Need a cover for your book on Ingram Spark? Use the cover generator to make a cover that fits and uploads without errors.
If you have previously published from Amazon, you cannot use that same exterior cover for your book on IngramSpark. It needs a different exterior. These are the things you want to have ready, to go ahead of time so that way you can just fill them in.
13 Digit ISBN (purchased from Bowker)
Trim Size (aka size of your book)
Paper Color & Book Format (Paperback or Hardcover)
Matte or Gloss
Total Pages in Your Book
File Type You’d Like
I also recommend having a book cover designer or someone who is able to format this so that it's done right properly because Ingram can be finicky in particular about their exterior cover uploads. You'll need your ISBN number. As a reminder, if you were publishing with IngramSpark, you need to have purchased your ISBN from Bowker. That's the only site we trust, don't trust anybody else. That means if you used one of those free ISBNs from Amazon, you cannot publish on Ingram. Make sure you have your ISBN number there, then your trim size. This is going to be the same size as it was on KDP if you publish there, and this is just the size of the book.
Trim size
There are lots of options depending on what kind of book you are publishing. For context, in my books, my journal is a 7x10 and my devotional is an 8x10 because I wanted to give folks plenty of space to write in there. Coloring books generally are going to be 8 1/2 x 11 to give you that full page. But, whatever your choice is, you want to pick your trim size.
Paper Color and Book format
Decide what is inside of your book. Is it black and white? Is it color?
Binding type can either be paperback or hardback.
Choose between gloss or matte for the exterior part of the book
Gloss is where the exterior of the book is a little shiny. Light would reflect off of it.
Matte is where it's going to be kind of muted.
Page Count
How many pages are inside of your book?
File type
The file type depends on your personal opinion. I generally choose PDF for mine because that way, it's just consistent for me from Amazon to Ingram.
Confirm your email address. Once confirmed, the exterior file cover will be emailed for you to upload into IngramSpark.
Important: Do not choose to put a price. The exterior of your book will be printed once a price is indicated. You don't want that because you can longer change your price if you decided to change it. So leave that blank. We are also not putting the price on the barcode, because once again, if you change your price, then you'll have to go and make another exterior cover and deal with a lot of extra stuff. What you have to do is, click submit and then it will send it to you within a few hours. It depends on how backed up they are, but you'll be able to use that to upload into your book when you are creating your book inside IngramSpark.
Bowker (My Identifiers)
