IngramSpark vs Lulu: Terms Side by Side

IngramSpark vs Lulu: terms compared
IngramSparkVerified 26 October 2026	LuluVerified 21 October 2026
What it is
Type
Print-on-Demand · Distributor / Aggregator	Print-on-Demand · Distributor / Aggregator · Direct Sales
Formats
Paperback, Hardcover, EPUB	Paperback, Hardcover, Coil bound, EPUB, PDF (Lulu Bookstore only)
Distribution
Wholesale trade distribution, Retail, Library	Lulu Bookstore, Amazon, Ingram (bookshop and library ordering), Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Scribd, Libri, Gardners
Territories
Print from IngramSpark’s own facilities in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Sharjah (UAE), plus Global Connect partner printers in countries including Brazil, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea and Spain. A title is offered in each market where you add pricing for it.	Worldwide through retail partners; prices set in USD, CAD, GBP, EUR and AUD
Terms
Exclusivity
Not requiredThe licence in section 6.2 is non-exclusive, and print titles carry no restriction — the same book can sit on KDP at the same time. Ebooks are where this stops being simple. Section 5.2 closes with a flat covenant: “Publisher shall not directly or indirectly distribute Digital Titles to any Reseller outside of this Agreement.” A Reseller is defined broadly, as “any wholesale, retail, or other account that distributes digital content”, which on the plain words reaches the retailers an author would otherwise reach through Draft2Digital or directly. Read strictly, putting an ebook into IngramSpark’s digital programme forecloses distributing that ebook anywhere else; read narrowly, it only bars routing around Ingram to the Resellers Ingram supplies. The agreement does not resolve which, and the distinction decides whether the ebook side is usable alongside another aggregator, so it is recorded as the open question it is rather than settled in either direction.	Not requiredThe content licence in the Membership Agreement is non-exclusive and the author keeps ownership. The restriction runs the other way: Global Distribution will not take a title that is already listed on Amazon or any other retailer, so Lulu cannot be added as a second distributor for a book already on sale elsewhere. Global Distribution is also limited to print in Latin-character languages and ebooks in English, in EPUB.
ISBN
Free ISBN: YesYour own ISBN: YesThe free ISBN is owned by IngramSpark, cannot be transferred to another account, and cannot be used on other platforms. Any title using one must be placed in the wholesale distribution programme with pricing set for at least one market, and the publisher shown is IngramSpark's own "Indy Pub" imprint rather than your business name. Moving to an ISBN you own means republishing as a new title — the original cannot be converted.	Free ISBN: YesYour own ISBN: YesAn ISBN is required for Global Distribution. The free Lulu ISBN is available only on distribution-eligible projects, and under the Lulu ISBN Agreement Lulu.com becomes publisher of record in every bibliographic feed and creator revenue on that ISBN is treated as a royalty reported to the IRS. With your own ISBN, your publisher name is listed and Lulu acts as a distribution agent. Projects sold only in the Lulu Bookstore need no ISBN.
Royalties
85% of net receiptsEbook compensation85% of the net revenue IngramSpark receives on each sale — not of the list price. The retailer’s share is taken before IngramSpark’s net is calculated. The agreement states this as its inverse: section 8.1.2 sets a Digital Distribution Fee of 15% of Net Sales, and section 9.2 defines the publisher’s compensation as Net Sales less that fee. Print compensationPrint compensationNo rate is fixed. Section 9.1 defines publisher compensation as the suggested retail price, minus the wholesale discount, minus the cost of printing at the Pricing and Services Guide rate current at the time of purchase, and “in addition to the other applicable fees” — which is where the market access fee and any Share & Sell fulfilment fee sit. Because the discount is chosen per title and the print charge depends on trim size, binding, paper and page count, the only accurate figure comes from IngramSpark’s own publisher compensation calculator.	80%Print creator revenue80% of Gross Profit, which the terms define as the selling price less Lulu’s manufacturing cost and, for Global Distribution sales, the distribution fees. For retail sales the help centre puts the distribution fee at 50% of gross revenue and requires the list price to be at least twice the print cost; on the Lulu Bookstore there is no distribution fee. Lulu keeps the other 20% of Gross Profit. 90%Ebook creator revenue90% of Gross Profit — the selling price after the retailer’s share. Apple, Barnes & Noble and the Lulu Bookstore sell as agents at the price you set and take a commission; Amazon and Kobo buy at wholesale and may discount, but the creator revenue per copy stays as shown at the pricing step. Selecting Kobo or Kindle distribution moves Barnes & Noble to the reseller model too.
Fees
Account signup and title upload — free Market access fee (global distribution fee) — 1.875% Title revision or resubmission — $25.00 per change Ebook conversion service — $0.60 Digital distribution fee — 15%	Account and publishing — free Global Distribution review fee — $4.99 one-off Retail distribution fee (print) — 50%
Payment schedule
Ninety days after the end of the month in which the sale was made, for both print (section 9.1) and ebooks (section 9.2), and for ebooks the clock starts from when the Reseller reported and paid Lightning Source rather than from the sale. Payment is by electronic deposit in a preferred currency chosen at account setup, with amounts in other currencies converted at the end of each sales period. Section 8.3 makes the whole of it contingent on the Seller having paid Lightning Source first.	Under section 9 of the Membership Agreement (revised 8 October 2026): by electronic payment, monthly, by the end of the following month once the balance reaches $20 USD or the equivalent; by paper cheque in USD, quarterly, within 45 days of the quarter end once the balance reaches $75. Lulu may deduct payment processing fees, and a balance below the threshold on a payee dormant for 24 months may be forfeited. The help centre still states lower thresholds — $5 for PayPal and $20 for cheques — but predates the revised terms. Global Distribution sales are credited about 6–8 weeks after the customer buys.
Returns
Direct and Global Connect print orders are non-returnable. For wholesale, the publisher chooses non-returnable, returnable and destroy, or returnable and deliver — but Lightning Source “has the right to require Print Titles be non-returnable”, and any title it judges to breach the agreement or the User Guide is returnable whatever the publisher set. The trap is in switching: section 5.4.6 holds the publisher responsible for returns for 180 days after changing a title from returnable to non-returnable, and notes that switching the other way can pull back previously sold copies of the same ISBN the publisher never sold. Where compensation has already been paid on a book that is later returned, Ingram may withhold future compensation to offset it or invoice for the unit. Ebooks distributed through the digital programme are returnable, and Ingram reserves the right to withhold a returns reserve against compensation.	Returns and refunds may be offset against creator revenue, and Lulu may recover amounts already paid that later prove improperly earned.
Rights & privacy
Overall posture
Mixed	Mixed
AI training on your work
Terms are silent or ambiguous	Terms are silent or ambiguous
Content licence
Sublicensable to third parties	Sublicensable to third parties
Deletion
Available	Available
Export
Partial	Not determined

The full records, with sources, facts and change history: IngramSpark and Lulu.