IngramSpark Reviews 1,600

Five stars for their print product, three stars for the slow response time, and one star for the most frustrating publishing process for indie authors. It just takes ages to work out what they really need. Making a cover PDF is okay with the template, but I wish they would have more informative and simpler instructions for the interior layout. It's actually quite easy from a Word document printed to PDF, but I got that from AI, not from Ingram. My message to all you frustrated Indi authors: don't give up. Ask detailed questions in AI mode and you'll eventually get there.

Setting up my book was easy, but ordering is a different story. The time it takes to process the order was longer than expected. I looked at their website and they say you don't count weekends so make sure you account for that. My biggest issue is the quality of the book. I got paperbacks and the glue was sloppy. So much so that you can see it when opening the cover. I don't even want to sell at the regular price because I feel it would be unprofessional. The pages are also thinner than getting Amazon to print them. I'll go with Amazon from now on.

I have been trying to activate my account with Ingram Spark for more than 2 months now. I have contacted their support probably 6 times over those months to get help and each time the team member replies once or twice, doesn't resolve the issue then dissapears. They said apparently there was an email asking for ID which I never got, then I sent them ID multiple ways and no one ever replied.
I am so surprised a company that is supposedly so big has such terrible support.
I can't even speak to the quality of the work because I haven't even been able to publish my book and this has cost me hundreds of sales and many hours of stress.

The end product was excellent. My book came out beautiful. Ingram Spark is cost effective their pricing was affordable to a very low budget would be author like myself. That's where the good part ends. Their website is very confusing. I'm no computer geek. If I would have had to go through it alone, I would have gone to a different (probably more expensive) printer. Lucky for me I have a friend who has had experience dealing with them. Ingram spark themselves were worthless as for support. Their customer service is terrible. To get support you have to email and wait at least a week, usually longer to get a reply. Their automated AI support kept telling me it didn't understand my question till it was so basic that the standard reply didn't come close to helping. If you can afford it go somewhere else!

IngramSpark has been an extremely valuable platform for me. I discovered it in 2019, and since then it has allowed my titles to reach a much wider audience, including libraries and major online retailers.

Like any large company, there can occasionally be issues, but in my experience almost all of them have been resolved thanks to the efficiency and professionalism of the customer service team.

Recently, I received outstanding support from a member of the IngramSpark team who helped me resolve a few distribution issues that had occurred automatically. A special mention goes to Liz Ponting, whose experience, dedication, and genuine care for customers truly stood out.

People like her are what make a company great. Because of this positive experience, I have recommended IngramSpark to many fellow authors and self-publishers, and I will continue to do so with confidence.

Thanks,
Giovanni

I used their customer support service to email my request for a book to be unpublished due to an error on the cover. A week later I sent a chaser. I’m STILL waiting for them to action that request. The only responses were automated generic “ticket” responses.

I am a new self-published author. Published my Ebook and Paperback at Amazon, however, I wanted to publish my hardcover with Ingram Spark. I started submitting my files in mid December of last year. It has been an absolute nightmare dealing with them, constantly nitpicking about various little things to do with my cover file. I followed their template to a Tee and the cover looked perfect on my end. However they rejected it once again for the fourth time. I have since decided to publish my hardcover with Amazon as well. Ingram Spark is only for their own profit and they care very little about their Authors. Their cover file template is antique, and the whole system is behind the times. They definitely need to make this process easier without the huge learning curve. I published with Amazon, and in 24 hours, it went live with no issues whatsoever. I doubt I'll ever attempt to publish anything with ingram Spark in the future.

Ingram Customer since 2009.
Human customer support at Ingram used to be amazing. Even if they didn't pick up immediately, they would get back to you the following day.
They have fired all their customer service representatives and replaced them with a chatbot that doesn't seem to have the IQ of a retarded squirrel.
I had a simple question re downloading a PDF of a publish book to confirm that it was the latest version of the title.
No matter how I rephrased the question, the Chatbot haven't a clue what I was talking about.
Time to migrate.

Ingram Spark has been a nightmare. I self published a book and during the process an error was made in the account numbering.

Trying to contact them was bordering on impossible, there is no option to simply get a human on the phone, and their web interface can best be described as "Byzantine".

