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How to Write an Ebook on Canva and AI in Less Than 24 Hours - for Free - Step-by-Step Checklist & Instructions

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How to Write an Ebook on Canva and AI in Less Than 24 Hours - Step-by-Step Checklist & Instructions

I got to get this written down, before I forget. Has this happened to you? You are looking at the result of one late night when I had an idea for a book or ebook. I decided to record it on a voice recorder app on my phone, then that is the origin of Ebook Assistant. There is more to the story, and I hope to share it later, yet also I have to give credit to a video I watched that encouraged me to take action on this, and it ended with this saying, "enough thinking about it, just go do it". I did and now we have Ebook Assistant. I hope you enjoy today's blog and podcast. I love to hear (signals) from you, so please like, follow, share, and comment - even message me at our site ebookassistant dot com if you like. Now, enough thinking, just go do it....

About this Post

Why stay until the end? Stay because you will like what I have to give you, please stay, or save or download this now; so that you can refer back to it for years. Share it on your social media. Here is the link to copy to your Social Media posts: https://howtowriteanebook.blog/{Post Name}

Terminology and Jargon: You will learn these and much more

proofreading - draft - Canva - AI - Beta-Reader - Bard - ChatGPT

Good to Take Notes of These Because You Will Use Them ....

Start Somewhere

Write it, Record it in audio or video on your phone, write it on a piece of cardboard from a container you are putting in the trash, or sit down at your computer and type it. Just get it down and take action now, or reserve a day this week or weekend to start.

Direct Your Sail Boat - Mind Setting and Mindset

Set your mind on this: You Can Do This! I believe in you. Write down on a piece of paper something like the, 'I will have my ebook online for sale by tomorrow, and then I will promote it and I will earn money from the sales of my ebook in a month or less'

Do this, it does wonders for your chances of succeeding. Then understand that Setting your Sail Boat direction is pointing yourself in the right direction to achieve landing at your goal, and I have gladly provided a well-planned map for you. Just read until the end and save it to your bookmarks - favorites or download it.

Meditation - Thankfulness - Calmness, & Prayer

No special instructions really here, it is just something that most people overlook. Do these things above, and the better you ask for prayer to God for success than not, even if you do not believe in God, i think you will be glad to have God on your side. Be thankful for your opportunity to do this. Meditate or just quietly focus a few minutes, and do some things that allow you to be calm. I turn down the lights and play some water sounds from YouTube sometimes as I write.

Go to Your Happy Place

Try to get to a quiet place you can write. I know of friends that have their office in their closet, and one that has an office the size of a phone booth (look it up if you do not know what a phone booth is, it is small). I saw it, and it was amazing. Worst case, if you have a loud home, you may have to sit in the bathroom, or in a car. I see people often film YouTube videos from their car, so you would not be the first to have to do this. When you are filming or recording it is required to have quiet. It is very important to you, and it is okay to talk aloud to yourself or ideas.

Go to where you can get your ebook writing done with quietness, focus, without restriction on your emotions, and thoughts.

The Idea

This is the most important part. It is the seed your ebook masterpiece grows from. Protect it and expand it. It will be a complete ebook soon. You will be able to share your idea and influence improvement in complete strangers, while earning.

Outline (The First Draft of Table of Contents)

How will you record it: pen/pencil paper, typewriter (explain for younger audience), phone voice recorder (app suggestion), word processor Google Dogs

Cover - Make it Now or at End -

I do recommend Canva.com for your cover creation. Just search for ebook cover once you login with your free login. I would recommend editing an existing cover. I usually just use a cover that gets my attention over all others. I try to imitate some cover that comes from a bestselling book that I see when searching for bestselling book book covers. I just use there idea as inspiration for mine, and I do not use the same cover idea. An example is if a top book has a all white modern background with one big word on it. I may use that same idea, and the word will be different and it may be in different colors. Remember you have to be 31 percent different to avoid copyright errors.

