at all. KDP's Expanded Distribution is a free, simple opt-in, but IngramSpark's actual relationships with bookstores, libraries, and international retailers run deeper, at the cost of a pricing model that's a bit more involved to set up correctly.

Step-by-step

• Set a list price for each market/currency IngramSpark asks for, and set a wholesale discount, the percentage off your list price that bookstores and other resellers pay when they order your book. A wholesale discount in the roughly 30%–55% range, marked as "returnable," is generally what allows the widest retailer and library pickup, since most stores won't stock a book that doesn't offer their standard trade terms.
• Understand that the wholesale discount comes out of your list price before you see any earnings, similar in spirit to how KDP deducts printing cost before royalty, the higher the discount you offer retailers, the smaller your own margin per copy, but the more retailers are willing to actually carry it.
• "Returnable" is a real tradeoff, not just a checkbox: it lets bookstores return unsold copies for credit, which is standard trade practice and increases the odds a store will order your book at all, but it also means a returned, printed copy is a cost you don't get back.
• Understand the distribution difference plainly: KDP's Expanded Distribution makes your paperback available for other retailers to order through Amazon's own print-on-demand system, but it does not carry the same established relationships with independent bookstores, library wholesalers (like library-specific distributors), and international retail chains that IngramSpark has built over decades as a book wholesaler. Many authors specifically add IngramSpark because Expanded Distribution alone doesn't get real traction with brick-and-mortar bookstores or library systems, while IngramSpark's catalog is the one many of those buyers already order from routinely.
• None of this guarantees any specific store or library will actually order or stock your book, both KDP's Expanded Distribution and IngramSpark's network only make a book available to order; an individual buyer, store, or library still has to choose to order it.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Setting a very low wholesale discount (or marking the book non-returnable) expecting to protect your margin, then wondering why bookstores and libraries aren't ordering it, most won't stock a book that doesn't offer standard trade terms.
• Assuming IngramSpark's distribution and KDP's Expanded Distribution reach the exact same set of buyers just because both say "wider distribution", they overlap in places but are genuinely different networks with different relationships.
• Expecting listing on IngramSpark to guarantee any bookstore or library will actually stock the book, it only makes it available for them to order.
• Setting a list price that doesn't clear the wholesale discount plus the real printing cost, leaving a thin or negative per-copy royalty once both are subtracted, use IngramSpark's own royalty calculator before finalizing, don't estimate by hand.

Completion checklist

0 of 2 checked

• I set a list price and a wholesale discount/returnable status I understand the tradeoff of.
• I understand how IngramSpark's distribution differs from KDP's Expanded Distribution, and which one (or both) fits what I actually want.

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