IngramSpark Reviews 1,600

Could never even log into my account. They provide a pass code that does not work. There is absolutely no way for me to log in at all and that is after contacting customer service, like they have any....

I’ve used IngramSpark for multiple books, and the experience has gotten worse with each one.

First, I couldn’t even process an order because their system wouldn’t accept my credit card. Support couldn’t fix it or offer a real solution. Now, my latest book revision has been sitting in “Title in Revision” for over five days, while two other titles with the same specs went through in two days.

I’ve opened multiple support cases — most go unanswered, and when they do respond, the answers are vague and unhelpful. It’s incredibly frustrating when you’re on deadlines and their system keeps glitching with no transparency or accountability.

For indie authors relying on timely production, IngramSpark’s lack of communication and technical reliability makes it nearly impossible to trust them.

Where do I start?
1. My Ebook has been "On hold" for weeks. No reason, no option to update, review or rectify the issue. It just sits unpublished in limbo. I contacted customer support, no reply.
2. The paperback is listed on Amazon, but with no cover picture, no "Look inside feature" as I asked for. Contacted customer support, no reply again!
3. The book blurb formatting on the listing on Barnes and Noble is awful. Half way through a sentence, it

begins a new paragraph. A bit like

this sentence. Horrid.

I really am loathe to continue using Ingramspark and publish elsewhere... anywhere else.

I of course paid up front for Ingram Spark support. Authors beware Ingram Sparks takes your money, offers many other costly services and NEVER commits to the author on the dates they will deliver these services.
Authors you have invested many years in developing your book. For your monetary protection Stay Away from Ingram Sparks!

I began publishing my book Survival of the Fittest: Single Parenting with IngramSpark in June 2025, and here we are at the end of October 2025 with nothing but ongoing errors and delays. Every submission resulted in new technical issues, even when I used their own templates exactly as directed.

The system is overly complicated, the feedback from file technicians is unclear, and support responses often create more confusion than help. What should have been a simple upload turned into months of wasted time and unnecessary frustration.

In my opinion, IngramSpark needs to completely revamp its publishing process to make it truly accessible for independent authors. I have since moved my book to Amazon KDP, which has a far easier and more user-friendly system.

If you value your time and sanity, I’d recommend starting with KDP instead.

— Jacquelyn Butler, Author of “Survival of the Fittest: Single Parenting”

They sneakily add an extra page with their own barcode and advertising of their website. This was not on any product information or proofs that were supplied. I did not purchase a product with their barcode. They refused to refund. Dodgy.

Please be careful of working with this company, they are unreliable, I published a book series with them, after working on this series for one and half years, they woke up one morning and said all my books have been removed. This are books that I sold through them for one and half years, after this, all the books are still listed on Amazon and illegal sellers are selling this books without paying me royalties, I told them to take it down they said it is impossible to remove them, just note you don’t have authority over your books again after publishing with Ingramspark.

They did OK with my last book that I published but ultimately wasn’t thrilled with the experience so went with someone else for my second book.

I cannot get any help from IngramSpark customer service. I was able to upload the paperback version of my books with zero problems. But, I have had nothing but problems with the hardcover version. It does not seem to matter how many times I use THEIR templates or double check the pdf files to ensure they are compliant, the submission s get rejected. I am beyond frustrated. I use a professional company to design my covers and have zero problems with any other companies. IngramSpark is the outlier. And, their customer service is non-existent. If it weren't for accepting my paperback versions, I'd give one star.

Run from it. Try amazon.

Was a huge supporter of Ingram but something has changed.

Support responses feel more AI and are riddled with Irrelevant points. Recently had a speel about how Amazon chose to sell books when asking about returns. But the main issue is that the return numbers are not trustworthy.

I have a HB book that has sold 34 copies. 25 of which I know the full location of leaving 9 I am unsure of. Recently I've had a spate of returns. Up to the 9 I was ok because it was likely stores just returning what hasn't sold over the last year... But then the number kept growing. I'm at 14 returns now and I've confirmed the 25 books still sit on those peoples shelves (because I signed them).

So, somewhere along the way books have either not been registered as sold and were then returned or there is fraudulent returning on the go.