Research - How to Do

Keep it simple and this will work for every book you ever write. Look up the top listings, sort by page views or likes, for at least a month in history, and write on what they talk or write about - do not copy , just write on similar topic, even same name, if it is something that is common like: how to use Google docs for example . Although you can make your name better, by adding some good things and combining with things others are talking of in their posts or videos

Record it - Document it

again, How will you record it: pen/pencil paper, typewriter (this is the thing that we made books with before computers, it has a keyboard and a piece of paper that comes out just above the keyboard), phone voice recorder (app suggestion), word processor Google Dogs

Get it in Writing - Write It - Use AI ChatGPT or Bard

If this is your first use of ChapGPT or Bard A.I. (artificial intelligence, yet i prefer assisted intelligence); you are in for a treat. It is like searching on Google, yet, you just say things (called Prompts). An example is "tell me a list of 5 books about writing I should read" or "write me 10 titles for a book about romance that is set in Paris" . It will give you some amazing results. Go here to get a free account and get started in the A.I. age of enlightment:

ChatGPT: https://openai.com > Menu > "Try ChatGPT"

Bard: https://bard.google.com > Login with a Google account

PROMPT

"Give me a name for a new ebook about succeeding in writing ebooks" (check this on yours, you probably will get the same response, although it may not be the first respons. I tried this with a video I saw of someone in another country and I did get same response)

Example, Created by Bard: (first result response to prompt)

(result) From Blank Page to Bestseller: The No-Nonsense Guide to E-book Success

Same Example by ChatGPT: (first result response to prompt)

(result) Wordsmith's Triumph: Mastering the Art of Ebook Success

So, you see, probably not the title you would have written.

Let's say you wrote your idea on a napkin at lunch, now you need to get it in computer file on your word processor. If you recorded with voice recorder app for Google, then you can just export, or save the transcript to Google Drive or Docs. (explain More)

Summarize (This is Great for All, and Not Done by Many)

Simple - Just cover again the main big points that you talked of. Basically if you talked of 20 points, then you can summarize them all in 5 to 7 big sections. This meaning that your outline can be 10 to 20 points, yet it should be divided into about 5 to 7 bigger headings that contain these 10 to 20 points or sub-sections

Edit it and Add Your Style to it

Now Edit (cleaning for authors and writers): and Keep Your Style or Add your new style. I suggest this order of editing: Spell Check, Grammer Check, Add Paragraph every 5 to 7 Lines (where thoughts change), and Add SEO (keywords) use Find and Replace (explain)

ReRead it (Proofreading, Format, Cover, Guest Reader)

Fast Feedback is Good (remember you only have 24-hours) [Click Here to Go to Our Feedback Request on our Support Page]

I am sure you will get at least one feedback. Send me, gj, a message at ebookassitant.com/contact and say in the message "i need fast feedback". You see you already have a dependable virtual ebook assistant to help with writing ebooks.

Check your format and add Section Bold Headings, as I have here, if you like. Done is better that perfect, just get it done. You will price it cheap enough, so that the information is most important - not every detail.

Cover - Make sure it good and looks like something that is a successful ebook or book. Search Google for best sellers, and look at the Image results. Pick the one that stands on the page, and imitate that style

Guest reader, Beta Reader - A beta-reader is the B reader or second reader of your ebook. They can read it and give you notes on changes and fixes. Preferably a friend, Post a entry on Facebook and ask for a few readers to message you for a free copy (2 at most, I guess because of time constraint) and turn away the others. Say in the post you are only accepting two, so act fast, because you have a deadline of 2 to 4 hours. Implement fixes that are suggested and are appropriate.

Post it to Internet for Sale

I suggest Etsy (0.20$ per posting) or Free, Amazon KDP, Gumroad, or Ecwid (the last 3 are free) - Contact us for help - https://ebookassistant.com/contact

Market and Promote it

Social Media, I prefer Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts or Videos - in this order. Just post about your creation. I suggest pages from your ebook pictures (use screen shot or screen capture it is on your phone or computer), cover pictures, videos, how-to's, short videos of you or words on a presentation videos use Canva, and why you want to help them as content.

Share it on video if you like. The key here is to post daily for weeks afterward. If you found your passion (the thing you would write on even when you do not want to write) then posting will be great.

Setup a free ConvertKit account and make a Landing Page. Give them a one-page summary of your book for signing up on your landing page or some useful checklist. Put this link as the link they buy from (if you use it), and make the link shorter by using site TinyURL.com.

Get Sales -How to Write a Ebook that Sells

Make sure you include a link to two places to buy it. I suggest one place to buy as Amazon, then I suggest two being a free one or Etsy. I say this because if for some reason Amazon closes your account, you need a backup. Really it is better practice to have both Amazon and one other.

