IngramSpark Reviews 1,600

Ingramspark is a horrible and broken service. I am helping my Dad build a book with text and images we worked on, and this is the service he chose. As of writing this review I have just spent 4 hours trying to get the front/back covers and the spine to line up. Whenever I went to preview to check my work the formatting, size, shape, colour of all the text and images would change and reset to their previous unedited state. No matter how many times a manually saved it would reset. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It turned what would have been a 30 minutes job into 4 goddamn hours. This is also on top of the unresponsive and clunky UI. There's also basically no point in pre-formatting any text for the cover. Everything that my Dad has prepared for this had to be completely undone because of how limited this service is in what it does. It even caused some text turn into question mark error symbols meaning we had to writing it all manually.

For your own sanity stay away from this service. The only reason we're sticking with it is because we're too deep into the process and money has already been paid. It makes me really regret not working closer with dad to make sure he didn't chose Ingramspark.

The person helping me, Princess Dobson, understood my issue, explained what I needed to do, and took extra steps to help me resolve them. Appreciated that.

I got a notice that my IngramSpark Children's Book was now ready to ship but it was at the same time as a scheduled trip from New England to DC and the date of shipment was during a snowstorm. I quickly sent a message asking that the shipment address be switched to the address I was scheduled to be at for 2 weeks. The message on live chat went thru and Arlene told me she forwarded my request to the appropriate team for changes. She said we would have to wait for a response.

The next day I got a notice that the label was made and the items had shipped however it was 17 hours after I requested a shipment address change and it stated that the package was going to the original address, not the updated address.

I contacted Arlene again because my Massachusetts area was scheduled to get about 5-7 snowstorms over the course of about 10 days. I did not want the books to be ruined or stolen while I was away. Arlene B. contacted Laura H. I requested again that the books be shipped to the updated address that I gave Arlene the day before and the importance of the request (to prevent the books from being ruined). Laura was very responsive and requested a change in shipment address however as I tracked the package it appeared it was going to my home address. I contacted Laura again due to the chance that the books would be ruined in the snow, sleet and rain.

Laura was again very responsive and this time was able to get the shipment sent to the address I had requested. As I continued to track the package I noticed that it was now going to updated address. It finally got here, safe and sound and all books were in excellent condition.

Much thanks and Gratitude to Laura H and Arlene B for their dedicated work and responsiveness.
Aurelie Catherine Cormier
Intentional Wellness™ Parenting

I am hoping this negative review will get someone's attention at Lightning Source. My password was phased out, and I cannot get into my account. They don't accept calls. I have written four messages. When i click on "Forget your password," the code isn't sent to me. The customer service requires a password. My business is ruined if I can't get this solved.

Lightning Source responded and solved the issue. I now rate them at four stars.

Jim Shaulis of Jim Shaulis Publishing Company

I've been using IngramSpark now since 2020. I've always found the platform to be excellent and the customer service team so helpful, often going above and beyond to assist with enquiries.

Print order arrived with fewer books than ordered. I informed customer services and they confirmed that the order was below quality and have arranged for the missing 2 copies to be printed and delivered. Very friendly, helpful and professional.
These were copies for the author of the book who was very disappointed when they didn't all arrive in the original order, so he will be very grateful when the replacements for the missing copies arrive.

Very difficult process however the customer service is terrific

I'll start with the good: IngramSpark is the cheapest reputable print-on-demand service I could find. There are no hidden costs, no ugly surprises. If you are willing to spare the time to make your own files, or to spare the patience to interact with their book-building tool, you can get professional-looking prints of your book in a very reasonable timespan (3-5 days to get the proof, then ~2 weeks for delivery after you approve and purchase the books.

These words may not seem to accompany the star rating. Well, there has been another side to my experience with Ingram. Their participation in the book creation process is minimalistic, when compared to more personalised (and expensive) services. This is understandable, as we cannot expect them to offer services of personalised document editing and professional formatting for the price we're paying.

However, you must keep two things in mind if you choose to go with IngramSpark. First, if you want to do professional-level formatting, prepare yourself to pay for professional-level software. I did not have this option as this was an amateur project for charity with a budget of £0, so I lost upwards of 16 hours of my free time finding workarounds for the limits of freeware (third-party apps, manually editing MS Word's metadata, learning to code XML so I can bypass processor restrictions — you name it, I tried it).

The second thing you must keep in mind is that IngramSpark's processors are very far from perfect. The reason I lost so much time working around restrictions is because their system kept spitting font embedding errors back at me, despite the fact I had followed all instructions and checked that I had embedded the fonts correctly.

Sadly, this issue was the lesser of the two I have encountered in creating this book. The cover — despite having been created to the specifications of the template, time and time again, with any reasonable variation that might trick the machines — was printed with a white stripe at the top. It is ugly and noticeable. It is NOT an issue with the bleed specification (at least, not one that is fixable by the guidelines in the template).

The final reason my review has such a low rating, however, is the customer support. I gave myself a month to submit and print the book — at the time this seemed generous, which may have been naïve —but now I'm forced to push the arrival date of the books a full month back, in the very best case. This is, in part, due to the circular nature of the customer support system. I was given the template specifications by a bot, and I told it the issue persisted, so it redirected me to a human. Who gave me the template specifications. I told them, and they redirected me to someone else. Who gave me the template specifications. And now I have engaged in a score of back and forths that have been "the issue is not the bleed", "make sure to adhere to the bleed!", "the issue is not the bleed", ad infinitum. Not only am I forced to keep telling my pre-orderers that the book has been pushed back again, but I am no closer to solving the issue than I was on the 29th of December.

