The American Booksellers Association currently presented the final session in a series of three online Marketing Meetups specializing in topics related to IngramSpark, the print-on-demand ebook publishing carrier and ebook distribution tool.
The June 20 Marketing Meetup, hosted through ABA on Zoom.Us, changed into titled “Offering Printing & Publishing Services to Your Local Community” and featured guest audio system Josh Floyd, supervisor of enterprise development for IngramSpark; Paul Hanson and Annabelle Barrett of Village Books in Bellingham, Washington; and Haley Chung of Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C.
Hanson said Village Books has been imparting an unbiased publishing program to its clients since the Espresso Book Machine was first delivered to the marketplace; now, the shop uses IngramSpark. Instead of offering printing services, Village Books helps authors throughout their ebook’s lifecycle for a flat price of $ seven hundred. Currently, this system has 28 active customers.
“We want to support the life of the ebook and the adventure of the author from [idea] to ebook and past,” Hanson stated, noting that Break Free’s publishing service, the store has “a pretty sturdy software of writing businesses that they can take part in, as well as writing lessons that we offer in partnership with Whatcom Community College and a -day writing convention.”
Hanson said Village Books partners with IngramSpark and a local printer when writers are ready. “Our publishing program is often project control, in which we can bring about our customers and partner them up with a pool of freelancers that we’ve interviewed here in the community,” he stated.
Barrett added that the freelancers range from editors and beta readers to illustrators and architects, and Village Books is also working on growing a team of freelance marketers. “We use that as an aid gadget for [the authors],” she stated. “We interview all of our freelancers, so we know they’re comfortable with the system, and that way, our authors recognize they have the nice of what the network has to provide.”
She cited that the store has devoted staff for the program because authors “feel like they’re being listened to. It’s not like some other online website. ” Barrett said, “They come to us because they need to be able to speak to someone head-on. They need to sense that we’re hearing them and that we care about the ebook. I suppose it’s outstandingly helpful to have someone there for the entire lifecycle.”
To begin the partnership process, Village Books meets with authors personally and tailors their technique to what they need, stated Barrett. During the initial consultation, Village Books asks the author what they’re looking for in the program, how much independence they need, and what support they want. “Some authors are confident and simply need us to factor them inside the proper route,” she said, “whereas different authors need loads of assistance and numerous guides.”
Additionally, writers who participate in the IngramSpark unbiased publishing application experience different benefits, Hanson stated, such as consignment, the capability to host an event in-store, and having their titles displayed front and center in the store.
He explained that managing time and expectations is one of the challenges of using publishing software. He said that authors on consignment and inside the publishing software “are slowly worrying more about it. They’re doing this for the first time, and you need to educate them what it’s want to promote the books.”
The keep’s publishing coordinators split their working hours between publishing software and bookselling. “We need to control expectations and communicate with our customers,” he said, reminding customers that services are appointment-best.
Village Books additionally uses IngramSpark to supply its publishing line, Chuckanut Editions, which publishes local hobby titles and books that appear to have long-term marketability and a known readership, Hanson said. “We need to have long legs on it instead of a massive splash,” he said. “Most of those, we’ve got our neighborhood history, from youngsters’ books to geology.”