This enters my theory and test. Amazon continue to reduce the price of the HB below the wholesale price. Which is their choice to make a loss I guess... Except, every time a HB sells at that price a return appears in my account in the next month charging me the wholesale print cost as a return. I think Amazon are marking the book as returned to Ingram but still selling it on to end users and Ingram are complicit because they stick their fingers in their ears and ignore it when reported via support. I've tried to raise this with support and had strange, irrelevant answers mixed with responses that are just claiming their numbers are right.

No-one can answer the simple, how can those numbers be right if the totals don't add up. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me?

[EDIT]
After a back and forth with support they informed me they found 5 sales missing from Amazon. Just enough sales to cover up the known books and would basically mean no other sales had occurred (something I know not to be true due to a support deal with my audiobook voice).

Not only do I now think they are complicit in this numbers game, I think they may be partially behind it. When pushed the support team found just enough sales to make the issue disappear on my reports, but it still doesn't add up right. The system is set up in a "trust me" approach with no tracking or traceability for the end user. Through Ingram's returns system I have had my entire profit wiped off with no way for me to validate the returns as real. I'm left with only one choice, recommending people currently avoid Ingram. Which is sad, because they were once the best in the industry for small scale publishers.

Pathetic all round.

Absolute nightmare. Their system has an error in it that has prevented me from progressing past the upload stage for several weeks now. Responses take a week and now they threw it out because I used the ‘wrong’ email to write to them for the usual ‘security reasons’ lame excuse.

Book delayed, customer orders unfulfilled, and costing me money. Not good enough.

They were okay until I actually needed help. I became disabled since beginning to work with them as my publisher. They are complete ableist bigots. Go with someone else. For real.

Beyond dire. Cannot log into their site at all. Only site I've come across that cannot cope with I don't know what exactly. I have a very fast connection, and every other site I've been on loads up fine, but not this one. It's like the dark ages. Customer service is non-existent.

As a professional publisher, my experience with IngramSpark has been disastrous, especially when using legitimate ISBNs purchased from Nielsen.

Here is the situation:

Even after I corrected ISBN records in Nielsen Title Editor and provided proof, IngramSpark still rejects my titles with the error “ISBN already in use.”

This is despite the fact that I am the legal owner of the ISBN block. Ingram simply refuses to update their metadata, leaving my books blocked from publication.

Customers have actually received the wrong titles because Ingram’s system cross-links my ISBNs with unrelated books that were never published by me. This is damaging and unacceptable.

Support is the worst part. IngramSpark responds only with auto-generated emails and ticket numbers. I have tickets sitting open for over a week with no resolution, despite following every instruction and providing full documentation.

Chat support cannot fix anything, and emails go unanswered beyond template replies.

This has now turned into a cycle: Nielsen updates the metadata, but Ingram ignores it. As a result, every book publication becomes a drawn-out fight. A single format can take weeks, leaving authors waiting, readers misled, and publishers stuck.

The publishing process relies on ISBNs being unique and properly managed. IngramSpark’s refusal to recognise valid corrections, combined with their unresponsive support, makes the situation unbearable.

In short: IngramSpark is blocking legitimate publishers from using their own ISBNs, while continuing to serve incorrect metadata to retailers. The system is broken, and the lack of accountability is costing publishers time, money, and reputation.

Harli went above and beyond to ensure everything got resolved, on a weekend. Truly outstanding!

Previous experience wasn't good - but during these years they have made significant improvements

We had a difficult time getting the cover set, and Princess was very helpful finally getting it done.

I have a retail merchant’s POV. We purchased one title from them in 2023. We had trouble receiving those, but eventually they all arrived.
A couple months later we received a shipment we didn’t order and that took many of my work hours, calls and emails to resolve. We asked them to delete/close our account and we assumed that happened.
Fast forward to July 2025. Two packages arrive from Ingram. They were “unacceptable returns”. We never ordered these items. Therefore we most certainly couldn’t have returned them. How we ended up with this is anyone’s guess. But regardless it couldn’t have happened had they done what we asked and deleted our account. I should have known better than to engage with them on this last mistake. Again, I’ve spent hours on the phone with overseas nonnative English speakers, trying to get them to understand. And the person in billing seems intentionally obtuse. Currently, even though I helped them out and shipped $850 worth of product back to them, I’m being charged(!) $20.65 for shipping???? I can only imagine the hellhole it is to work there. I wouldn’t get mixed up with any aspect of this company if they were the last publishing house on the face of the earth. If I could give them 0 stars, I would.