IngramSpark

Publishing terms

Formats

Paperback, Hardcover, EPUB

Distribution

Wholesale trade distribution, Retail, Library

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.

ISBN

Free ISBN supplied: YesAccepts your 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.

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.Wholesale discount, print charge, and the market access fee. Returns are charged back at the wholesale price active on the date the return is processed, plus shipping and handling.

Fees

• Account signup and title upload — freeIngramSpark states it costs nothing to open an account or upload a print or ebook title. Setup fees were removed and are no longer charged.
• Market access fee (global distribution fee) — 1.875%“1.875% of the local list price at the time of sale”, in the guide’s own words, quoted identically in all four currencies and deducted from publisher compensation on every title enabled for distribution. Raised from 1.5% on 1 February 2026. Not a charge for entering a market — the user guide is explicit that enabling additional markets costs nothing — but a share of each distributed sale, and the reason compensation is not simply list price less wholesale discount and print cost. Its form has moved twice: an annual per-title fee until IngramSpark waived it, then a percentage of list from 2023, charged at 1% before the two increases.
• Title revision or resubmission — $25.00 per changeCharged to revise or resubmit files for a completed print or ebook title. Revisions are unlimited and free until the eproof is approved; the fee applies after that. This replaced the earlier 60-day free window on 1 February 2026.
• Ebook conversion service — $0.60Optional, charged per page ($0.60/page).
• Digital distribution fee — 15%Section 8.1.2: fifteen percent of Net Sales on every sale through the Digital Distribution Services. This is the ebook rate stated from Ingram’s side — the 85% the publisher receives is what is left after it, not a separate figure. Net Sales are what Lightning Source actually receives from Resellers in a month, less refunds credited back for returns, so the retailer’s own cut comes out before the 15% is applied.

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.

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.

Rights & privacy

Manuscript upload

Required

Cloud storage

Yes

Account required

Yes

AI features

Not determined

AI training on your work

The terms are unclearA positive result rather than an inference, as of the 20 March 2025 terms: the words “artificial intelligence”, “machine learning” and “training” appear nowhere in the agreement. That is silence, not an exclusion, and section 6.2 is where the silence matters — it grants the right to reformat, edit, modify and reproduce titles and metadata, and to enhance portions of the title file, at Ingram’s sole discretion. Nothing in the wording contemplates model training, and nothing in it rules the practice out either.

Content licence

A non-exclusive, transferable, sublicensable and irrevocable worldwide licence to print, advertise, distribute, reproduce and store titles — irrevocable except through the termination route in section 4 — sublicensable to Ingram Content Group companies and the platforms they control. Section 6.2 also carries the right to reformat titles, to edit and modify metadata at Ingram’s sole discretion, and to display limited portions publicly; the publisher separately has to supply covers, contents and up to 20% of each title as promotional content that “may not be subject to any form of content security”. Under the Global Connect programme the print files also go to third-party printers abroad, released per order and deleted by them within a reasonable time. The sharper point is separate from the work itself: rights in title metadata — including metadata Ingram has enhanced or modified — are perpetual and expressly survive termination of the agreement.

Deletion

A title can be withdrawn on thirty days’ written notice, and the agreement itself terminated on forty-five; fees already paid are not refunded. What withdrawal does not do is remove the file. Section 5.4.1 lets Lightning Source keep archival copies, and lets Resellers retain ebooks so that people who already bought one keep their access — both surviving termination. Ingram also disclaims responsibility for any retailer that carries on listing, advertising or taking orders for a title after Ingram has cancelled it in its own systems. The metadata is firmer still: the rights in it are perpetual and expressly outlive the agreement, so withdrawal ends distribution rather than the record of the book.

Export

There is a route, and it is metered. The Pricing and Services Guide lists a File Copies Administration fee — a per-title charge “for delivery of files held by Lightning Source back to publisher”, limited to five ISBNs or SKUs a year. So a publisher can get print files back, one title at a time, for a fee, and no faster than five a year. Nothing in the agreement or the guide describes a bulk export, and sales data leaves only as the monthly compensation statements.

Policy reviewed 4 September 2026

Recent changes

1. 1 February 2026

   Market access fee raised to 1.875%

   The market access fee, charged on every distributed sale, rose from 1.5% to 1.875% of local list price. On a $10 book that moves the deduction from 15 to 18.75 cents. The fee has changed form as well as size over the years: an annual per-title charge, then waived, then a percentage of list from 2023, charged at 1% before this and one earlier increase.

2. 1 February 2026

   Revision fee free window retied to eproof approval

   Revisions were free within 60 days of a title’s first production date. They are now unlimited and free until the eproof is approved, with the $25 fee applying after that point.