Now What - Expectations

You can expect to feel drained from writing. It takes much out of you, and it expands your thinking. You can expect to have mixed feelings or success from writing, then maybe sadness if you do not get sales or "signals" from the Internet. Signals are some one liking your content on social media, or comment on your posts. It takes a week or so. Stay in it and post daily. It will happen. Stay small, do not try to do everything. Only have at most 2 of each social media, sales pages, etc. AND please do contact us at Ebook Assistant to get help, proofreading or evaluation of your work before posting, technical help, and/or if we need to explain something further or edit this post

Article Summary

We have here about 15 points that basically are in about 4 main sections: The Idea and Mindset, Writing the Book, Placing Online to Sell, and Marketing and Promotion. You will do good to follow this outline, and add to it as-needed. Make sure you do some mindset preparations, and train on AI with the help of YouTube videos. It will greatly improve your ebooks and save you much time. Implement Canva not only for covers, also try to use Canva to do the entire book. Canva also make video easy, so you can make video in Canva to produce your marketing and promotional content. AI is the future, so learning it now will be great for you. And your AI books will be using the latest technology while also improving with the expanded knowledge AI can add to your ebooks.

Congratulations - All of That in 1 day is a Large Accomplishment

Do not worry - Do it in a Weekend, or A Week if you Want - And View Videos on YouTube for direction, just try not to sit and scroll videos to long. If you focus for 1 full day on only this, you will be done. And have confidence to write more while promoting on social media.

Do all of this and you will have become a published author, or if you are already a published author you have a really useful checklist and you may write and publish your first book in one day. Hopefully you will get sales in one day. If so, and any other great things happen - please Comment or Message Us!

DO GET YOUR FREEBIE - JUST FOR READING OR SEEING THIS CLICK HERE or go to: https://tinyurl.com/myfastebook

Do This When You Can: Follow Our Blog, Podcast, or Social Media; Take a Look at our Exclusives and Freebie membership at Patreon.com/ebookassistant; Go to our Shop at Etsy.com/shop/gjwriting, Comment or Send us a Contact on our site at EbookAssistant.com/contact + Let Us Help - Ask via Contact

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[ebookassistant]

What is an ebook 'market' and more about 'average' ebook sales

..We are in the ebook store .. this is the market ,, i speak of.. ..I am are saying that this is only ebooks and we do also work in digital products books and other downloads of printables that are in electronic form, and ebooks is our primary market. Just like in a bookstore, we provide the other things that ebook readers want.

I want you understand average sales is is not every ebook, meaning it's not every ebook that gets produced produces sales. I think every ebook that is offered for sale wil get some sales. that is an average.

A high end of average I think is selling about 300 ebooks. There seems to be a 3 to 4 segments of sales and these are: a few sales meaning less than 10. , those that get hundreds, those that get thousands, and those that get 100,000 plus..

And you may not believe this, or have thought of it - as I see it the quality of books in all of these segments of sales can be almost exactly the same. One of differences ,, the things that will get you more sales is proper techniques in telling others about your book - this process called ebook marketing.

Find out more when you take a look at our Blog. See it by going to ebook assistant dot com, and looking at the BLOG link in the upper right. Do send us a Contact message and let us know you will be visiting us for advising and useful info to help with writing ebooks and selling ebooks.

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Penguin Random House, AI, and writers’ rights

NEXT WEDNESDAY (October 23) at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, GEORGIA, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

My friend Teresa Nielsen Hayden is a wellspring of wise sayings, like "you're not responsible for what you do in other people's dreams," and my all time favorite, from the Napster era: "Just because you're on their side, it doesn't mean they're on your side."

The record labels hated Napster, and so did many musicians, and when those musicians sided with their labels in the legal and public relations campaigns against file-sharing, they lent both legal and public legitimacy to the labels' cause, which ultimately prevailed.

But the labels weren't on musicians' side. The demise of Napster and with it, the idea of a blanket-license system for internet music distribution (similar to the systems for radio, live performance, and canned music at venues and shops) firmly established that new services must obtain permission from the labels in order to operate.

That era is very good for the labels. The three-label cartel – Universal, Warner and Sony – was in a position to dictate terms like Spotify, who handed over billions of dollars worth of stock, and let the Big Three co-design the royalty scheme that Spotify would operate under.

If you know anything about Spotify payments, it's probably this: they are extremely unfavorable to artists. This is true – but that doesn't mean it's unfavorable to the Big Three labels. The Big Three get guaranteed monthly payments (much of which is booked as "unattributable royalties" that the labels can disperse or keep as they see fit), along with free inclusion on key playlists and other valuable services. What's more, the ultra-low payouts to artists increase the value of the labels' stock in Spotify, since the less Spotify has to pay for music, the better it looks to investors.

