So this is another one of those topics I see on Threads all the time. I’ve literally been meaning to write this up since April, and I haven’t had the time. 

I still don’t have the time, but I have a headache and am not getting anywhere on my current WIP, so let’s bang this out while I pretend I’m paying attention in this meeting. 

While there are other book printers in the game, I have only ever personally ordered from Amazon, Ingram Spark, and BookVault, so that is who we’re going to be talking about today. 

I’m not here to tell you who to order your author copies from. That is a decision you need to make. I’m here to compare them and give you info that isn’t easy to find. 

I will freely admit I’ve never been a big fan of Ingram Spark, and I don’t need to sit in front of a bunch of empty boxes to tell you why. (If you don’t get that joke, please look into Penguin Gate. Actually, don’t, it’s not worth researching.) Somehow, every paperback ordered off Amazon has come through Ingram, so I’ve been making approximately twenty percent of what I should for a paperback sale. I contacted IS, they told me to contact Amazon. Amazon says it’s an IS issue. I gave up and pulled my books from Ingram Spark. 

We’ve all seen the horror stories of how Amazon packs author copies, how they come shoved in a box with no padding and half are damaged. I’ve never actually placed a large order from Amazon, so I luckily never experienced that. I think I only ordered twelve books at a time.

As a note, I switched from matte covers to glossy outside of Amazon. So keep that in mind as you look at the pictures. I sadly do not have a picture of all three versions together because I sold out of my Ingram Spark copies before I started this article, and the only Amazon copy I have left of Hurricane Ryan has been bedazzled.

302 Pages 9” x 6”

BookVault

$5.55

So BookVault does come with a pretty steep price difference from Amazon. However, I never paid for my ISBNs. I use the free ones. Meaning I can’t sell the Amazon printed copies, anyway. I primarily use them for giveaways. This also means there are three different versions of my book floating around out there with different ISBNs, and I do not care. To each their own. 

Another advantage with Ingram Spark and BookVault is you can submit for tax exemption with them. This process took TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS with Ingram Spark and like a week with BookVault. You have to be registered with the state in order to do this, and it’s only valid for the state you’re registered in. Meaning I get tax-exempt books going to my house, but not if I send them to my parents’ house in Tennessee. 

I use BookVault’s US print locations. I placed an order for 40 copies on a Sunday, and I had them by Friday afternoon. The only time an Ingram order came that fast was when I was shipping them to my parents since they live only three hours from where Ingram Spark is located. 

BookVault’s copies are thicker, and not just by a little bit. There are no changes in the page counts between these books. The only difference is I print two pages in color when I print with BookVault, because they give you that option without doing the whole book. I get the title page and the about the author page in color because I think it’s fun. 

I also think the colors are brighter and prettier, and you can see that in comparing the covers. 

Yes, my books come signed by Buffy if you order directly with me.

The cover templates that Ingram Spark and BookVault give you are also different. I was able to do them both in InDesign, so that if your cover artist can do it for one, they can likely do it for the other. 

Another plus with BookVault is that they don’t charge you for changes, so you can make updates to the files at any time. So you can add your backlist, tweak files, whenver you need to. 

Now, the downside with BookVault is they do charge to upload new titles to their system. It’s not free. However, if you get on their email list, they often send out specials and free codes. I have never paid to upload a file to BookVault. I have titles that won’t be published until 2028 already sitting there that are not close to being written because I was using up codes. You can always change the actual title until publication as well. Carnaval of Chaos 2 has had three different titles at this point. Which one will it be? Find out in September when I finally have to make up my mind. 

The other downside to using BookVault over Ingram Spark is that they have no relationship with bookstores. Taking my books off of Ingram Spark means that bookstores have to order directly through my wholesale form rather than getting them through the printer. Now, I make more money this way—plus I can include signed copies and swag—but a lot of stores prefer to order directly through Ingram Spark. I’m never going to be in Barnes & Noble the way I do things. And that’s okay with me. 

Now, you can absolutely have your books on Ingram Spark and print your author copies through BookVault, nothing is stopping you. But it means having to possibly pay your cover artist more for additional formatting since they require different templates. But if you’re like me and Ingram Spark messed with your Amazon sales (they’re different ISBNs! This should not happen!), and you say to heck with only making $1 per copy, you can also just do KDP distribution and print your author copies through BookVault. It’s really up to you. Like most things in publishing, there is no one size fits all approach.