Because this was projected to be a low-volume of sale project, I didn't check often and by the time the first correction was attempted, several years had passed without a single payment remittance. When I reached out to them, they told me that money was gone and could not be collected.

However, they never updated the account number and several more years have passed without payment. I first published 5 years ago, and can't even check to see how many units have been sold because their system only goes back 365 days.

If you're trying to self-publish, this publisher will cost you time and money you'll never get back for terrible service.

Hi,
There is a painful learning curve in navigating how to upload book and cover and working with an “email only” customer service. However, after a few months, I got over the learning curve, and I am satisfied that my book was made available for sell. Customer service finally did call me after I resolved most of my issues with them by email. The only problem now is the very high prices for color pages and paper… only a few people were willing to pay for the book. However, I believe high prices have more to do with the economy and Amazon’s charging 3 times the cost to make the book. Prayers: May IngramSpark only grow and improve for the good of the small business people.

impossible and difficult to simply upload and publish. why don't they have a customer service phone number for help?????? It takes over a week for a customer service email to be replied to and by then i had to pay someone on fiverr to help me. HORRID i will use another book publisher. the book looks very good i must say but other publishers are just as good.

Compared to Amazon Kindle, this is absolute disaster! Terrible UI and cover design tool. Slow customer support that takes 2 weeks to reply to you. Also they don't offer ISBN, as promised, but force you to buy it from 3rd party.

Avoid Ingram, IngramSpark, and Lightning Source. I used the latter for almost 15 years, but the last year has seen nothing but problems. My recent delivery of 250 books saw 68 damaged and defective copies from a combination of poor delivery from UPS (their chosen courier) and poor production and quality control from Ingram (scuffed and scratched covers, misaligned covers, etc.). To make matters worse, after a week and a half of dozens of emails, where I was initially told a replacement would be arranged right away, they are now trying to fob the whole thing off on UPS and say a replacement won't begin until UPS collects the damaged copies (which I've been waiting for, with zero word from either about a collection).

The process to get a book to market is fine, but IngramSpark fails at the printing press and shipping warehouse. Books routinely arrive damaged and unsellable. Boxes are too big, no packing material. The long and short of it? Find another source to print your book. I am a small publisher and have generated five titles through IngramSpark. I've complained a dozen times about their shipping department. Nothing changes. I'm done with them.

I signed up with IngramSpark to get my book published, I have been fighting with their book cover templates, requested help to no one actually helping. And every time I follow their template it comes back wrong or saying there was no cover. Their system is horrible is to work with and I just given up on them and went elsewhere to publish.

Seems their customer services are active here rather than at their Help Centre.

February 16, 2025: Requested to permanently close the account. Nothing happened.

March 29, 2025: Requested again. Received a response next day indicating my account would be scheduled to close in 30 days.

I thought task completed. Wrong! I began receiving repeated Service Alert emails re Important Account Update without the option to unsubscribe.

My account was supposed to be closed “permanently.” Did it “magically come to life” somehow???!!!

I no longer have business with IngramSpark. It’s a shame that people have to resolve issues by publicly venting their grievances via negative reviews.

STOP sending me any emails! Leave me in peace!

Account #: 9593732 CLOSED!

The customer service is seemingly non existent when you need to speak with someone. No ability to chat online or via phone for quick resolution. Waiting for response to my 3 attempts at sending in questions. This is where the Ingram Spark brand gets tarnished.

I hope you’re doing well. I’ve been trying to add my first title to my IngramSpark account, but my account has been showing the message:

“We’re still processing your account and will need to finish before you complete the setup of your first title. This could take 3–5 business days, so please check back soon.”

It’s now been over 8 months, and the message still appears every time I try to proceed. Could you please review my account and finalize the setup so I can begin publishing my book?

Here are my account details for your reference:
Account Name: Mohammed Essakhi
Account #: 9702063

I had an issue that I could not resolve for a while by contacting different support team members at IngramSpark. I was desperate until James helped me. It took a few months, but he was patient with me and worked hard to find out the issue and resolve it. I really would like to thank him, and this is the kind of responsibility that makes the world a beautiful place.

I was having an account log in problem and basically made it worse trying to renew my account.
Spark support, Princess, advised me she could phone and fix the issue.
In her call, she was so patient and helpful, she quickly repaired the problem, and got me on track with changes. She was fabulous!! Thank you!!!!!!!