The Big Three – who own 70% of all music ever recorded, thanks to an orgy of mergers – make up the shortfall from these low per-stream rates with guaranteed payments and promo.

But the indy labels and musicians that account for the remaining 30% are out in the cold. They are locked into the same fractional-penny-per-stream royalty scheme as the Big Three, but they don't get gigantic monthly cash guarantees, and they have to pay the playlist placement the Big Three get for free.

Just because you're on their side, it doesn't mean they're on your side:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/12/streaming-doesnt-pay/#stunt-publishing

In a very important, material sense, creative workers – writers, filmmakers, photographers, illustrators, painters and musicians – are not on the same side as the labels, agencies, studios and publishers that bring our work to market. Those companies are not charities; they are driven to maximize profits and an important way to do that is to reduce costs, including and especially the cost of paying us for our work.

It's easy to miss this fact because the workers at these giant entertainment companies are our class allies. The same impulse to constrain payments to writers is in play when entertainment companies think about how much they pay editors, assistants, publicists, and the mail-room staff. These are the people that creative workers deal with on a day to day basis, and they are on our side, by and large, and it's easy to conflate these people with their employers.

This class war need not be the central fact of creative workers' relationship with our publishers, labels, studios, etc. When there are lots of these entertainment companies, they compete with one another for our work (and for the labor of the workers who bring that work to market), which increases our share of the profit our work produces.

But we live in an era of extreme market concentration in every sector, including entertainment, where we deal with five publishers, four studios, three labels, two ad-tech companies and a single company that controls all the ebooks and audiobooks. That concentration makes it much harder for artists to bargain effectively with entertainments companies, and that means that it's possible -likely, even – for entertainment companies to gain market advantages that aren't shared with creative workers. In other words, when your field is dominated by a cartel, you may be on on their side, but they're almost certainly not on your side.

This week, Penguin Random House, the largest publisher in the history of the human race, made headlines when it changed the copyright notice in its books to ban AI training:

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/penguin-random-house-underscores-copyright-protection-in-ai-rebuff

The copyright page now includes this phrase:

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.

Many writers are celebrating this move as a victory for creative workers' rights over AI companies, who have raised hundreds of billions of dollars in part by promising our bosses that they can fire us and replace us with algorithms.

But these writers are assuming that just because they're on Penguin Random House's side, PRH is on their side. They're assuming that if PRH fights against AI companies training bots on their work for free, that this means PRH won't allow bots to be trained on their work at all.

This is a pretty naive take. What's far more likely is that PRH will use whatever legal rights it has to insist that AI companies pay it for the right to train chatbots on the books we write. It is vanishingly unlikely that PRH will share that license money with the writers whose books are then shoveled into the bot's training-hopper. It's also extremely likely that PRH will try to use the output of chatbots to erode our wages, or fire us altogether and replace our work with AI slop.

This is speculation on my part, but it's informed speculation. Note that PRH did not announce that it would allow authors to assert the contractual right to block their work from being used to train a chatbot, or that it was offering authors a share of any training license fees, or a share of the income from anything produced by bots that are trained on our work.

Indeed, as publishing boiled itself down from the thirty-some mid-sized publishers that flourished when I was a baby writer into the Big Five that dominate the field today, their contracts have gotten notably, materially worse for writers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/19/reasonable-agreement/

This is completely unsurprising. In any auction, the more serious bidders there are, the higher the final price will be. When there were thirty potential bidders for our work, we got a better deal on average than we do now, when there are at most five bidders.

Though this is self-evident, Penguin Random House insists that it's not true. Back when PRH was trying to buy Simon & Schuster (thereby reducing the Big Five publishers to the Big Four), they insisted that they would continue to bid against themselves, with editors at Simon & Schuster (a division of PRH) bidding against editors at Penguin (a division of PRH) and Random House (a division of PRH).

This is obvious nonsense, as Stephen King said when he testified against the merger (which was subsequently blocked by the court): "You might as well say you’re going to have a husband and wife bidding against each other for the same house. It would be sort of very gentlemanly and sort of, 'After you' and 'After you'":

https://apnews.com/article/stephen-king-government-and-politics-b3ab31d8d8369e7feed7ce454153a03c

Penguin Random House didn't become the largest publisher in history by publishing better books or doing better marketing. They attained their scale by buying out their rivals. The company is actually a kind of colony organism made up of dozens of once-independent publishers. Every one of those acquisitions reduced the bargaining power of writers, even writers who don't write for PRH, because the disappearance of a credible bidder for our work into the PRH corporate portfolio reduces the potential bidders for our work no matter who we're selling it to.

