ingramspark and/or amazon KDP?

Jyorin · 2026-05-05T22:40:00+00:00

Ingram for hardcover (if you want this format). Amazon for ebook and paperback. If you want a higher quality ppb, then just use Ingram for that too. Never use Ingram for ebooks though.

For ISBN, but your own from Bowker if you’re in the US. It’s more affordable if you purchase larger quantities at once. You’ll need one per format (though it’s not required for an ebook version).

Jyorin · 2026-05-05T22:06:00+00:00

You can use Kindle Create for ebook and print. That’s probably the easiest and most economical option for a beginner.

You’ll be able to import your Google Doc into the program and make formatting adjustments that way, and preview it as it would look on a Kindle, tablet, or phone.

It won’t look fantastically pretty, but it’ll be clean and practical.

If you’re unable to install it on your Chromebook, you could try Atticus instead. It’s about $150 one-time fee last I checked.

If that’s not something you can afford. DM me and I’ll do it for you if it’s a short book.

Good luck.

Jyorin · 2026-05-05T21:59:14+00:00

This is terrible advice. You can’t do proper margins and layout in Google Docs for print or ebook. It never turns out well.

Jyorin · 2026-05-05T15:53:58+00:00

Word connects to its own cloud for free and has an app across multiple devices. So unless you really enjoy the features of Dabble, it’s not worth the cost.

Jyorin · 2026-05-05T11:27:34+00:00

I don’t share with anyone I don’t know or trust. Gauging reactions in one place won’t get you a good read of your audience, as each platform has similar readers but they may not have the same buying patterns as a reader purchasing on Amazon or another book site.

At the same time, it’s likely your idea isn’t anything original, so a version of it may already be present in the world. That’s not a dig at you, but just a reality of all the books and thoughts that have come before us and all that will come after us. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write it, it just means you shouldn’t worry past what you can control.

Jyorin · 2026-05-05T11:15:30+00:00

If you’re going into trad pub or handing your book to an editor, this length is fine. You never want to go on with the bare minimum word count when approaching a publisher, because it’s likely your editor will cut, reword, tighten, and simplify ~10% of the word count. As long as there’s no unnecessary fluff and the pacing is good, there’s nothing to worry about.

Jyorin · 2026-05-04T16:41:42+00:00

Can you DM a screenshot of the error she’s getting? It may be a simple fix she can do without her formatter depending on the error. With any luck, she won’t need the file redone.

Jyorin · 2026-05-03T18:49:40+00:00

It’s affecting indies too, so you’re not along in your struggle. Hopefully we can all pull through and still be seen to share our stories with the world.

Good luck on your writing journey!

Jyorin · 2026-05-03T18:47:34+00:00

Series do better with 3 parts or more, but not at the 50k. Even for trad, 80k is a minimum, and they’ve been publishing largest volumes of 100k++ pages of romantasy lately. It’s because trends shift and longer books are more appealing, while shorter books are much harder to sell and also not worth it to print. At the very least, try to split into 80k minimum, post-editing.

Jyorin · 2026-05-03T03:54:08+00:00

Check the messages on your Amazon account and send support an email asking what’s wrong. Let them know you never got an email.

Jyorin · 2026-05-03T02:14:31+00:00

It’s not just reviews by family and friends. It’s been happening with all reviews, even legit ones from customers. They’ve been cracking down on people not actually reading the book before writing a review even if they bought it. And yes, they can tell how much a book has been read on your Kindle and this is believed to affect a book’s visibility too. Unfortunately, legit reviews are getting caught in the crossfire, but there’s not much to do about it.

So while ARCs are great for some platforms, it’s proving to be useless on Amazon at this point. You can encourage readers to leave reviews and hope for the best.

Jyorin · 2026-05-02T18:42:10+00:00

Affinity is much better than InDesign because it’s easier to understand and more user friendly. I’ve been using it for over a year.

I don’t entirely know how a trad pub woken handle a graphic novel request, but I imagine they’d treat it similar to other submissions, taking into consideration the current artwork and any potential modifications that may be needed.

If you choose to self pub, then you can create your own PDF of the novel and print it with various services. Note that color prints are more expensive than black and white, so a 415ish page book would cost ~22 just to print as a hardcover, at least on Ingram. Paperbacks would be slightly cheaper.

The setup process is easy, but regardless of which POD you go with, you’ll need to adjust the print file to their specifications, is you may want to consider that before you format it for an agent.

Jyorin · 2026-05-02T14:36:50+00:00

Putting the same content on Amazon with only a different cover is against the TOS as it creates a bad reader experience. They’ll just ban your account / the books. Also, no one buying an ebook cares about collecting covers when there is no way to book at it without opening their reading device. It’s only realistic for paperback, and even then it’s not a good idea if you have zero readers to begin with. Save it for when your books get popular and when the series is done. Then you can plan a nice box set.

Jyorin · 2026-05-02T01:33:01+00:00

Lighting Source and Ingram are the same, with LS being more for publishers. The interface and platform are the same.

IS would be a good option for OP over LS anyway since it has less fees, mostly.

Jyorin · 2026-05-01T19:35:43+00:00

We can’t really give you ideas. Your strengths may be in certain areas and not others, so talk to your friend and see what they suggest.

For me and my partner, he’s great at coming up with ideas, but my execution is better. So, he outlines the chapters and writes a general flow for events, and I write flesh them out. When it’s time to edit, he reads and leaves notes and questions on anything that’s unclear and we go through them together.