This has the potential to be a 5-star service, but I have repeatedly been disappointed by what they offer, and I cannot recommend unless you have three or so months to spare in conversation with chatbots, automated responses and MS Word's XML files.

Ingram Spark’s customer service is absolutely the worst that it could be. I have had an issue since the summer that customer service hasn’t addressed properly. They need a much better system of interacting with their customers. They used to have a way of just calling up your rep on the phone. My rep was named Amy and if i had a problem, i would call her and she’d fix it. Not they have this endless stream of emails from customer service reps that don’t know what’s going on. They just send out auto-generated responses, never addressing the problem.
It’s really awful to deal with them now.
It’s better to deal with a different company unless they go back to phone reps. Of course that would mean hiring more people, cutting into their profits.

Clair, who helped me so many times with 2 orders, is wonderful in her quick responses to my situations. Very helpful. UPS is a company I would like to never deal with again in my life. My first order of books was finally delivered to me in Sicily in 48 days. Not Ingram's fault and Clair was always paying attention and very, very helpful.

The turnover of work by IngramSpark is always efficient and timely. The speedy resolution of a recent technical problem meant our workflows could proceed on time.

Website is terrible. Tries getting infomation out of you at every turn, have to make an account even do do anything. Who ever designed this websiite needs firing.

Avoid like the plague.

IngramSpark is absolutely awful. I deeply regret publishing my first book with them and wish I used Kindle Direct Publishing instead.

IngramSpark recently misprinted a very important order of mine. I have submitted 3 tickets and have not even received a response from a support team member, so I've been unable to receive a refund *or* schedule another shipment.

I also have not received payment for sales of my book even though they are well-above the company's "threshold" to remit royalties. This is just the tip of the iceberg though.

Their customer service is among the worst I've ever experienced in any industry. Submitting support tickets is an exercise in futility—they either go answered or you receive canned, boilerplate responses that direct you to IngramSpark's useless FAQ section instead of actually trying to help.

It is also verifiably impossible to get a hold of anyone. The only way is through their premium paid service, "IngramSpark Connect." Yes: you have to pay to speak with a support representative.

I cannot stress this enough: do not use IngramSpark to self-publish your book. There certainly are benefits, which you can discover through your own research, but they pale in comparison to the fact that you will receive zero support when you need it.

I already had a bad experience with Ingram. Just few days back I've been creating the account with them , and looking forward to upload my book . According to their terms and conditions they mentioned that they don't charge anything till the Book is sold and etc . I have filled in their form and provided my banking information where it has been required . Within a minute I have received a notification from my bank , stating that my bank cannot accept that kind of transaction, therefore my bank account will be deactivate till I contact it and update my profile. What confuses me most why Ingram has jumped on deducting money into my account before I could even complete filling the form . And according to their protocol, they don't charge any fees to authors in the beginning till the Book is sold ,then they would take their percentage as per agreement. Correct me from wrong.

We have been using IngramSpark for all of our business needs for 6 months now, and I can't begin to tell you how amazing it has been for our company. Knowing that the product is getting to our customers in a timely manner, and if there is a problem with an order. They are usually quick to assist and handle the issue at hand. December was a rough time as they are busy, like every other business, and although we had a few issues with our orders, they were so quick to respond, that our customers were not affected by it. I'm one happy business owner knowing that we have IngramSpark controlling our product. Their customer service is AMAZING in their response and accuracy with our issues. Couldn't be happier with our decision to move forward with them. Looking forward to a long lasting relationship.

They explained the reason for the issue so I understood it for the future. Then they fixed it behind the scenes. Then they notified me when it was done. Very professional and friendly.

In March I ordered some books from Ingram. I did not pay extra for the insurance because it is so expensive. I never received my books. They did send an email stating they sent the books, but no tracking number. I contacted them about not receiving the books and they were of no help. Once I received the bill, I contacted Visa and complained about not receiving my books, not receiving a tracking number or further help. The lady from the Visa told me not to worry, I didn't have to pay the bill, and she would open a dispute. I never heard anything else from my Visa or Ingram spark, so I assumed the matter was resolved. In the middle of October, I receive an email from Ingram, stating I had to pay for books returned from stores or they would close my account. I thought they were hackers and did not respond. I checked my Ingram account and there were no outstanding charges. I wrote them an email to see if they sent me that suspicious email. Ingram said they didn't send me any email. Shortly, I check my account, and all my books were deleted. I contacted Ingram again and they said it was a different department of Ingram that apparently sent me the email. It took over 2 months for Ingram trying to get to the bottom of this issue. In the meantime, I am losing all the Christmas sales from my books. Finally, they sent me a link to contact the other department. Now I found out the problem was because of my book order I never received that I was charged. I am upset how they treat authors. They don't give a track number or try to figure out what happened to my books if they expect a payment. I have the feeling my books were never sent from the company, since they couldn't provide a tracking number. They are scamming authors. I am still waiting for an answer. In the meantime, I expect Ingram to put all my books back in my account until we settle this matter. I will never recommend authors to use Ingram! I am very upset!

Worst company ever! Quality print is awful, customer service always send automatic replies, financial team doesn't make payment when needed. Avoid them to avoid troubles !

I spoke to a lovely lady called Autumn and she was very patient with helping me work out the inner workings of paperbacks and hardcovers.

Quick response time, helpful and well informed.