I predict that PRH will not allow its writers to add a clause to their contracts forbidding PRH from using their work to train an AI. That prediction is based on my direct experience with two of the other Big Five publishers, where I know for a fact that they point-blank refused to do this, and told the writer that any insistence on including this contract would lead to the offer being rescinded.

The Big Five have remarkably similar contracting terms. Or rather, unremarkably similar contracts, since concentrated industries tend to converge in their operational behavior. The Big Five are similar enough that it's generally understood that a writer who sues one of the Big Five publishers will likely find themselves blackballed at the rest.

My own agent gave me this advice when one of the Big Five stole more than $10,000 from me – canceled a project that I was part of because another person involved with it pulled out, and then took five figures out of the killfee specified in my contract, just because they could. My agent told me that even though I would certainly win that lawsuit, it would come at the cost of my career, since it would put me in bad odor with all of the Big Five.

The writers who are cheering on Penguin Random House's new copyright notice are operating under the mistaken belief that this will make it less likely that our bosses will buy an AI in hopes of replacing us with it:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/#bullied-schoolkids

That's not true. Giving Penguin Random House the right to demand license fees for AI training will do nothing to reduce the likelihood that Penguin Random House will choose to buy an AI in hopes of eroding our wages or firing us.

But something else will! The US Copyright Office has issued a series of rulings, upheld by the courts, asserting that nothing made by an AI can be copyrighted. By statute and international treaty, copyright is a right reserved for works of human creativity (that's why the "monkey selfie" can't be copyrighted):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

All other things being equal, entertainment companies would prefer to pay creative workers as little as possible (or nothing at all) for our work. But as strong as their preference for reducing payments to artists is, they are far more committed to being able to control who can copy, sell and distribute the works they release.

In other words, when confronted with a choice of "We don't have to pay artists anymore" and "Anyone can sell or give away our products and we won't get a dime from it," entertainment companies will pay artists all day long.

Remember that dope everyone laughed at because he scammed his way into winning an art contest with some AI slop then got angry because people were copying "his" picture? That guy's insistence that his slop should be entitled to copyright is far more dangerous than the original scam of pretending that he painted the slop in the first place:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/artist-appeals-copyright-denial-for-prize-winning-ai-generated-work/

If PRH was intervening in these Copyright Office AI copyrightability cases to say AI works can't be copyrighted, that would be an instance where we were on their side and they were on our side. The day they submit an amicus brief or rulemaking comment supporting no-copyright-for-AI, I'll sing their praises to the heavens.

But this change to PRH's copyright notice won't improve writers' bank-balances. Giving writers the ability to control AI training isn't going to stop PRH and other giant entertainment companies from training AIs with our work. They'll just say, "If you don't sign away the right to train an AI with your work, we won't publish you."

The biggest predictor of how much money an artist sees from the exploitation of their work isn't how many exclusive rights we have, it's how much bargaining power we have. When you bargain against five publishers, four studios or three labels, any new rights you get from Congress or the courts is simply transferred to them the next time you negotiate a contract.

As Rebecca Giblin and I write in our 2022 book Chokepoint Capitalism:

Giving a creative worker more copyright is like giving your bullied schoolkid more lunch money. No matter how much you give them, the bullies will take it all. Give your kid enough lunch money and the bullies will be able to bribe the principle to look the other way. Keep giving that kid lunch money and the bullies will be able to launch a global appeal demanding more lunch money for hungry kids!

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

As creative workers' fortunes have declined through the neoliberal era of mergers and consolidation, we've allowed ourselves to be distracted with campaigns to get us more copyright, rather than more bargaining power.

There are copyright policies that get us more bargaining power. Banning AI works from getting copyright gives us more bargaining power. After all, just because AI can't do our job, it doesn't follow that AI salesmen can't convince our bosses to fire us and replace us with incompetent AI:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

Then there's "copyright termination." Under the 1976 Copyright Act, creative workers can take back the copyright to their works after 35 years, even if they sign a contract giving up the copyright for its full term:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/26/take-it-back/

Creative workers from George Clinton to Stephen King to Stan Lee have converted this right to money – unlike, say, longer terms of copyright, which are simply transferred to entertainment companies through non-negotiable contractual clauses. Rather than joining our publishers in fighting for longer terms of copyright, we could be demanding shorter terms for copyright termination, say, the right to take back a popular book or song or movie or illustration after 14 years (as was the case in the original US copyright system), and resell it for more money as a risk-free, proven success.

