Let me be clear: If you choose the option to upload to IngramSpark, your book will be available to be carried by any brick & mortar retailer who opts to carry it. (You can also load your book to IngramSpark later. It doesn't have to be done immediately, which a lot of publishers won't tell you.) 

BUT...even if you upload through IngramSpark, your book likely will not be carried by any big box or brick & mortar retailer (Target, Walmart, Costco, etc.) unless you have a marketing team selling the book to those retailers (which is expensive). 

Retail shelf space is more coveted than ever, and traditionally published books are fighting for the majority of it. Add in the cost (which you bear) of books that are returned from brick & mortar retailers when they aren't purchased within 3-6 months, and the idea of having them carried there quickly loses its appeal. 

If you want to have your book carried in a specific brick & mortar bookstore, especially an indie shop, reach out to them and negotiate something! They're willing to work with local indie authors often (even Barnes & Noble, if you want to do a signing). 

Yes, I could get you more excited early on by saying, "Your book will be available at 39,000 retailers worldwide!" But if I did, I'd have a lot of unhappy authors before long. I prefer to set your expectations properly from the start so we can have a great relationship long-term! Retail stores are not the key to selling truckloads of books anymore. 

Don't ever hesitate to reach out to me with any questions you have about the distribution process!  

The short answer is no. But that's because saying no serves you best.

Book marketing is an area of expertise in and of itself. I know that buzzwords like "press release" and "website creation" sound great, but don't really  don't help the author (at least, not enough to tack on an extra few thousand dollars to a publishing service cost).

I will provide you with a professionally published book (or the components there of, should you wish to invest in any of them a la carte), and then you can use the leftover funds to hire someone whose lane is book marketing to help you promote. If you need recommendations, I've got 'em! 

I love audiobooks! I often recommend that authors wait to release their audiobook until a few months after their initial launch.

First, it's challenging to time the audiobook release with the release of other versions, because audiobooks typically take more time to be approved by vendors. Second, having a new version available gives you a renewed reason to talk about the book a few months after initial sales have died down.

Don't worry, I have GREAT audiobook producers I'm more than happy to introduce you to if you'd like to go this route! 

Nope. Some hybrid publishers will publish a book at no cost upfront with a 50/50 royalty split, which sounds great. But first, I'm not a hybrid publisher; I'm a publishing services provider. Second, the fine print  on many of those hybrid arrangements clarifies that if a certain number of books (usually several thousand) aren't ordered from the publisher's website directly within a specific period of time, the author is responsible for that payment (which is usually in the 5 figures). 

I'm very clear with my authors: I don't keep a percentage of sales, I don't upcharge for author copies, and I don't have any minimum sales requirements. As a service provider, I couldn't have any of those things! In fact, I likely won't even know what your sales numbers are!

Because I load to distribution accounts you create (I'll show you how), once your book is published, it is 100% under your control. 

Book publishers can be broken into a few categories: traditional publisher, hybrid publisher, and vanity publisher (the third is to be avoided at all costs!). 

Book publishing service companies (sometimes called publishing packagers) are just that—companies that provide publishing services to authors. They are not publishers. 

A publisher (whether traditional or hybrid) typically has a financial interest in the "success" of the books they publish.

Most traditional publishers offer an upfront advance (which doesn't have to be paid back, even if sales are lackluster), while some offer a no-upfront cost publishing arrangement with a higher royalty percentage given to the author on the backend than would be the case were the author to have been paid an advance. In either case, there is no "sales minimum" required of the author. The publisher is taking the bulk of the financial risk, and if the book doesn't sell, the book doesn't sell. This is why traditional publishing is the most challenging route—they vet their titles extremely carefully to ensure a return on their investment. 

To that end, most traditional publishers (though not all) require agent representation. This is another step they take to ensure they are only presented with the most polished, commercially viable titles to choose from. 

A hybrid publisher (not to be confused with a hybrid author, which is when an author has published both traditionally and independently) is one wherein the author pays a large part of the upfront cost to publish the book, and the publishing house retains a much smaller portion (typically less than 25%) of the earnings from book sales.

"Good" hybrid publishers (of which there are many) vet their manuscripts. They won't publish anything and everything that comes their way. They know what they're doing in the publishing space and offer various services (often offered at an extra cost) when it comes to publicity, marketing, website design, etc. 

A (good) self-publishing services provider is comprised of individuals who are well-versed and experienced in the book publishing space. They're crystal clear about the fact that their job is to perform tasks associated with the publishing process while maintaining no financial interest in the performance of the books they help through the publishing process nor do they retain any rights or require the author to go through them to order author copies or make changes to book listings.

Think of it like getting yournails done. Some people buy the supplies and do it themselves; some shell out $80 a week to have someone else make their nails into the shape of a coffin and add fun designs. Neither is right or wrong. It simply comes down to which parts of the process (nails or otherwise) you want to learn to do well yourself versus which you'd prefer to outsource.