First time author

[ScottieWrites]

There is so much information here and it is very overwhelming to a new author.  I'm about to publish my first book, a non-fiction 50K+ word book on Ingram Sparks. 

Anything you want to share with this newbie is appreciated, including anything you'd wish you'd done differently but didn't even know about at the time is appreciated. 

I thought it would be as simple as making a pdf and selling it.  Feels like it's A LOT more than that (insert laughter from people who've been doing this for years ;)

[TimothyEllis]

Why Ingram Spark?

That presumes that you're concentrating on the paperback first.

IMO, you publish the eBook on KDP Amazon first, and do the paperback there as well, or through Ingram second.

The eBook is much more likely to sell than a paperback is.

As far as sharing goes, post your cover in the cover discussion area, so we can check you've not made any classic mistakes with that.

Then post the blurb in the blurb discussion area so we can help you refine that.

And then tell us what categories the book will be going into and how you intend to price it.

Advice wise, read extensively here. There are a lot of traps new authors fall into, and most of them are covered here one way or another.

The more you fix before publishing the better, so don't rush it.

[Post-Crisis D]

Are you willing to share the topic of your book?  Being that it is non-fiction, there are some topics that may sell better outside Amazon and possibly for higher prices.

[Vijaya]

Tim has given you great advice. However, as an avid NF reader, I tend to prefer them as physical copies, so your choice of Ingram makes sense. I would've gone with Amazon's KDP because you have the option of making both ebook and paperback and they're linked.

I don't self-publish a lot, so still very new to this, but try to have some sort of a marketing plan before the book goes live. I didn't when I published my first novel and it was all too overwhelming after the book came out.

[alhawke]

I never recommending publishing ebooks on Ingram. You'll lose control of sales and marketing information. You can use Ingram for paperbacks (which I do), but I recommend against using their ebook service.

And welcome and good luck with your new book!

[alhawke]

I'd also check out Platt and Truant's Write, Publish, Repeat for a great book on publishing (getting dated, but it really helped me on my feet).
As far as mentors and information, other than here, check out Jane Friedman's website.
And ask away. 

[LilyBLily]

Also David Gaughran. His basic books are very useful and he has tons of free info on YouTube.

Yes, there are many moving parts to this, but if you take them one at a time, you'll be okay.

What you always want to avoid is shoveling big dollar amounts at anyone.

Also, my personal opinion is that if you send a trade paperback through Ingram as a returnable item, although in theory you might get into more bookstores, in reality, the copies will be returned shopworn and unusable. Agree to the long discount and make the print books nonreturnable. You may not sell many copies, but you won't take a loss, either.

[Vijaya]

Also look up Joanna Penn for excellent advice, all free too.

[ashleycapes]

I never recommending publishing ebooks on Ingram. You'll lose control of sales and marketing information. You can use Ingram for paperbacks (which I do), but I recommend against using their ebook service.

And welcome and good luck with your new book!

Seconded, Ingram's quality of service and functionality regarding ebooks is not good.

[ScottieWrites]

This is all great and already helpful.  Thank you all so much!  I thought I was done (writing), but I am realizing I am just beginning (getting ready to publish) and have already learned a lot in the past few days about taking time to launch now!