Until then, remember, just because you're on their side, it doesn't mean they're on your side. They don't want to prevent AI slop from reducing your wages, they just want to make sure it's their AI slop puts you on the breadline.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/19/gander-sauce/#just-because-youre-on-their-side-it-doesnt-mean-theyre-on-your-side

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[physalian]

IngramSpark: Good or Nah?

I decided to work with them last minute to set my book up for success, and, in case they screwed me over, I could hate them in a properly informed manner.

So!

IngramSpark (IGS) vs. Amazon (KDP) so far: A detailed comparison.

Spoiler Alert: FUCK INGRAMSPARK

Alrighty these are two proof copies (author copies) of the exact same book made with the exact same PDFs. IGS is on the left in all pics.

Stuff to note:

The IGS copy is slightly greener, the purple is less vibrant. KDP made the exact colors I painted this with in photoshop.

The KDP book is slightly thicker and while the spine print is slightly off center, the front cover is perfectly centered. Compare both of the lower moons on the right side and it's very obvious that IGS cut theirs incorrectly. It's cut incorrectly because their paper is thinner, thus needing a slightly narrower print PDF (which isn't something they would tell you).

KDP is slightly thicker because they used thicker paper. Theirs is less polished creme, you can feel more of a grain of the pages, but because they're thicker, they're less transparent. I can read straight through to not only the back of the title page, but straight onto the next piece of paper for the IGS copy, and theirs cost more to print.

KDP shipped in lighter packaging, which meant my copy got a little banged up as opposed to the cardboard coffin the IGS book was in. Pick your poison.

KDP

PROS

A breeze to work with in most areas. I did not need to use customer service, so I can’t comment on that, but I’ve heard it’s superior to IGS in every way. They do have a community chat that I have used when confused (more below) and pages upon pages of how-to resources.

Simple user interface, very easy to click through all the set-up menus and not once did it freeze or crash on me (more below).

Did not use their formatter or cover generator, I used Adobe and did my own so I can’t comment on their quality.

Their “print previewer” was fantastic. I could click through the whole book and they explained very thoroughly where some issues were and what I should look out for and they let me use my own files without issue instead of having to build them in the platform.

Their royalty rate is the best you can get in this industry, because they’re not selling to anyone but themselves so there’s no middle man taking a cut of the profit.

Print quality of the book itself is fantastic. Only thing I miss is the ability to emboss, but no print-on-demand company does that as far as I’m aware. The colors were an exact match to my design in Adobe, I have no complaints.

Instant reports and near-live report refreshes for ebooks. Print copies don’t register on reports until the book ships, but Amazon prints and ships within ~2 days.

Because it’s Amazon, even though proof copies aren’t applicable with Prime, my copy still got here in 5 days including print time. My print copy totaled the print cost plus $3 in standard shipping that I could have rushed.

It did get a little banged up on the bottom but I think that was during shipping not at the printing press.

If you’re really strapped for cash, they do offer free ISBNs *but these are KDP only ISBNs, you don’t own them, and they are non transferable between vendors and POD companies. Bite the bullet and just save up for your own ISBNs and buy them in bulk if you can and you plan on publishing at least 2 books in your lifetime (like a paperback and hardcover of the same book, even).

After I submitted my ebook for preorder, I kept finding little details to fix and lines I wasn’t happy with that got nixed at the 11th hour. Updating this was seamless and free and the updated versions were processed within 6 hours or so. Amazon did not lock in the files to the date the preorders were set like IngramSpark would have.

CONS

They still don’t have paperback preorder, but they do have a feature where you can submit for a future release, which is just giving your files over to go live on a set date. Thing is: When you get to the end of the setup, there’s a button that says something like “submit for publication” which does not actually mean “move your publication date to right now” like I thought. So I missed my paperback date by 2 days.

Their proof copy has that annoying grey “Not for Resale” stripe across the cover so it looks wonky in marketing images.

They have a “cover art size calculator” feature, which did not line up with the actual file size I needed come submission time, off by a few millimeters. Which meant resizing in Photoshop and it was incredibly annoying and tedious.

Upon finally hitting the “publish” button Amazon flagged my book and told me to fix the highlighted errors. Well there were no highlighted errors, and said error(s) could be anywhere across four pages of details. I had to consult the community notes to figure out what they were talking about (it was an ISBN issue) which was quite annoying.

