Memoir with IngramSpark?

Sonya Heaney

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Okay, I'm not 100% sure what I'm asking here, but any advice would be welcome!

For the last few years I've been helping someone write and edit their memoir, and now it's done. I explained about writing a proposal for nonfiction instead of writing the whole book, but they weren't interested in doing that. I made up a list of potential agents and publishers (this person is in their 80s, well-known, and of significant historical interest), but they found all of that a bit daunting.

Crucially: I said I could help with self-publishing, but under no circumstances go the vanity publishing route.

Yesterday I heard from them: they've just paid the "senior editor" at their "publisher" the $300 "reading fee", and are about to send them a further $5500 instalment to proceed.

In other words: they've been snagged by a vanity publisher.

I'm going to try and get them out of this mess, but I need an alternative. I'm trade published and no self-publishing expert.

Is IngramSpark a good option to use to publish a memoir? I signed up to get some more information, but then it started asking me to fill in my tax information ... and this isn't for me, so I didn't go any further.

Um ... help?! I have no idea what to do. I just know that nobody should be paying tens of thousands of dollars for a vanity publisher to upload their book on KDP!
 
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ChaseJxyz

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So I can't speak as to IngramSpark as a writer (just as to the quality of some of the finished products). But you say that the person is well-known/of significant historical interest. Would it be possible that you could do the agenting process for them? If this is the kind of book that someone who doesn't know them personally would still really want to read it, then going traditional could be worth it. But if they just wants family/friends to read it then smaller self-publishing can work. They could try Lulu.com; just punching in some quick numbers has a cost per book of <$20 for 300 pages. You would probably need to format the manuscript correctly to work for it.

There could also be small, local presses that would be interested (like if the memoir has a lot of local history), or even presses attached to colleges or universities.
 

starrystorm

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I used Ingram Spark and it was great, especially for a first-timer like me. I can't remember how much I paid, but whatever it was it wasn't that expensive. Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere near $300! I could afford it on a college budget.

I only used them for print, but I don't think creating an ebook with them would be hard.


(Also I nearly had a heart-attack at how much they paid. :e2faint:)
 

ironmikezero

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I use Ingram Spark for hardbacks. IS periodically runs special promotions/coupons for free title set-up, revisions, etc . . . I believe the current promo code/coupon is INGRAMSPARK2020. You should double-check, of course
 

Sonya Heaney

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Thanks, everyone! I'm going to dig into this a bit more on Monday (after I finish stressing about my own book!).

(Also I nearly had a heart-attack at how much they paid.

Seriously. I did a bit of digging, and from what I can see the "publisher" was started by a former military guy who is making a living out of scamming military people into "publishing" with him. And then they recommend their friends, and they recommend their friends. And none of them realise you shouldn't be paying the publisher to publish your book. Especially as they just upload the manuscript onto Amazon - which anyone can do on their own!

ChaseJxyz - I'm fairly confident this person would have got a pretty decent book deal, but I just could *not* make him understand that. He's a well-known military figure, and here in Australia military autobiographies are huge at the moment. At this point, he just wants a book in his hands (he's not in great health), and after three years of trying to explain the publishing industry to him it's just not getting through ... :(

ironmikezero - Thanks so much! I'll be looking into that tomorrow! :)
 

Sonya Heaney

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Okay, so it gets better. I just read the fine print on their site, and you're required to buy 500-1000 copies at about $30 each. So, if you add up the costs I've discovered so far (and that's before the optional book launches etc.), it's already costing an author $35 800 to publish with them. :Jaw: This is an Australian company, but I'll put something about them in the Bewares section soon.
 

starrystorm

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Okay, so it gets better. I just read the fine print on their site, and you're required to buy 500-1000 copies at about $30 each. So, if you add up the costs I've discovered so far (and that's before the optional book launches etc.), it's already costing an author $35 800 to publish with them. :Jaw: This is an Australian company, but I'll put something about them in the Bewares section soon.

Oh God!

Please people, please, if you are going to publish (self or trade) do the research! Vanity sounded good to me when I first heard of it, until I dug a little deeper and discovered the pricing and the demands. There's no reason for this.