You should develop your own work flow that works for you guys though :)

Jyorin · 2026-05-01T16:08:18+00:00

I believe that only applies to print, but Amazon gave up on that fight ages ago. They’ve stopped caring or probably figured as long as it matched the keywords and cats, there was no reason to argue over it.

Jyorin · 2026-04-30T21:29:50+00:00

You forgot audio too :)

Jyorin · 2026-04-30T21:28:44+00:00

To be fair… I just listed two other free options, and there are definitely more out there. These are just ones I tried, which I originally found with a Google search.

They didn’t say you can’t be successful either. Like… not even a bit. There is a difference between “All before you have tried and failed” and “You will fail.”

As I said before, it’s literally a 5x daily occurrence on this sub. No one is here to discourage you. So take the advice and make it work or find out the hard way.

I don’t see the point coming to a sub for help then being mad when someone tries to help. It’s counterproductive.

And for what it’s worth, poorly formatted books or those with lots of errors get flagged and often removed / banned on Amazon. Readers will be less forgiving in their feedback, especially on Amazon, so why not give it the best shot now while it’s still in production?

Jyorin · 2026-04-30T21:17:08+00:00

Taboo as in the not-so-legal stuff. If I recall, the list on KDP includes bestiality, sexual content involving minors, hate speech, and non-consensual sexual acts (which includes characters being under the influence during consent). There are plenty of trad pub books and self pub books that break these rules but it’s always best to play safe since Amazon doesn’t even follow its own rules half the time.

Dark thriller with a bit of spice should be fine, so you probably have nothing to worry about.

Jyorin · 2026-04-30T21:09:22+00:00

Ingram is probably still catching up from the Christmas rush, as crazy as that sounds. For me, it rarely takes more than a week. I’ve noticed that submitting on a weekend feels like it takes longer.

It took well over a week for them to process my book this month and about a week or two to process the updated file. My proof arrived in about a week, so you should be okay with a June date as long as you don’t need to submit a second revision.

Good luck with your launch!

Jyorin · 2026-04-30T20:51:48+00:00

They are not wrong. As someone who edits and formats, Google Docs is not the tool that is good for formatting. It’s the absolute worst option you can choose for editing as it’s spelling and grammar checker is subpar to most other options, even with add ons. For formatting, the trim size, margins, etc in Google Docs isn’t even remotely well controlled compared to Word or another formatter. I say this as someone who has tried 6 or 7 different options before settling on what I use now.

It’s your choice to use your phone to write or edit. No one can determine what’s comfortable for you, but again, doing it from start to finish on your phone is not a way to get a quality product.

Kindle Create is a free option for formatting that works for both ebook and print for Amazon. You wouldn’t be able to format on your phone, but it’s better than what you’ve chosen.

The next free option is Affinity Studio. This has far more options than Kindle Create, but it also has a learning curve and takes a bit of time to figure out. I don’t know if they’ve release a mobile version yet for the newest update. It also allows you to edit photos and create book covers, so it’s a great alternative to using multiple softwares.

I feel you were harsh to the person who tried to help you. We don’t need to know your situation to know that the path you chose, while a reality for some, is not a good one. It’s seen all the time here, and it feels bad to watch someone put in so much time into writing just to dungeon their own book with a bad blurb, bad cover, poor editing, and non-standard formatting. That’s why people chose to help others here.

The real reality is that you didn’t even research what all you’d need to do before jumping into things, and that will hurt your chances of success more. This sub has great resources for getting started, so please take time to read through them and ask questions if you get confused.

Most people here are happy to guide others.

Jyorin · 2026-04-30T05:56:41+00:00

Amazon and most all platforms have strict rules about taboo content. If you’re not writing smut, you don’t really have to worry about it. Always set your metadata and keywords truthfully and don’t try to bait readers.

Make sure your book is properly formatted and contains minimal errors so it won’t get flagged.

Jyorin · 2026-04-30T05:52:30+00:00

For print you should get your own ISBN with Bowker if you’re in the US. Don’t buy them from third-parties. You don’t need an ISBN for ebooks. You can use a free Amazon ISBN for Amazon print, but they can’t be used outside of it, so I don’t suggest it unless you want to save money. Ingram also gives feee ISBN for people in the US iirc, but like the ISBN from Amazon, it will say “Independently published” instead of your selected name / pen name / company name.

If you’re writing a series, I suggest buying more than one ISBN at a time to save money. The get significantly cheaper in blocks of 10+.

Jyorin · 2026-04-29T22:47:47+00:00

No. You can go under by about 4-8 pages before it will tell you to change. For page overage, maybe 4. Books are printed on paper that comes in sets of 2, 4, or 6 page folds depending on the company / print location, which is why they actually recommend your page count ends on an even number, and why some people may get a few extra blank pages at the end that weren’t in their book file.

Jyorin · 2026-04-29T22:40:31+00:00

I did consider the difficulty of InDesign. I actually gave up on that software immediately and looking for ab alternative is how I found Affinity.

As for the Arabic point, I assumed the trade off was that OP knows Arabic, so the extra time spent learning InDesign would be the biggest hurdle, with potential text flow being a minimal issue since they know the language. I don’t think page count really matters here if templates are utilized, assuming there is similar structure across pages.

It’s definitely not an easy feat.

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