I use Amazon KDP and IngramSpark to distribute my paperbacks and both allow authors buy copies of their book at a reduced cost, so as soon as you’ve published your book via their platform you can submit an order to purchase your own book.
What is an Author Copy?
An author copy is the retail version of your book, and is the same version your readers can buy. But because you’re the author, Amazon and IngramSpark allow you to buy it at a reduced cost plus shipping costs.
What to do with your Author Copies?
There’s multiple uses for your author copies, but here’s a list of the primary uses I’ve heard about from other authors:
- Sell your book directly from your website
- Offer your book as a giveaway prize to build your mailing list
- Sell (or give away) copies of your book at a special event like a conference or promotional event
- Send copies to book reviewers. Many book bloggers prefer a print version to an ebook version
- Donate a copy to your local library, or organizations that are related to your writing niche (for example I wrote an Alzheimer’s book that I donated to local voluntary day care centers)
- Thank your book team with a gift of your book (e.g. beta readers, proofreader, editor, etc.)
- Send a complimentary copy to an influencer or blogger in your nonfiction niche
- Send a PR copy to your media contacts
- When you appear on a podcast, or a blog author interview, offer a copy to the hosts audience as a giveaway
- Buy one to double-check the quality of the printed version of your book.
Are there other uses for an author copy that I should add to the list? Let me know if the comments below.
Order An Author Copy From Amazon KDP
You can order Author copies of your published paperback, and you will be charged the printing costs, shipping, and taxes. These wholesale copies are currently available in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch. Japanese will be available at a later date.
The option to request an author copy will be enabled in the ellipsis (“…”) Menu, in your book listing in the KDP dashboard.
- Click on the Order Author Copies.
- Select the order quantity (a maximum of 999).
- Select the Amazon marketplace closest to your shipping destination. The cost will then be displayed. This cost doesn’t include shipping and applicable taxes.
- Click Proceed to Checkout. You will be directed to your Amazon cart to complete your order.
How much does an author copy cost?
When you order your author copies through your KDP Account, you’ll pay the author price for your own books, which is the printing cost for your selected marketplace x the number of copies, plus shipping and applicable taxes.
More information about ordering author copies on Amazon KDP.
Order An Author Copy From IngramSpark
Once your book has an Available for Printing/Download status, you can order an author copy.
- Click on the Orders tab and select the book you want to create a new order for.
- Select the order quantity.
- Select the print location closest to your shipping destination. They have four print facilities in the United States, one in the United Kingdom, and one in Australia.
- The cost will then be displayed
- Click Submit Order.
How much does an author copy cost?
The author copy cost includes the printing and shipping costs and the applicable taxes. IngramSpark also charge an order handling fee, which starts at $1.99 (or your currency equivalent).
Personalizing your IngramSpark Copies
You also have the option of personalizing your IngramSpark copies, which is great for special events or to create a book with a special dedication without having to edit your source file. This page will be inserted as the very first page of your book at the time it’s printed. Your book will also be printed with a unique identifier on your last page, and your ISBN barcode will be replaced with a different barcode.
IngramSpark article about Personalizing your Author Copies
Personalization Ideas
- One-Off Dedications: If ordering your book for a giveaway or a gift, you can add a special inscription on a single copy.
- Book Club copies: If ordering multiple copies for a book club’s monthly read, you could add discussion questions for the group to consider.
- Events and Speaking Engagements: If ordering for a speaking engagement or event, you could include an open letter to readers, or list out the key talking points from your talk.
As well as adding text, you can also include images or logos.
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of opening the box to hold your latest paperback in your hands for the first time. I love the feeling of matte (vs. glossy) cover because of there soft suede texture, and after I’ve run my fingers over the cover, I hold it to my nose, fan the pages, and sniff! I do love the smell of a new paperback.
After this sensory experience, I read my own book. Even when you’ve proofread it yourself, and had a professional proofreader check your book, there’s likely to be one or two typos or layout issues (line spacing, internal image layout or alignment, etc.) that snuck through. So this is the final check before I close the production phase of my book and shift extra focus onto content marketing.
How to order author copies from #AmazonKDP and @IngramSpark, and how authors can use them for #Bookmarketing and #PR. Click To Tweet
Hi Jay, you’ve done a splendid job by sharing useful information and I’ve learnt many useful things.
Thanks Daniel .. glad you found them helpful.
Jay Artale recently posted…Author Toolbox: How to add your Book to 10 Amazon Categories
What is Ingram Spark? And why would you need both that and Amazon for publishing? What are the benefits of offering your book from 2 or more different places? Thanks!
Ingram is one of the world’s biggest book distributors. Bookstores and libraries order physical books from Ingram – they don’t order from Amazon. So if you want to make your book available outside of the Amazon universe you need to distribute your book through a distributor like Ingram. And Ingram Spark is their publishing arm.
