Why Publishing on Amazon KDP and IngramSpark Makes Sense for Canadian Authors

Are You Taking Full Advantage of Both Platforms to Sell Your Books? Publishing on Amazon KDP and IngramSpark makes sense!

Updated on July 23rd, 2026

Publishing on Amazon KDP makes sense. Regardless of how you feel about the company itself. When it comes to any self-publishing endeavour, you need to take advantage of every platform and the unique opportunities that they offer. Self-published authors can’t afford to be picky in this highly competitive marketplace.

To get the best sales and royalties for your book, you’ll need to work with multiple platforms at once. In the following article, we’re going to take a look at Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and IngramSpark Publishing and see what each self-publishing platform offers authors.

If you’re in the process of writing a book and need any assistance with paperback or ebook formatting for Amazon KDP or IngramSpark Publishing, then don’t hesitate to reach out and contact our experienced book formatting and layout design team.

The Pros and Cons of Amazon KDP

Without a doubt, Amazon KDP is one of the biggest book retailers in the world, and that’s why publishing on Amazon KDP is so popular. They have country-specific Amazon marketplaces worldwide. You can manage both ebooks, paperbacks, and hardcovers (most trim sizes) through your Amazon KDP author dashboard.

The Amazon KDP platform is simple and easy to use. It’s also free to set up, list, and modify your books.

It allows you to upload your paperback books and ebooks through one central location. If you don’t have your ISBN, Amazon will assign you an ASIN for your eBooks, and you can use their free ISBNs for the print. (We strongly suggest against this option; as Canadians, you are able to access free ISBNs when you register as a self-publisher on the Library and Archives Canada). Please note, Library and Archives Canada is currently experiencing significant delays, so authors should register for their ISBN account as soon as possible. You can check out our guide to ISBNs for Canadian authors, where we discuss everything you’ll need to know about ISBNs here: Do I Need an ISBN for My Book in Canada?

You can set up an Author Central profile, which will allow customers to see all your books, and if they follow your profile, they’ll receive automatic updates when you publish a new book.

If you’re ready to self-publish your book and considering Amazon KDP, check out Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing for Canadian Authors, where we cover everything you need to know about setting up your Amazon KDP account, uploading print and ebooks, and managing titles through your author dashboard.

Amazon KDP will List, Print, and Ship Books Through their Print On Demand (POD) Service

Once you have your books set up and everything is correct, you don’t have to worry about a thing. If you think that you can print and ship books more easily and cheaply, you can also set that up as an option. Amazon also offers drop shipping services.

When it comes to paperback options, Kindle has a variety of different trim sizes to choose from. You can choose your paper type, ink type, trim size, bleed or no bleed, and also the cover finish.

If you register your ebooks with Kindle Select exclusively for 90 days, you’ll have access to five free promotional days price reduction offers, and your book will be enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited page read program. People pay a membership price to read Kindle Unlimited books, and authors receive a per-page read sum at the end of the month. All the money made in Kindle Unlimited goes into a pool, which is then shared with authors.

The royalty rate you get paid from Kindle Unlimited for ebooks is 70% of the retail price if you price your ebook between $2.99 and $9.99. If your ebook is priced between $0.01 and $2.98 or greater than $9.99, you get paid 35% royalties. The royalty you make on print books will depend on the print costs of your book and how you price it.

If you have audiobooks and upload them with Audible, they’ll be linked to your book’s page on Amazon, along with the paperback, ebook, and hardcover versions of your book.

One of the downsides of Kindle Select is that you can’t have your ebook available for sale on any other digital platform while it’s enrolled. You’re also limited to some of the print options. If you want a hardcover or board book, for example, or a different trim size other than what Amazon offers, you’ll need to look elsewhere or use their custom trim sizes, which tend to be a bit more difficult to print.

Amazon does offer expanded distribution options if you want to include your book in lists that go out to worldwide distributors and libraries. However, they use the same expanded distribution as IngramSpark Publishing, so you can’t use both options.