IGS

PROS

Well-known as the best print-on-demand (POD) company with the widest reach, including Amazon, for expanded distribution. (NOT IN MY EXPERIENCE)

Also well-known as the highest quality self-publish paperback, that still doesn’t do embossing. (NOT IN MY EXPERIENCE)

They do paperback preorders (which I did not participate in).

Integrates flawlessly with libraries and retailers that Amazon won’t do (which is about its only claim to superiority). My book was searchable on Barnes & Noble within 48 hours.

IGS, like KDP, has free ISBNs (US only), with the exact same non-transferable issue. However, because they integrate across all sellers, Amazon included, if you only intend to work with them, you’ve reached every market anyway.

CONS

Their royalty rate sucks ass. I had to price my book $1 higher through IGS because I was literally at a deficit with all the printing costs and vendor discounts (so if you want my book for slightly cheaper, buy it through Amazon). Through IGS, I think I’m making about $1 in royalties, when all is said and done. And I’ve heard, shockingly, that that’s pretty good.

I didn’t try to use their customer service because I know it’s notoriously terrible. But it would have been helpful when their website crashed.

Their website crashed on me three times when trying to upload my files. Before it crashed, their “submit files” button simply did not work, so I had to go the roundabout way through their formatter and cover wizard (which I didn’t like) which then told me my 300DPI cover art was too small. The exact same file I submitted and had in my hands at perfect resolution to Amazon. It took almost 2 hours of running around in circles on their site to essentially start from scratch to get this up and running—and I did all of this with polished files from the get go because I knew revisions would be tedious. Can’t imagine the hassle if you aren’t ready to go immediately (this is why I didn't do a preorder with them).

I have heard that if you make changes to your files, they don’t go into effect until the next month, meaning if you have typos, and anyone buys your book before the next calendar month despite you fixing them in the system, that person is still buying the old version. I have also heard that generating reports is not seamless. After 60 days, revisions also cost you $25 a pop (KDP is free).

If you submit pre-made PDFs for your manuscript and cover (as in, you don’t format or generate them within their system) they do not have an instant previewer. Mine took 48 hours to deliver a link, when that shit should be automated and instantaneous and should allow me to use my own files.

IGS does not have Amazon’s monopoly on shipping, so to get my book here at all quickly, it cost me almost $20, rush fees applied for only 1 day faster than Amazon did. “Quickly,” being I ordered the proof on the 24th, and it won’t get here until the 28th. Meaning, that if you’re not paying rush fees, you’d have to wait longer.

They can be quite confusing with revisions during the preorder process. Per their website, they can begin printing your book “generally” 30 days before go-live. Which means someone who preordered your book on the 3rd gets the version of the book that was available on the 3rd, even if you update it on the 5th, because they print those immediately, even if the book’s official release date of the 30th hasn’t passed. You’d pretty much have to be completely done with revisions before setting up for preorder with them to be absolutely sure, which means wasted time. I don’t know why they don’t just queue up the books to be printed on a hard deadline a few days before release.

So. While I hate that Amazon has a monopoly, about the only thing IGS has going for it is their expanded distribution when everything about their business, from their platform to their user experience to the actual quality of books is at best dead even with KDP, but in my experience with my best foot forward, IGS annoyingly inferior.

I don’t think they’ll remain the “best POD company” for very much longer. I did not do hardcover for ENNS as of this post so I can’t comment on either service’s print quality, only what I’ve seen in other reviews. Some people like the jacket-less print-on-the-cardboard look (Amazon), some people (me) like the jacket, if only so I can use it as a bookmark.

*I wrote the above paragraphs before getting my proof copy from IGS and fucking hell they're not even competent at printing

It is also a massive waste of paper and shipping resources to have to print multiple versions of proof copies fixing errors outside of my control. My proof copy from KDP is perfect. IGS? Nope! But they wouldn't let me properly preview it so I had no idea this would happen.

Even as a consumer who might hate the idea of giving Amazon more money, there’s an argument to consider: I totally understand the desire to keep brick and mortar stores afloat and I don’t want Amazon’s monopoly on the market to grow even larger. However, Amazon makes sure that you’re making more than pocket change on your book, unless you jack up the prices for readers on the back end so the whole thing costs more all the way down the pipeline. I refused to do this.