How do I get my book on Ingram Sparks if it is printed and sold on Amazon? I have also purchased an isbn number apart from the free one from Amazon.
I depends on what selections you chose when you set your book up on Amazon. Did you choose Expanded Distribution?
I will be shortly having an amazon account set up by the publishing company I have employed to edit and formatt my novel.
I have also bought my own isbn so I can market it to Waterstones.com.
I don’t know how to get involved with Ingram as Amazon will print on demand, does Amazon distribute to Ingram?
I’m a it confused.
Thank you
Amazon and Ingram have a working relationship. If you choose Expanded distribution in Amazon, they’ll send your book information to Ingram, and depending on the territory/shipping location, your Amazon orders may be fulfilled by Amazon or Ingram. But that will be transparent to you. From your perspective, it’ll all look like Amazon. But if you don’t select Expanded Distribution, then you can set up your book at Ingram and have them manage your POD orders.
Wow! Thanks for the comparison between Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark. I am a self-published author with Amazon KDP. Lately, I have read a lot of interesting stuff about Ingram Spark as an alternative to KDP. I hope to try out the Ingram Spark platform when publishing my next series book. Thanks for writing this blog post.
Jonas recently posted…How to Publish a Book on Amazon Kindle and Make Money: A Complete Guide to Kindle eBook Publishing with KDP
If you’re considering a prolific book distributor – Ingram is a good bet.
Jay Artale recently posted…5 Reasons to Contribute to an Anthology
Hi Jay, some amazing insights on your blog. I have sent my partner a link to your page as she is co-authoring a book at the moment. I wonder if somehow she can get an author’s copy. I hadn’t heard of that before. I learnt much reading through your blog. Thank you for the opportunity. Shane
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It’s a good perk – especially when you’re hosting an event and want to sell direct to readers.
Hi Jay, great post! Thanks for all the info. Do you know if you’re allowed to sell some of your author copies to shops? Who will then put on their shelves and resell to their customers?
Independent bookstores buy from wholesalers and also buy on consignment sometimes directly from authors or publishers. If they’re open to buying your book, you may have to offer them a sale or return agreement. e.g. they buy the book, but if they don’t sell it, you’ll back it back off them.
Consignment is a risk-free way for shops to stock their shelves, and if you’ve purchased them at cost from Amazon then the finical risk for an author is low.
Most larger shops buy from wholesalers, at a wholesale cost, which is calculated by taking the retail price and offering the shop a whole sale discount – usually somewhere between 40-60%.
Thank you for the wonderful information. Is there a way to receive advanced author copies of my novel? Is it possible to make the novel live long enough to order my copies then unpublish it until the actual release date?
You can order proof copies of your book from KDP without making it live. They’ll have PROOF printed on it but other than that it’s the same content. It just won’t have your books barcode. You can make it live and order street copies from KDP and unpublish.
Fantastic article, very helpful.
You’re welcome
Jay Artale recently posted…Urban Sketching Podcast: Sneaky Art
Just a quick question that I can’t seem to find the answer for.
I am self publishing a text that will have very limited appeal to the general public as it is a pictorial book of veterans of a particular WWII event. Mainly of interest to relatives of these men.
Its quite large effort, thus far 4 volumes of 500 images each.
But the NFP Association I have done this work for wish to offer it to their members at an affordable price whilst still making a few dollars to continue with the upkeep and systems of the Association.
If we advertise on Amazon and want to make a small margin for the Association the price becomes undesirable.
However if we sell author copies at a reasonable price exclusively to members and distribute to Historical organisations we can still achieve this goal.
So my question is can author copies be ordered at any time or are they like a proof that can only be done once
Hi Ray … you can order them any time, and as often as you want.
Jay Artale recently posted…5 Tips for Writing a Travel Journal to turn into a Book
Thanks Jay much appreciated – comment I found their tools good to use but confusing as all heck.
Order a 511 page proof copy and noticed 3 of the images had not been sized down in the source PUBLISHER file. So I went back, resized them and regenerated the pdf.
Nothing changed from the original proof apart from that adjustment.
When I first submitted, because of the vagaries of PDF I couldnt get it to generate a correctly sized file for a 6 x 9 book and ended up with something a bit larger.
Their tool said size is 6 x 9 but you submitted aaa x yyy we can try and resize and it worked a treat.
Resubmitted file all of a sudden it says the first 4 pages which are a foreword etc didnt allow enough gutter (though in the source I have larger than recommended) and of course all the images go over the inner page boundary by a half inch or so. Finally got to fix the text by sending it out over the outer page boundary and the while thing was accepted as transmitted. BUT the photos now go over the inner page margin boundary BUT it does not report any errors. Scared it will truncate THE IMAGES if I proceed with it at this stage.
So confused by why one minute it identifies it as only being too big, prints a proof copy, but when a couple images are reduced in size the whole source document develops all sort of errors