What are the Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing on IngramSpark Publishing?

IngramSpark Publishing is similar to Amazon KDP as it allows you to set up and publish both ebooks and paperbacks. What sets IngramSpark apart is that its a wholesaler. You can push your ebook to Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and many other platforms, including Amazon. As a Canadian, we suggest using IngramSpark, as they will get you into the broader distribution network, including the Indigo/Chapters system, which can make it easier to get you into your local stores.

The benefits of IngramSpark are that it gives you more paperback publishing options, including paperbacks, hardcovers, and more trim sizes, paper types, ink types, and cover options. Although Amazon KDP has recently added hardcovers to selected trim sizes, they’re still fairly limited in which hardcover options they offer authors.

While there used to be a setup and modification fee on IngramSpark, they recently dropped this. However, if you plan on making a lot of changes, edits, or modifications, get them out of the way before you list the book, as even a simple change can cause problems with book formatting or your cover design.

IngramSpark Publishing has access to larger distribution networks for book retailers and libraries around the world. If you’re planning on aiming your books at libraries, schools, or bookshops, then IngramSpark is definitely worth looking at. They will also list your books on Amazon. However, listing on Amazon KDP first directly is a better option than allowing IngramSpark to push your book via their system. It’ll make it a lot easier to make changes on Amazon KDP if you have direct control over your titles.

The disadvantage of using only IngramSpark is that you have to pay fees for listing and editing your books, and the royalty is slightly lower than Amazon. There’s a slightly higher printing cost associated with IngramSpark.

Use both IngramSpark and Amazon KDP to Self-publish Your Books

One of the strategies that we recommend and use ourselves is to publish your books on both KDP and IngramSpark. If you want to take advantage of Kindle Unlimited for your ebooks, you can sell them on Amazon KDP.

If you want hardcovers, you can set them up on IngramSpark and then push them to Amazon, where they will sync up with your paperback books. As Amazon’s expanded distribution isn’t as good as IngramSpark, you can also limit your paperback to Amazon only and then list them on IngramSpark with expanded distribution.

You now have ebooks with Amazon, paperback, and hardcover with both Amazon and IngramSpark.

One of the most important things that we recommend is that you purchase and control your own ISBNs. This will allow you to retain control of your books. If you publish and use Amazon’s ASIN for your eBooks and if you want to upload your ePub to other platforms, you will require a separate ISBN.

If you have been considering self-publishing your book on IngramSpark, check out the Complete Guide to IngramSpark Publishing for Canadian Authors, where we cover account setup, title uploading, royalties, pricing, and much more!

Using Both IngramSpark and Amazon KDP | Conclusion

While it can seem daunting to set up your book-selling platforms, they are designed to be not only user-friendly but also hassle-free. Once you have them both set up and have checked the print quality of your books, there’s nothing else to do but sit back and relax. You’ll only need to make changes or edits to your books when you want to.

Once you have both self-publishing platforms set up, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and IngramSpark Publishing, you can then advertise different book options to your clients and focus more on marketing your books. Check out our article on 6 Social Media Post Ideas for Authors!

If you are writing a book and need any assistance with paperback or ebook formatting, cover design, professional editing, uploading to self-publishing sites such as Amazon KDP and IngramSpark Publishing, or Amazon KDP keyword and category research, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We also offer children’s book illustrations and formatting services.

Our experienced and professional self-publishing team is standing by to assist you with your self-publishing dreams.

Chrissy Hobbs is the owner and founder of Indie Publishing Group, a self-publishing services provider based in Ontario, Canada, which helps authors self-publish their books on Amazon KDP, IngramSpark Publishing and other self-publishing platforms. With over a decade of experience in the publishing industry and also being a best-selling children’s book author of The Day My Fart Followed Me to Hockey and Hockey Wars, you know your book is in good hands.