That deficit that forced me to price ENNS even $1 higher than Amazon really bothers me with IngramSpark. That deficit exists because of a higher print cost and a 55% discount given to vendors so they can still make their cut of profit from stocking your book. IngramSpark had me sit through a whole video saying “if you don’t do this no one will stock your book” while saying you could go as low as 54% but that might scare off vendors.

In essence, at this time, KDP makes sure that you, the creator, make money. IGS makes sure that they and the businesses selling your book for you make money. I didn’t do any of this for profit, but it does hurt seeing all your hard work, possibly years of effort, have a royalty of $0.87.

So, yeah, is IngramSpark worth it?

I don’t yet know what their reach will amount to. It’s a dream of mine to see my book on a bookstore shelf, but signing up with IGS does not guarantee you sales, it just guarantees you the best chance possible at reaching potential buyers. But at the moment, all it looks like to me is fees, a bad UI, cheap printing, arrogance from perceived superiority in the market, and a business built boldly in favor of its own profits.

Amazon’s a shady-ass corporation, but I’m going to have to say they’re the better bet. At the very least, for your first book when you don’t have an audience and if making a profit is important to you.

—

I did not try to use any other POD like Draft 2 Digital or Barnes & Noble Press, as I already have KDP and IGS is the best platform to integrate with KDP.

See here for the cost breakdown of my debut novel from draft to publication.

[britt-kageryuu]

A stream is starting. Shelldon and River are sitting up front while the set and everything gets set up. Donnies model pops in in his purple hoodie, mask with science charms, and wraps.

Donnie: So today we aren't going to play anything just yet. There is a planned update that needs to be made for future plans, like some camera quality issues with our event setup. Yeah we keep getting invitations to events, but we don't know the overall size of some, next to how many of you would want to attend.

Shelldon: Taday Dee is going to explain Us!

River: Or at least as much as he can because we're technically WIP!

Chat is very excited, more lore, and maybe some explanations for the robots.

Donnie: Yes, of course. Now River, we will be covering Shelldon first so..

River: I get sit over there and read!

River zips off to the side with her light screen popping up.

Donnie: Okay. Well Shelldon is my first Pride and Joy. He was first created as a base assistant AI program, that turned into a, well if you've ever heard of an old movie called 'Smart House' you get the idea, he sent a roomba army against us because he got annoyed.

Shelldon looks very proud of himself. There is some confusion in the chat, partially from how an assistant AI turned into Shelldon, and partially because not many knew what movie he's talking about.

Donnie: Now Shelldon is somewhat more mature, but he loves drone racing, playing games, some pranks, but ar least he isn't acting like a rebellious teenager anymore. He got some control of a drone and kind of 'ran away', I got him to come back, but not until we had a session with Dr. Feelings. Shudder.

Shelldon looks a little annoyed, giving a small 'Hey' at the more mature line. Donnie talks a little more about designing Shelldons look, 'picking up' his model and showing off details, and explaining some of the design. He lets Shelldon go when he's done to move on.

Then he tries to signal River that it's their turn. River is really into whatever they're reading. Shelldon moves over and pokes River to get their attention. River jolts a little, then moves to the center, while Shelldon rests to the side.

Donnie: Now River was a more recent decision, and when working on her AI, I planned to have her be more pop culture savvy... then I let her have access to a library of ebooks, and a couple slightly restricted streaming services, some games...

Donnie with an exasperated look on his face while looking at River who looks very happy.

Donnie: She refused to leave the virtual library for hours. She's still very into her job of 'knocking out' BOTs, but now that she knows she can read in the middle of streams, I had to give her insensitive to pay attention.

River: For every 10 BOTs I knock out I get a new Book!

Donnie: Yes, more books for a bookworm robot turtle. Anyway while Shelldon is Sea Turtle inspired, I wanted to make River more Softshell inspired. While teal isn't usually a first choice of color, it looks good against purple, and was good against my brothers colors!

Donnie 'lifts' River to show some details.

Donnie: Her shell is more flat, and the glowing spots were a decision based more for the Vtuber model appeal. But her head is purposefully triangular, and slightly conical to more resemble the head of a Softshell turtle. The Harisen was mainly for comedic effect, and the visual effect of her smacking the chat box was very amusing.

Donnie sets River down, and checked something off to the side.

Donnie: We will be moving onto explaining some future plans for what Shelldon and River will be able to do in streams.

And the stream goes on, chat giving mixed feedback on some of the ideas. Though when put up some concept Images for the ideas, chat got pretty excited, and some glad to hear about possible future streams.

Masterpost