Ingram Spark - Automated ordering ???

[PPetree]

Question: Has anyone figured out a way to electronically submit orders to Ingram Spark?

Background: As I'm sure everyone here knows, making a profit as an Indie is VERY difficult. Between the PoD and the booksellers if, when all is said and done, you can cobble together a buck-eighty then you've done well.

However, if you can sell directly without having to inventory then you can generate upwards of $8-$10 per copy and being able to do this without inventorying would be epic.

So, my thought is using Ingram for printing and distribution plus offering book sales through my website (under construction) and merchandise including mugs, t-shirts and other items through printful.com

Ingram Spark is the fly in my ointment as they're the only ones I can find who offer PoD hardback.

So, can Ingram Spark be automated or is there another source for PoD hardback with drop shipping?

[TimothyEllis]

Amazon do PoD Hardback now, although I think it's still in beta.

Not sure if that helps though.

[Wonder]

I believe Lulu does POD paperback and hardback as a dropshipper that can be integrated with your store.

Wonder

[Cobbah]

B&N does paperback and hardback.

[PPetree]

Thanks to everyone so far... Yes, all of those places do PoD and will drop ship. However, none of this solves the problem.

Problem/Process:
You go to a site and you order a book. Then you add a coffee mug to the cart. You check out. The order has to get split between different vendors. The book goes to the PoD book supplier and the coffee mug goes to the PoD coffee mug supplier.

NONE of the current book printing solutions off a method to accomplish this.

If I put everything for sale on Amazon (which I would do anyway), I will make about $1.80 per book and only pennies on the coffee mug.  It's far more profitable to figure out how to process the orders and, via an automated script on the server, send the respective orders to the vendors.

[Cobbah]

Ingram Spark is the fly in my ointment as they're the only ones I can find who offer PoD hardback.

Sorry about that, we were all responding to this inaccuracy. It made us wonder why you wouldn't use one of the other POD systems if Ingram couldn't meet your needs. As per

So, can Ingram Spark be automated or is there another source for PoD hardback with drop shipping?

[LilyBLily]

Could you clarify what your cover price is for a book? Are you attempting to use Amazon extended distribution? That’s a known bad bargain.

[alhawke]

My take on this is OP is attempting to bypass the shipping cost from Amazon and Ingram, buy copies of the books direct (author copies), and ship them at a reduced cost. The problem is the extra cost in Ingram and Amazon over author copies is based on the writer not being hassled by labor.

I've heard of authors who, upon launch, buy author copies and sign them and then directly ship them to each reader. When you work the math, this can be rather lucrative. If you sell a 100 books at author cost, you save somewhere around $5 per book. So you pocket $500, if you can sell 100 signed books to your readers (not to mention distributing books for reviews too  ). The problem is the labor of sending all those books is time and time is money too. And you still have to factor in shipping cost. Basically, your selling books like in the olden days before POD.

Soooo... my take is OP is asking for a third party company to ship the book and mug for the writer. Is that right? That would drop the price and make paperback/hardback revenue better. I'm all with it if such a service exists and if it doesn't involve bogging me down with too much more labor. I could sell the paperbacks via my website too.

[Cobbah]

Soooo... my take is OP is asking for a third party company to ship the book and mug for the writer. Is that right? That would drop the price and make paperback/hardback revenue better. I'm all with it if such a service exists and if it doesn't involve bogging me down with too much more labor. I could sell the paperbacks via my website too.

They're called fulfillment companies. There are lots of them about. However, you have to pay them to store and manage your products, which you must buy in advance and deliver to them. If the OP wants to merchandise their website then they will have to do the fulfillment themselves to make any money. Nobody works for nothing (except maybe 90% of writers).

[Post-Crisis D]

I think the OP is looking for a provider, like Ingram Spark, that does POD hardcovers but with an API so the ordering process can be automated.  That is, a customer can go to the OP's website, order a hardcover book, and the OP's website sends that order information to the POD book printer's website to order and ship the book.  The OP's website can already do this for other merchandise because companies like printful have integration options where your website can communicate with theirs.  I believe the OP is looking for the same thing for POD hardcover books.

[PPetree]

@Post-Crisis has it exactly.

If Ingram Spark is charging me $6.00 to print and $5.00 to ship and the cover price is $19.95 I can make $8.00 per copy doing this.  If a reader wants to buy via Amazon or B&N, they can and I make less.

[TimothyEllis]

If Ingram Spark is charging me $6.00 to print and $5.00 to ship and the cover price is $19.95 I can make $8.00 per copy doing this.  If a reader wants to buy via Amazon or B&N, they can and I make less.

But you're comparing apples to oranges.

If you buy Amazon author copies, they'll be cheaper than Ingram, and you make more.

The other issue there is the $19.95. In the US, that's expensive for a paperback.

[Wonder]

I think the OP is looking for a provider, like Ingram Spark, that does POD hardcovers but with an API so the ordering process can be automated.  That is, a customer can go to the OP's website, order a hardcover book, and the OP's website sends that order information to the POD book printer's website to order and ship the book.  The OP's website can already do this for other merchandise because companies like printful have integration options where your website can communicate with theirs.  I believe the OP is looking for the same thing for POD hardcover books.

I'm currently setting that kind of system up with Shopify + Lulu. Lulu offers an eCommerce API and several integrations.

https://www.lulu.com/sell/sell-on-your-site

[PPetree]

No, this isn't an apples to oranges comparison. This is a different distribution method, one where you, the author, makes more money.

@Wonder - Thank you! I looked at lulu and the only hardcover they offer is casewrap.